Add a mechanism to programmatically determine live version from repo only when in an editable install

[GDYendell]

I am trying to implement a way to get the runtime version if editable and the install version otherwise (as mentioned in #143). I initially thought we could try to import the generated _version.py and if it doesn't exist use setuptools_scm.get_version, e.g.

try:
    from ._version import version as __version__
except ImportError:
    from setuptools_scm import get_version
    __version__ = get_version()

but _version.py is created in the source tree for editable installs, so the first import always works. I have tested adding the following develop hook to setup.py, so at the end of an editable install it just removes the _version.py

import os
from pathlib import Path

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


class Develop(develop):
    def install_for_development(self):
        develop.install_for_development(self)
        version_path = Path(self.egg_path) / "pvi/_version.py"
        os.remove(version_path)


setup(
    use_scm_version={
        "write_to": "src/pvi/_version.py",
    },
    setup_requires=["setuptools_scm"],
    cmdclass=dict(develop=Develop)
)

which works - it uses the live version for an editable install, but can find _version.py and use that otherwise. But, is there a better way to do this? Could this develop build hook to delete the file be added within setuptools_scm, optionally (or the logic to create it be moved to a hook that doesn't run for editable installs)?

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

Currently all proposed ways (not just yours) integrate badly and leave packages with wrong/mismatched Metadata

My next goal is integration with hatchery and editable tooling for that

I don't have the bandwidth for a correct setuptools version myself and would like to avoid having years of a half-assed solution

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

Currently all proposed ways (not just yours) integrate badly and leave packages with wrong/mismatched Metadata

My next goal is integration with hatchery and editable tooling for that

I don't have the bandwidth for a correct setuptools version myself and would like to avoid having years of a half-assed solution