Python: How to force overwriting of files when using setup.py install (distutil)

Question:

I am using distutil to install my python code using

python setup.py install

I run into problems when I want to install an older branch of my code over a new one:
setup.py install won’t overwrite older files. A work around is touching (touch <filename>) all files so they are forced to be newer than those installed, but this is pretty ugly.

What I am looking for is an option to force overwriting of all files, eg. something like

python setup.py --force install

Any Ideas?

Answers:

The Python developers had the same idea, they just put the option after the command:

python setup.py install --force

The distutils documentation doesn’t mention the --force option specifically, but you can find it by using the --help option:

python setup.py --help install
Answered By: Aaron Curtis

Go to the setup.py directory and I simply use:

pip install .

It works for me.

Answered By: 陳子軼

In my case, I have to remove the build and dist folders

rm -rf build
rm -rf dist
python3 setup.py install
Answered By: Achyut Sarma