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Creating a Source Distribution<a class="headerlink" href="#creating-a-source-distribution" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <p>As shown in section <a class="reference internal" href="introduction.html#distutils-simple-example"><span class="std std-ref">A Simple Example</span></a>, you use the <strong class="command">sdist</strong> command to create a source distribution. In the simplest case,</p> <div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">python</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">py</span> <span class="n">sdist</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>(assuming you haven’t specified any <strong class="command">sdist</strong> options in the setup script or config file), <strong class="command">sdist</strong> creates the archive of the default format for the current platform. The default format is a gzip’ed tar file (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.tar.gz</span></code>) on Unix, and ZIP file on Windows.</p> <p>You can specify as many formats as you like using the <code class="xref std std-option docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--formats</span></code> option, for example:</p> <div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">python</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">py</span> <span class="n">sdist</span> <span class="o">--</span><span class="n">formats</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">gztar</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="nb">zip</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>to create a gzipped tarball and a zip file. The available formats are:</p> <table class="docutils align-center"> <colgroup> <col style="width: 24%" /> <col style="width: 56%" /> <col style="width: 20%" /> </colgroup> <thead> <tr class="row-odd"><th class="head"><p>Format</p></th> <th class="head"><p>Description</p></th> <th class="head"><p>Notes</p></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr class="row-even"><td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">zip</span></code></p></td> <td><p>zip file (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.zip</span></code>)</p></td> <td><p>(1),(3)</p></td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">gztar</span></code></p></td> <td><p>gzip’ed tar file (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.tar.gz</span></code>)</p></td> <td><p>(2)</p></td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">bztar</span></code></p></td> <td><p>bzip2’ed tar file (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.tar.bz2</span></code>)</p></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">xztar</span></code></p></td> <td><p>xz’ed tar file (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.tar.xz</span></code>)</p></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ztar</span></code></p></td> <td><p>compressed tar file (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.tar.Z</span></code>)</p></td> <td><p>(4)</p></td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tar</span></code></p></td> <td><p>tar file (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.tar</span></code>)</p></td> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <div class="versionchanged"> <p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.5: </span>Added support for the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">xztar</span></code> format.</p> </div> <p>Notes:</p> <ol class="arabic simple"> <li><p>default on Windows</p></li> <li><p>default on Unix</p></li> <li><p>requires either external <strong class="program">zip</strong> utility or <a class="reference internal" href="../library/zipfile.html#module-zipfile" title="zipfile: Read and write ZIP-format archive files."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">zipfile</span></code></a> module (part of the standard Python library since Python 1.6)</p></li> <li><p>requires the <strong class="program">compress</strong> program. Notice that this format is now pending for deprecation and will be removed in the future versions of Python.</p></li> </ol> <p>When using any <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tar</span></code> format (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">gztar</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">bztar</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">xztar</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ztar</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tar</span></code>), under Unix you can specify the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">owner</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">group</span></code> names that will be set for each member of the archive.</p> <p>For example, if you want all files of the archive to be owned by root:</p> <div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">python</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">py</span> <span class="n">sdist</span> <span class="o">--</span><span class="n">owner</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">root</span> <span class="o">--</span><span class="n">group</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">root</span> </pre></div> </div> <div class="section" id="specifying-the-files-to-distribute"> <span id="manifest"></span><h2>4.1. Specifying the files to distribute<a class="headerlink" href="#specifying-the-files-to-distribute" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>If you don’t supply an explicit list of files (or instructions on how to generate one), the <strong class="command">sdist</strong> command puts a minimal default set into the source distribution:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p>all Python source files implied by the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">py_modules</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">packages</span></code> options</p></li> <li><p>all C source files mentioned in the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ext_modules</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">libraries</span></code> options</p> </li> <li><p>scripts identified by the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">scripts</span></code> option See <a class="reference internal" href="setupscript.html#distutils-installing-scripts"><span class="std std-ref">Installing Scripts</span></a>.</p></li> <li><p>anything that looks like a test script: <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">test/test*.py</span></code> (currently, the Distutils don’t do anything with test scripts except include them in source distributions, but in the future there will be a standard for testing Python module distributions)</p></li> <li><p>Any of the standard README files (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">README</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">README.txt</span></code>, or <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">README.rst</span></code>), <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></code> (or whatever you called your setup script), and <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup.cfg</span></code>.</p></li> <li><p>all files that matches the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">package_data</span></code> metadata. See <a class="reference internal" href="setupscript.html#distutils-installing-package-data"><span class="std std-ref">Installing Package Data</span></a>.</p></li> <li><p>all files that matches the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">data_files</span></code> metadata. See <a class="reference internal" href="setupscript.html#distutils-additional-files"><span class="std std-ref">Installing Additional Files</span></a>.</p></li> </ul> <p>Sometimes this is enough, but usually you will want to specify additional files to distribute. The typical way to do this is to write a <em>manifest template</em>, called <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST.in</span></code> by default. The manifest template is just a list of instructions for how to generate your manifest file, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST</span></code>, which is the exact list of files to include in your source distribution. The <strong class="command">sdist</strong> command processes this template and generates a manifest based on its instructions and what it finds in the filesystem.</p> <p>If you prefer to roll your own manifest file, the format is simple: one filename per line, regular files (or symlinks to them) only. If you do supply your own <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST</span></code>, you must specify everything: the default set of files described above does not apply in this case.</p> <div class="versionchanged"> <p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.1: </span>An existing generated <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST</span></code> will be regenerated without <strong class="command">sdist</strong> comparing its modification time to the one of <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST.in</span></code> or <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></code>.</p> </div> <div class="versionchanged"> <p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.1.3: </span><code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST</span></code> files start with a comment indicating they are generated. Files without this comment are not overwritten or removed.