Expert Python Programming - Third Edition

The custom setup command

distutils allows you to create new commands. A new command can be registered with an entry point, which was introduced by setuptools as a simple way to define packages as plugins.

An entry point is a named link to a class or a function that is made available through some APIs in setuptools. Any application can scan for all registered packages and use the linked code as a plugin.

To link the new command, the entry_points metadata can be used in the setup call as follows:

setup( 
    name="my.command", 
    entry_points=""" 
        [distutils.commands] 
        my_command = my.command.module.Class 
    """ 
) 

All named links are gathered in named sections. When distutils is loaded, it scans for links that were registered under distutils.commands