setup.py build_ext --inplace not generating .c files

[rjackson]

On Ubuntu 13.04, Python 2.7

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Using python setup.py build_ext --inplace produced the following, noting that the .c file 'cythonize' was meant to produce did not exist:

missing cimport in module 'skadi.io': skadi/io/unpacker/cProp.pyx
missing cimport in module 'skadi.io': skadi/io/unpacker/cEntity.pyx
running build_ext
building 'skadi.io.cBitstream' extension
x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c skadi/io/cBitstream.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/skadi/io/cBitstream.o
x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc: error: skadi/io/cBitstream.c: No such file or directory
x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc: fatal error: no input files
compilation terminated.
error: command 'x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc' failed with exit status 4

After reading into Cython more, I learned I could generate the .c files from the .pyx files myself with cython -a whatever.pyx, so I used the following sequence of commands and everything worked:

cython -a skadi/io/cBitstream.pyx
cython -a skadi/io/unpacker/cProp.pyx
cython -a skadi/io/unpacker/cEntity.pyx
python setup.py build_ext --inplace

This is just a workaround however, setup.py still fails on a fresh repo for me.

[onethirtyfive]

I think the reason for this is pretty obscure... there's an old alternative to setuptools called... distribute? If you install it, cython works. Let me compare notes with Blue tomorrow.

[lclarkmichalek]

Yeah, this is a problem. I think adding distribute to the dependencies may work (see http://pythonhosted.org/distribute/using.html), though I haven't tested it. It may almost be a case of the user runs setup.py once, it installs distribute and fails, runs it again, and it uses distribute from the get-go, and install succeeds.