The setuptools source references a "distutils bug" here: https://bitbucket.org/pypa/setuptools/src/85760c42740829000a19ebf708d0a9cd565bb0eb/setuptools/command/bdist_wininst.py?at=default#cl-7

From what I infer from that message, the bug is that 'reinitialize_command' doesn't clear the 'install_lib' property on the 'install' or 'install_lib' commands.

I'm actually skeptical that setuptools even needs to clear the 'install_lib' property on the 'install_lib' command, for as best as I can tell, the install_lib command only ever sets install_dir.

Nevertheless, I wanted to log a ticket to reference in the code to ultimately find a solution rather than a workaround.

If there is indeed a bug, I fear this is one of these areas where a fix actually breaks other build tools reusing distutils internals.

Distutils is now deprecated (see PEP 632) and all tagged issues are being closed. From now until removal, only release blocking issues will be considered for distutils.

If this issue does not relate to distutils, please remove the component and reopen it. If you believe it still requires a fix, most likely the issue should be re-reported at https://github.com/pypa/setuptools