After fresh hatch setup I receive the error "ERROR: File "setup.py" not found. Directory cannot be installed in editable mode"

[kiritsuku]

I just tried to use hatch and ran the following commands:

$ pip --version
pip 22.3.1 from ~/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pip (python 3.8)
$ pip install hatch
$ hatch --version
Hatch, version 1.6.3
$ hatch new -i # I chose hatch-test as project name
$ cd hatch-test
$ hatch env create
ERROR: File "setup.py" not found. Directory cannot be installed in editable mode: /home/liaraschafer/dev/p-test/hatch-test
(A "pyproject.toml" file was found, but editable mode currently requires a setup.py based build.)

The template doesn't include setup.py and I don't want to add it. Why would it want to access setup.py and how do I fix the issue?

[ofek]

python -m pip install --upgrade pip

[kiritsuku]

I already have the latest version of pip installed. The latest version (for python 3.8) is 22.3.1: https://pypi.org/project/pip/

Maybe there is an older version of pip installed somewhere, which is used here instead? I noticed, when I used hatch shell, that it used Python 2.7 instead of 3.8. That doesn't seem right.

[ofek]

which -a python

[kiritsuku]

$ which -a python
/usr/bin/python
/bin/python

This is Python 2.7. For Python 3 I need to use python3. Is it possible to configure the Python executable?

[ofek]

https://hatch.pypa.io/latest/plugins/environment/virtual/#options

[kiritsuku]

Ok, thanks. That fixed it. I set the env variable mentioned in that page:

% export HATCH_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3

I prefer that instead of hardcoding the python path in the project file.