How to obtain arguments passed to setup.py from pip with '--install-option'?

Question

I am using pip 1.4.1, attempting to install a package from a local path, for example:

pip install /path/to/my/local/package

This does what

Answer 1

You need to extend the install command with a custom command of your own. In the run method you can expose the value of the option to setup.py (in my example I use a global variable).

from setuptools.command.install import install


class InstallCommand(install):
    user_options = install.user_options + [
        ('someopt', None, None), # a 'flag' option
        #('someval=', None, None) # an option that takes a value
    ]

    def initialize_options(self):
        install.initialize_options(self)
        self.someopt = None
        #self.someval = None

    def finalize_options(self):
        #print("value of someopt is", self.someopt)
        install.finalize_options(self)

    def run(self):
        global someopt
        someopt = self.someopt # will be 1 or None
        install.run(self)

Register the custom install command with the setup function.

setup(
    cmdclass={
        'install': InstallCommand,
    },
    :

It seems that the order of your arguments is off

pip install /path/to/my/local/package --install-option="--someopt"

Answer 2

For consistency, you can add an option to both setup.py install and setup.py develop (aka pip install -e): (building off Ronen Botzer's answer)

from setuptools import setup
from setuptools.command.install import install
from setuptools.command.develop import develop


class CommandMixin(object):
    user_options = [
        ('someopt', None, 'a flag option'),
        ('someval=', None, 'an option that takes a value')
    ]

    def initialize_options(self):
        super().initialize_options()
        # Initialize options
        self.someopt = None
        self.someval = 0

    def finalize_options(self):
        # Validate options
        if self.someval < 0:
            raise ValueError("Illegal someval!")
        super().finalize_options()

    def run(self):
        # Use options
        global someopt
        someopt = self.someopt # will be 1 or None

        super().run()

class InstallCommand(CommandMixin, install):
    user_options = getattr(install, 'user_options', []) + CommandMixin.user_options

class DevelopCommand(CommandMixin, develop):
    user_options = getattr(develop, 'user_options', []) + CommandMixin.user_options

setup(
    ...,
    cmdclass={
        'install': InstallCommand,
        'develop': DevelopCommand,
    }

Then you can pass options to pip like:

pip install --install-option="--someval=1" --install-option="--someopt" .

Or in develop mode:

pip install -e --install-option="--someval=1" .

Answer 3

I was having this problem installing pyside.

I needed to specify the --qmake option.

This is the form you need:

pip install --install-option="--qmake=/usr/lib64/qt4/bin/qmake" PySide

Answer 4

It works well and also documented.

from setuptools.command.install import install

class InstallCommand(install):             
    user_options = install.user_options + [
        ('engine=', None, '<description for this custom option>'),
    ]                                      

    def initialize_options(self):          
        install.initialize_options(self)   
        self.engine = None  

    def finalize_options(self):                   
        print("value of engine is", self.engine)
        install.finalize_options(self)            

    def run(self):                                
        print(self.engine)                       
        install.run(self)                         

setup(
...
cmdclass={'install': InstallCommand}
...
)

One of common mistakes is to pass setup options to pip like you pass it to setup directly. Use options from pip like that:

pip install . --install-option="--engine=rabbitmq"

But this way is a wrong way:

pip install . --install-option="--engine rabbitmq"

Absence of equal sign causes well known error:

error: option --engines rabbitmq not recognized

Answer 5

On top of this great anwser. One more thing to notice is that --install-options doesn't work with wheel

Since version 7.0 pip supports controlling the command line options given to setup.py via requirements files. This disables the use of wheels (cached or otherwise) for that package, as setup.py does not exist for wheels.

However, when you build the wheel with setup.py, you can use

python setup.py bdist_wheel install -your-options

To customize the install phase and this will affect the .dist-info of the wheel package.