doesn't setup.py develop use wheel for install

Question

I have the impression that (using setuptools):

python setup.py develop

Won't use wheels when installing required packages (specified in install_requires).

Questions:

1. is my impression correct?
2. is there a way to force it to use wheel?

I am talking about this particular setup script.

Answer 1

For whatever reason, setuptools simply wont use wheels. The likely explanation is that setuptools is older than wheels, and no one has updated it to use them.

Using pip install . works however, since pip is fine with wheels. In your case with python setup.py develop that would be pip install --editable ..

So, to answer your points:

1. Yes, setup.py/setuptools wont use wheels.
2. No, not at this time. But you could use pip instead of running setup.py directly.

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