Is there a way to have a conditional requirements.txt file for my Python application based on platform?

Question

I have a python application that I wrote to be compatible with both, Linux and Windows platforms. However there is one problem... One of the python packages I need for Windo

Answer 1

You could create an install.py script and call pip by script.

import pip

_all_ = [
    "SOAPpy>=0.12.22",
    "pycrypto>=2.6.1",
    "suds>=0.4",
    "Python-ldap>=2.4.19",
    "paramiko>=1.15.2",
    "nose>=1.3.4",
    "selenium>=2.44.0",
    "bottle>=0.12.8",
    "CherryPy>=3.6.0",
    "pika>=0.9.14",
]

windows = ["wmi-client-wrapper>=0.0.12",]

linux = ["WMI>=1.4.9",]

darwin = []

def install(packages):
    for package in packages:
        pip.main(['install', package])

if __name__ == '__main__':

    from sys import platform

    install(_all_) 
    if platform == 'windows':
        install(windows)
    if platform.startswith('linux'):
        install(linux)
    if platform == 'darwin': # MacOS
        install(darwin)

Another way to resolve this issue using only requirements files should be using inheritance of requirements

requirements.txt

SOAPpy>=0.12.22
pycrypto>=2.6.1
suds>=0.4
Python-ldap>=2.4.19
paramiko>=1.15.2
nose>=1.3.4
selenium>=2.44.0
bottle>=0.12.8
CherryPy>=3.6.0

windows.txt

-r requirements.txt
WMI>=1.4.9

linux.txt

-r requirements.txt
WMI>=1.4.9

Then you can call just the requirement equivalent to platform.

pip install -r windows.txt
pip install -r linux.txt