How to create a shortcut in startmenu using setuptools windows installer

Question

I want to create a start menu or Desktop shortcut for my Python windows installer package. I am trying to follow https://docs.python.org/3.4/distutils/builtdist.html#the-postins

Answer 1

If you want to confirm whether the script is running or not, you can print to a file instead of the console. Looks like text you print to console in the post-install script won't show up.

Try this:

import sys
from os.path import expanduser, join

pyw_executable = join(sys.prefix, "pythonw.exe")
shortcut_filename = "L-System Toolsss.lnk"
working_dir = expanduser(join('~','lsf_files'))
script_path = join(sys.prefix, "Scripts", "tklsystem-script.py")

if sys.argv[1] == '-install':
    # Log output to a file (for test)
    f = open(r"C:\test.txt",'w')
    print('Creating Shortcut', file=f)

    # Get paths to the desktop and start menu
    desktop_path = get_special_folder_path("CSIDL_COMMON_DESKTOPDIRECTORY")
    startmenu_path = get_special_folder_path("CSIDL_COMMON_STARTMENU")

    # Create shortcuts.
    for path in [desktop_path, startmenu_path]:
        create_shortcut(pyw_executable,
                    "A program to work with L-System Equations",
                    join(path, shortcut_filename),
                    script_path,
                    working_dir)