----------------
- The original ``AstropyTest`` class in ``astropy_helpers``, which implements
the ``setup.py test`` command, is deprecated in favor of moving the
implementation of that command closer to the actual Astropy test runner in
``astropy.tests``. Now a dummy ``test`` command is provided solely for
informing users that they need ``astropy`` installed to run the tests
(however, the previous, now deprecated implementation is still provided and
continues to work with older versions of Astropy). See the related issue for
more details. [184]
- Added a useful new utility function to ``astropy_helpers.utils`` called
``find_data_files``. This is similar to the ``find_packages`` function in
setuptools in that it can be used to search a package for data files
(matching a pattern) that can be passed to the ``package_data`` argument for
``setup()``. See the docstring to ``astropy_helpers.utils.find_data_files``
for more details. [42]
- The ``astropy_helpers`` module now sets the global ``_ASTROPY_SETUP_``
flag upon import (from within a ``setup.py``) script, so it's not necessary
to have this in the ``setup.py`` script explicitly. If in doubt though,
there's no harm in setting it twice. Putting it in ``astropy_helpers``
just ensures that any other imports that occur during build will have this
flag set. [191]
- It is now possible to use Cython as a ``setup_requires`` build requirement,
and still build Cython extensions even if Cython wasn't available at the
beginning of the build processes (that is, is automatically downloaded via
setuptools' processing of ``setup_requires``). [185]
- Moves the ``adjust_compiler`` check into the ``build_ext`` command itself,
so it's only used when actually building extension modules. This also
deprecates the stand-alone ``adjust_compiler`` function. [76]
- When running the ``build_sphinx`` / ``build_docs`` command with the ``-w``
option, the output from Sphinx is streamed as it runs instead of silently
buffering until the doc build is complete. [197]