Setl (pronounced like settle) is a simple way to work with PEP 518 projects with Setuptools as the backend.
The interface is strongly influenced by Flit.
The recommended install method is pipx:
pipx install setl
Setl needs to be installed with Python 3.7 or later, but can be used to build
projects using older Python with the --python option.
Aside from the usual Setuptools configurations, you need to create a file
pyproject.toml beside setup.py, with the following content:
[build-system] requires = ["setuptools>=43", "wheel"]
Command comparisons to Setuptools:
| Setl | Setuptools approximation |
|---|---|
setl develop |
setup.py develop |
setl build |
setup.py egg_info build |
setl publish |
setup.py egg_info build sdist bdist_wheeltwine upload |
The main difference is how build and runtime dependencies are installed.
Traditionally Setuptools projects use setup_requires, but that has
various problems and is
discouraged in favour of using PEP 518 to specify build time dependencies
instead. But Setuptools's project management commands do not handle PEP 518
declarations, leaving the user to install those build dependencies manually
before using setup.py. Setl commands mimic pip's build setup before calling
their setup.py counterparts, so the build environment stays up-to-date.
Similarly, setup.py develop installs runtime dependencies with
easy_install, instead of pip. It therefore does not respect PEP 518
declarations in those dependencies, and may even fail if one of the
dependencies does not support the "legacy mode" build process.
setl develop works around this by pip install-ing runtime dependencies
before calling setup.py develop --no-deps, so dependencies are installed
in the modern format.
The rest are more about providing more useful defaults. It is easy to forget
to re-build egg-info when you modify metadata, so Setl tries to be
helpful. Nowadays people almost always want to build both sdist and wheel, so
Setl does it by default. The PyPA recommends against using setup.py upload,
so Setl bundles Twine for uploading instead. Nothing rocket science.
- Read the documentation for detailed command descriptions and inner workings.
- View the source and help contribute to the project.