Unpack Python Packages 📦

Deep dive into the wheels of python packaging

Alexander Hultnér PyCon SE, 2021

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Alexander Hultnér

Founder of Hultnér Technologies and Papero.io

Writing packaging book

@ahultner

contact@hultner.se

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Hultnér Technologies

• Alexander Hultnér
• Magnus Junghard
• Office in Gothenburg
• Consulting
• In-house development
• Looking to hire!

contact@hultner.se

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About us

Outline

• Why do we care?
• What is a Python Package?
• Distribution types
  • Source distribution
  • Eggs
  • Wheels
• Hands on!
  • Deconstruct a package
  • Build a package from scratch
• Modern tooling
• More resources
• Q&A

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Why do we care?

• Distribution
• Code sharing, reusability
• Separation of concerns
• Understand the magic behind the curtains

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• Bundle
• Distribution format
• Python Libraries
• Applications / dev tools
• PyPI
• Private Repositories

What's a Python Package?

Quick introduction

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• Source distributions
  • (sdist), .tar.gz
• Eggs
  • .egg
• Wheels
  • .whl

Formats

Python Packaging Formats

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• Source distributions
• Usually pkg.tar.gz files
  • pkg.zip
  • pkg.tar.[bz2, xz, (Z*)]
• Source code
• Needs to be compiled
• Distribute to unsupported platforms
• Executes setup.py for dependencies

sdist

Python Packaging Formats

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• De-facto standard
• .egg files
• Compiled "binary distribution"
• Legacy format replaced by standard

Egg

Python Packaging Formats

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• "New" standard format
  • PEP 427 accepted 2013
• Replaces eggs, can convert to whl
• Installation format
• .whl-files
  • Compatibility targets in file name
• Resolve dependencies statically
• No need for setup.py
• Signed, RECORD checked on install
• Versioned format

Wheel

Python Packaging Formats

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Hands on session

Explore python packages

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Conclusion

• sdist is for source code
• Wheels replaces eggs
• Wheels simple zipfiles
  • Static metadata format
  • Enables faster and better tooling
• We can now distribute binary packages natively without conda
• Packaging is easy with modern tools

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Questions

Contact me if you have any further

questions.

Want to learn more?

Available for training, workshops and

freelance consulting.

Sign up for book updates!

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@ahultner

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​

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github.com/hultner-technologies/unpack-python-packages

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Links

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