How can I run a Makefile in setup.py?

Question

I need to compile ICU using it\'s own build mechanism. Therefore the question:

How can I run a Makefile from setup.py? Obviously, I only want it to run duri

Answer 1

It is possible to build C libraries with distutils (see the libraries parameter of distutils.core.setup), but you may have to duplicate options that are already in the Makefile, so the easiest thing to do is probably to extend the install command as explained in other replies and call make with the subprocess module.