setup.py

import os
import pathlib
from setuptools import setup, Extension, find_packages
from setuptools.command.build_ext import build_ext as build_ext_orig

class CMakeExtension(Extension):
    def __init__(self, name):
        # don't invoke the original build_ext for this special extension
        super().__init__(name, sources=[])

class build_ext(build_ext_orig):
    def run(self):
        for ext in self.extensions:
            self.build_cmake(ext)
            super().run()

    def build_cmake(self, ext):
        cwd = pathlib.Path().absolute()
        # these dirs will be created in build_py, so if you don't have
        # any python sources to bundle, the dirs will be missing
        build_temp = pathlib.Path(self.build_temp)
        build_temp.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
        extdir = pathlib.Path(self.get_ext_fullpath(ext.name))
        extdir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

        # example of cmake args
        config = 'Debug' if self.debug else 'Release'
        cmake_args = [
            '-DCMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY=' + str(extdir.parent.absolute()),
            '-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=' + config
        ]

        # example of build args
        build_args = [
            '--config', config,
            '--', '-j8'
        ]

        os.chdir(str(build_temp))
        self.spawn(['cmake', str(cwd)] + cmake_args)
        if not self.dry_run:
            self.spawn(['cmake', '--build', '.'] + build_args)
        os.chdir(str(cwd))

with open("README.md", "r") as fh:
    long_description = fh.read()

setup(
    name="flightgoggles",
    version="1.0.0",
    author="MIT AERA",
    author_email="ghryou@mit.edu",
    description="python wrapper for FlightGoggles",
    long_description=long_description,
    long_description_content_type="text/markdown",
    ext_modules=[CMakeExtension('src')],
    packages=find_packages(include=['flightgoggles']),
    cmdclass={
        'build_ext': build_ext,
    },
    include_package_data=True,
    classifiers=[
        "Programming Language :: Python",
        "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
        "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5",
        "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6",
    ],
    python_requires=">=3.5",
)