drive-in extension for distutils of python 2.7: use [metadata]-section of setup.cfg to "auto-fill" the keyword-arguments of core.setup function.

setup.cfg

[metadata]
name = foo
version = 0.1
author = Don Question
author-email = donquestion@example.com
description = Demonstrates a declarative setup setup.
description-file = README.md
classifiers = Development Status :: 4 - Beta
     License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License
     Operating System :: POSIX :: Linux
     Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7
     Topic :: Software Development

setup.py

#!/usr/bin/env python   # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

"""Install this package.
"""

from distutils import core
execfile('src/setupmeta.py')   # pseudo-import of: metadata_from_setupcfg()

def start():
    """ Start thread of execution.
    """
    setup_options = metadata_from_setupcfg()
    core.setup(**setup_options)    

if __name__ == "__main__":
    start()


# vim: ai ts=4 sts=4 sw=4 et=4 tw=79 fenc=utf-8 ft=python

setupmeta.py

#!/usr/bin/env python   # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

""" Setup extension: read options from section [metadata] from file: setup.cfg.
"""


from ConfigParser import ConfigParser
from functools import partial
from os import path


def metadata_from_setupcfg():
    """
    Read the [metadata] section of setup.cfg and return it as a dict.

    This is the main-function. All other functions in this file can be viewed
    as helpers.

    """
    cfgparser = ConfigParser()
    section_name = 'metadata'

    cfgparser.read(get_cfg_fname())
    options = dict(cfgparser.items(section_name))
    return normalize(options)


def get_cfg_fname():
    (base, pyext), cfgext = path.splitext(path.abspath(__file__)), '.cfg'
    return base + cfgext


def change_keyname_dashes_to_underscore(dic):
    return dict([(k.replace('-', '_'), dic[k]) for k in dic])


def long_descrition_from_file(fname):
    with open(fname) as fdesc: return fdesc.read()


def pop_item(dic, key):
    """ Returns tuple: either (key, item) if key exists, or (key, None).
    """
    return (key, dic.pop(key, None))


def normalize(options):
    """ Return correct kwargs for setup() from provided options-dict.
    
    1. make copy of options-dict and use the copy
    2. change all dashes to underscores in keynames
    3. go over keys which needs attention and make them setup-compatible
    4. return n(ormalized)options-dict
    """
    noptions = change_keyname_dashes_to_underscore(options.copy())
    pop = partial(pop_item, noptions)

    (key, value) = pop('classifier')
    if value and isinstance(value, basestring):    
        noptions[key] = value.splitlines()
        # there is no else; either we know how to handle it, or leave it

    (key, value) = pop('description_file')
    if value:
        noptions[key] = long_descrition_from_file(value)

    return noptions


"""
Example usage in a setup.py:

    from distutils import core
    execfile('src/setupmeta.py')

    core.setup(**metadata_from_setupcfg())

"""

# vim: ai ts=4 sts=4 et sw=4 tw=79 fenc=utf-8 ft=python