Suppose I have a setup.py with the option

   ...
   packages=['package', 'package.utils'],
   package_dir={'package.utils', '../utils'},
   ...

as would arise if ../utils was a package shared between several projets ('package', 'package1', ...).

I would expect the source distribution created by 'python setup.py sdist'
to create an archive with the following structure:

   /
   |-- package/
   |-- package/utils

And this is indeed what *bdist* does. BUT *sdist* copies '../utils' in 'package/../utils' instead of 'package/utils', with the result that utils is outside of the distribution altogether. 

The issue is referenced in a couple of StackOverflow posts that have attracted little attention so far, for example:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/35510972/inconsistent-behaviour-of-bdist-vs-sdist-when-distributing-a-python-package