</p> </div> <div class="versionchanged"> <p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.2.2: </span><strong class="command">sdist</strong> will read a <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST</span></code> file if no <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST.in</span></code> exists, like it used to do.</p> </div> <div class="versionchanged"> <p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.7: </span><code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">README.rst</span></code> is now included in the list of distutils standard READMEs.</p> </div> <p>The manifest template has one command per line, where each command specifies a set of files to include or exclude from the source distribution. For an example, again we turn to the Distutils’ own manifest template:</p> <div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>include *.txt recursive-include examples *.txt *.py prune examples/sample?/build </pre></div> </div> <p>The meanings should be fairly clear: include all files in the distribution root matching <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">*.txt</span></code>, all files anywhere under the <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">examples</span></code> directory matching <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">*.txt</span></code> or <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">*.py</span></code>, and exclude all directories matching <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">examples/sample?/build</span></code>. All of this is done <em>after</em> the standard include set, so you can exclude files from the standard set with explicit instructions in the manifest template. (Or, you can use the <code class="xref std std-option docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--no-defaults</span></code> option to disable the standard set entirely.) There are several other commands available in the manifest template mini-language; see section <a class="reference internal" href="commandref.html#sdist-cmd"><span class="std std-ref">Creating a source distribution: the sdist command</span></a>.</p> <p>The order of commands in the manifest template matters: initially, we have the list of default files as described above, and each command in the template adds to or removes from that list of files. Once we have fully processed the manifest template, we remove files that should not be included in the source distribution:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p>all files in the Distutils “build” tree (default <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">build/</span></code>)</p></li> <li><p>all files in directories named <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">RCS</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">CVS</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.svn</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.hg</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.git</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.bzr</span></code> or <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">_darcs</span></code></p></li> </ul> <p>Now we have our complete list of files, which is written to the manifest for future reference, and then used to build the source distribution archive(s).</p> <p>You can disable the default set of included files with the <code class="xref std std-option docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--no-defaults</span></code> option, and you can disable the standard exclude set with <code class="xref std std-option docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--no-prune</span></code>.</p> <p>Following the Distutils’ own manifest template, let’s trace how the <strong class="command">sdist</strong> command builds the list of files to include in the Distutils source distribution:</p> <ol class="arabic simple"> <li><p>include all Python source files in the <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">distutils</span></code> and <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">distutils/command</span></code> subdirectories (because packages corresponding to those two directories were mentioned in the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">packages</span></code> option in the setup script—see section <a class="reference internal" href="setupscript.html#setup-script"><span class="std std-ref">Writing the Setup Script</span></a>)</p></li> <li><p>include <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">README.txt</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></code>, and <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup.cfg</span></code> (standard files)</p></li> <li><p>include <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">test/test*.py</span></code> (standard files)</p></li> <li><p>include <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">*.txt</span></code> in the distribution root (this will find <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">README.txt</span></code> a second time, but such redundancies are weeded out later)</p></li> <li><p>include anything matching <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">*.txt</span></code> or <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">*.py</span></code> in the sub-tree under <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">examples</span></code>,</p></li> <li><p>exclude all files in the sub-trees starting at directories matching <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">examples/sample?/build</span></code>—this may exclude files included by the previous two steps, so it’s important that the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">prune</span></code> command in the manifest template comes after the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">recursive-include</span></code> command</p></li> <li><p>exclude the entire <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">build</span></code> tree, and any <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">RCS</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">CVS</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.svn</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.hg</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.git</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.bzr</span></code> and <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">_darcs</span></code> directories</p></li> </ol> <p>Just like in the setup script, file and directory names in the manifest template should always be slash-separated; the Distutils will take care of converting them to the standard representation on your platform. That way, the manifest template is portable across operating systems.</p> </div> <div class="section" id="manifest-related-options"> <span id="manifest-options"></span><h2>4.2. Manifest-related options<a class="headerlink" href="#manifest-related-options" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>The normal course of operations for the <strong class="command">sdist</strong> command is as follows:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p>if the manifest file (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST</span></code> by default) exists and the first line does not have a comment indicating it is generated from <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST.in</span></code>, then it is used as is, unaltered</p></li> <li><p>if the manifest file doesn’t exist or has been previously automatically generated, read <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST.in</span></code> and create the manifest</p></li> <li><p>if neither <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST</span></code> nor <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST.in</span></code> exist, create a manifest with just the default file set</p></li> <li><p>use the list of files now in <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST</span></code> (either just generated or read in) to create the source distribution archive(s)</p></li> </ul> <p>There are a couple of options that modify this behaviour. First, use the <code class="xref std std-option docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--no-defaults</span></code> and <code class="xref std std-option docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--no-prune</span></code> to disable the standard “include” and “exclude” sets.</p> <p>Second, you might just want to (re)generate the manifest, but not create a source distribution:</p> <div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">python</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">py</span> <span class="n">sdist</span> <span class="o">--</span><span class="n">manifest</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">only</span> </pre></div> </div> <p><code class="xref std std-option docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">-o</span></code> is a shortcut for <code class="xref std std-option docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--manifest-only</span></code>.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table of Contents</a></h3> <ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#">4. Creating a Source Distribution</a><ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#specifying-the-files-to-distribute">4.1. Specifying the files to distribute</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#manifest-related-options">4.2. Manifest-related options</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="configfile.html" title="previous chapter">3. Writing the Setup Configuration File</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="builtdist.html" title="next chapter">5. 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