Python distutils和替换代码中的字符串

I often find a need to put paths in my code in order to find data or in some cases tool-specific modules. I've so far always used autotools because of this--it's just so easy to call sed to replace a few strings at build time. However, I'd like to find a more Pythonic way of doing this, i.e. use distutils or some other blessed way of building/installing. I've never managed to find anything relating to this in distutils documentation though so how do other people solve this problem?I often find a need to put paths in my code in