Somehow I’ve spent years using Python without ever packaging my code. I haven’t had the need or occasion to do so.

I decided to take some time and learn about it. Here are some useful resources I’ve stumbled across. They’re listed in order of clarity:

A recipe based on my initial understanding:

  1. Make sure your code is organized into a package (a hierarchy of directories, each containing an __init__.py file).
  2. Put a setup.py file in the root directory. This is the most complex part.
    • setup.py is a script that essentially runs a single command: setup.
    • The setup command is only complicated in that it accepts a lot of arguments. A beginner has difficulty knowing which arguments exist, and which are important.
    • See the example setup.py to get a full sense of the things that might happen in it. But notice that all of the busy-ness toward the beginning exists only to provide arguments to the setup command later on.
  3. Generate distribution archives. A distribution archive is a compressed version of all the code in the package. Commands like pip can install packages when they’re in this form.
  4. Register/upload the package to PyPI. This allows anyone to install your package via pip!

I’ve encountered setup.py files before, without really understanding why they exist. According to the setup.py for humans repo, Guido van Rossum himself complains about the general lack of understanding regarding setup.py files: “everyone cargo cults them.”

Writing this was mostly useful for me. If it was useful for you, then I’ll count it as a bonus :)

\( \blacksquare\)