How to change a path in a sdist

[jarkenau]

I would like to change the path to the python files included by the Manifest.in file:

include very/long/import/path/*.py

The path is too long, and consequently it is cumbersome to import the files. I'm not able to change the path in the main repository. Ideally, I would like to import the files like this:

from short.path import *.py

I think this could be done, by simple copy and delete operations and a custom command as describes here. But I'm not able to put something working together and would be very happy if someone could provide some guidance on this.