OpenCV 5.0.0.93 - `cv2.data.haarcascades` xml files missing

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@asmorkalov is already working on this.

Since Jul 10, 2026.

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Description

bug

The OpenCV 5.0.0.93 wheels and sdists ship with an empty cv2/data directory. Take this 5.0.0.93 wheel for macOS for example: https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/50/b9/2a3a9e23d7894f816792f93f2e73c017765a29e854ba343cb260da400a7e/opencv_contrib_python_headless-5.0.0.93-cp37-abi3-macosx_13_0_arm64.whl

It contains only an __init__.py file.

opencv_contrib_python_headless-5.0.0.93-cp37-abi3-macosx_13_0_arm64/cv2/data
└── __init__.py

1 directory, 1 file

The previous 4.13.0.92 wheels (example) do ship with a bunch of haarcascade_* files.

opencv_contrib_python_headless-4.13.0.92-cp37-abi3-macosx_13_0_arm64/cv2/data
├── __init__.py
├── haarcascade_eye_tree_eyeglasses.xml
├── haarcascade_eye.xml
├── haarcascade_frontalcatface_extended.xml
├── haarcascade_frontalcatface.xml
├── haarcascade_frontalface_alt_tree.xml
├── haarcascade_frontalface_alt.xml
├── haarcascade_frontalface_alt2.xml
├── haarcascade_frontalface_default.xml
├── haarcascade_fullbody.xml
├── haarcascade_lefteye_2splits.xml
├── haarcascade_license_plate_rus_16stages.xml
├── haarcascade_lowerbody.xml
├── haarcascade_profileface.xml
├── haarcascade_righteye_2splits.xml
├── haarcascade_russian_plate_number.xml
├── haarcascade_smile.xml
└── haarcascade_upperbody.xml

1 directory, 18 files

I would expect the haarcascade files to be present in 5.0+ wheels too, since I can't find an explicit mention that these files were removed. Was this intentional or is there a packaging bug?

PS: thanks for the major 5.0 release! Lots of exciting things to look forward to!

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