How to create a python 2.x package - simple case

Question

Please show the simple and up to date standard way to create a python package for python 2.x

I\'d prefer to use pip for installing the package later.

The pac

Answer 1

Start simple

Simplest one-file package:

MyProject/
    setup.py
    my_package.py

Simplest setup.py:

from setuptools import setup
setup(name='MyProject',
      version='0.1',
      author='Your Name',
      author_email='your.name@example.com',
      license='MIT',
      description='Example package that says hello',
      py_modules=['my_package'])

Including extra files in the package

Next you should probably add a README:

MyProject/
    MANIFEST.in
    README.rst
    setup.py
    my_package.py

Note the new file -- MANIFEST.in. It specifies which non-Python files ought to be included in your source distribution:

include *.rst

People will tell you "oh, skip the manifest, just add the files to source control, setuptools will find them". Ignore that advice, it's too error-prone.

Making the PyPI page useful

It's useful to make the README.rst available for people to view online, on the Python Package Index. So change your setup.py to do

from setuptools import setup
with open('README.rst') as f:
    readme = f.read()
setup(name='MyProject',
      ...
      description='Example package that says hello',
      long_description=readme,
      ...)

Use ReStructuredText markup for prettier pages. Use

python setup.py --long-description | rst2html

to catch ReStructuredText errors early.

More than one Python module in a package

One file will not be enough soon, so change it to a package (confusing terminology warning: Python package as in a directory with a __init__ py, not as in a distributable self-contained archive):

MyProject/
    MANIFEST.in
    README.rst
    setup.py
    my_package/
        __init__.py
        some_module.py

and change setup.py to

from setuptools import setup, find_packages
with open('README.rst') as f:
    readme = f.read()
setup(name='MyProject',
      version='0.2',
      author='Your Name',
      author_email='your@email',
      license='MIT',
      description='Example package that says hello',
      long_description=readme,
      packages=find_packages())

Releasing to the public

Get a PyPI account -- you only need to do this once.

To make a release, make sure the version number in setup.py is correct, then run

python setup.py sdist register upload

That's it.

Telling people to install it

Tell them to

pip install MyProject

(same name you specified in setup.py as the name argument to setup())

Answer 2

The following is copied from the Distutils Tutorial.

File layout:

top
|-- package
|   |-- __init__.py
|   |-- module.py
|   `-- things
|       |-- cross.png
|       |-- fplogo.png
|       `-- tick.png
|-- runner
|-- MANIFEST.in
|-- README
`-- setup.py

To make the installation tarball, you simply run:

python setup.py sdist

To install the package, use pip or easy_install:

pip install my_package-1.2.3.tar.bz2

or

easy_install my_package-1.2.3.tar.bz2

Also, you can upload it to PyPI, first register it:

python setup.py register

then upload the source tarball

python setup.py sdist upload

You can upload binary eggs as well (though not necessary):

python setup.py bdist_egg upload

Then folks can install it like this:

pip install my_package==1.2.3

or,

easy_install my_package==1.2.3