Python Packaging: All in One View

Content from Python Scripts and Modules

Last updated on 2025-05-06 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 22 minutes

Overview

Questions

What is a ‘module’ in Python? How does this differ from a ‘script’?
What are the benefits of modularising our Python code?

Objectives

Introduce the example library used in this lesson.
Understand the limitations of scripts.
Understand what happens when we import something.
Learn how to convert a simple script into a reusable module.

Python as a Scripting Language

Python is frequently used as a scripting language by scientists and engineers due to its expressiveness, simplicity, and its rich ecosystem of third-party libraries. There isn’t a hard line between a scripting language and a non-scripting language, but some differences include:

Scripts are not compiled to an executable or library object (such as .so or .dll) before use, and are instead interpreted directly from the source code. A non-scripting language, such as C++, must be compiled to machine code before it can be used.
Scripts must be run using some other compiled program, such as python or bash.
Scripts are typically short programs that leverage the power of complex libraries to accomplish some task. They focus more on gluing together existing tools than performing their own low-level computations.

Python is a very general-purpose language, and it meets the criteria of both a scripting language and a non-scripting language depending on how we choose to use it:

Python can be run as an interactive session simply by calling python at the command line. This is typical of a scripting language.
It is possible to write a linear series of Python expressions in a file, and run this using the Python interpretter –again, like a scripting language.
Python code can be bundled in modules and packages which can then be import-ed into other Python programs/scripts. These are typically pre-compiled into ‘bytecode’ to improve performance. This is closer to the behaviour of a fully compiled language.

Typically, a Python project will begin as something that is inarguably a ‘script’, but as it develops it will take on the character of a ‘program’. A single file containing a linear series of commands may develop into a module of reusable functions, and this may develop further into a package of related modules. Developing our software in this way allows our programs to grow in complexity in a much more sustainable manner, and grants much more flexibility to how users can interact with our code.

Throughout this course, we’ll develop an example library that might be used for epidemiology modelling, though it isn’t necessary to understand how this works in order to follow the course. We’ll begin where many new Python projects start: with a simple script. This one solves a SIR model, which models the number of Susceptible, Infected, and Recovered individuals as a pathogen spreads through a population. The general pattern of the code – set up inputs, solve a problem, plot the results – should be familiar to those working in a data-oriented field. It uses the popular plotting library Matplotlib to generate a figure.

Instructor Note

It isn’t necessary to dwell on the details of the script. It’s only being used as an example of the sort of script the students might be familiar with.

PYTHON

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# Inputs
# Total number of susceptible people at the start of an outbreak
pop_size = 8000000
# Average no. of new infections per infected person per day
beta = 0.5
# Inverse of the average number of days taken to recover
gamma = 0.1
# Number of days to run the simulation for
days = 150
# Number of infected people at the start of the simulation
I_0 = 10

# Initialise data
S = [] # Number of susceptible people each day
I = [] # Number of infected people each day
R = [] # Number of recovered people each day
S.append(pop_size - I_0)
I.append(I_0)
R.append(0)

# Solve model
for i in range(days):
    # Get rate of change of S, I, and R
    dS = - beta * S[i] * I[i] / pop_size
    dR = gamma * I[i]
    dI = -(dS + dR)
    # Get values on next day
    S.append(S[i] + dS)
    I.append(I[i] + dI)
    R.append(R[i] + dR)

# Plot results
plt.plot(range(len(S)), S, label="S")
plt.plot(range(len(I)), I, label="I")
plt.plot(range(len(R)), R, label="R")
plt.xlabel("Time /days")
plt.ylabel("Population")
plt.legend()
plt.show()

If we save this script to the file SIR_model_script.py, it can then be run from the command line as follows:

BASH

$ python3 SIR_model_script.py

If everything works as expected, it should produce the following result:

A plot generated by running the SIR model script

So far so good, but there are some limitations to this coding style.

Challenge

Can you think of any drawbacks to writing scripts like the one shown above? Think about the general structure of the code and how the user interacts with it rather than the details of the implementation.

Show me the solution

There are many possible answers to this. Here are some examples:

If the user wants to change the model inputs, they have to open the script file and modify some lines of code before running again. This is difficult to automate and it’s possible that the user might overwrite something they didn’t intend to.
If we wish to expand on this functionality or do something different with the output data, we must either overwrite our original script, or copy the code across to a new scipt. If we choose to copy the script, it would take a lot of effort to update all versions every time we wish to adjust the core routine, and this is likely to introduce bugs.
The user must know where the script is stored on their system, navigate to that directory, and call it from there. This makes it challenging to string scripts together to make more complex programs.

It’s important to note that there’s nothing strictly wrong with writing scripts in this way, and it’s often a good starting point for a new project. However, as we develop our project further, we might find it useful to bundle up the reusable bits of our code into a module that we can import from other Python programs, just as we import-ed Matplotlib in our own script.

What is a ‘Module’?

A module is simply any file containing Python statements, so, technically, the script we defined above is already a module. The name of a module is the same as the file name, only without the .py extension. If we were to open a new Python interpretter session and call the following:

PYTHON

>>> import SIR_model_script

then the script would run as if we’d run it from the command line. However, the variables we defined in the script will be accessible within the namespace SIR_model_script:

PYTHON

>>> import SIR_model_script
>>> print(SIR_model_script.S)

The current namespace includes all of the objects defined in our interpretter session, plus all built-in Python functions and types. When we import our script, we add the name of the script to the current namespace, but not the variables defined within it; those are defined within the scope of SIR_model_script, and are only accessible using the dot operator. If we wanted to bring everything within the script to the current namespace, but not the module itself, we can instead call:

PYTHON

>>> from SIR_model_script import *
>>> print(S)

Alternatively, if we only want a few objects brought into the current namespace, we can use:

PYTHON

>>> from SIR_model_script import S, I, R
>>> print(S, I, R)

The dangers of `from module import *`

Using from module import * is considered harmful by many developers, as objects can be unintentionally overwritten if there are any name clashes between modules. It can also make it difficult for people reading you code to tell which modules your functions and classes have come from. In general, it’s better to be explicit about what you’re import-ing.

It is also possible to assign an alias to a module name using the as keyword:

PYTHON

>>> import SIR_model_script as script
>>> print(type(script.S))

Something to note about import is that it runs the code found within the module only the first time it is imported, so if we were to import our script multiple times, it would only create a plot once.

While we’ve shown that our script is importable, so far it doesn’t seem to provide many advantages over simply running it on the command line. The next section will explain what features can make a module more versatile and useful.

Challenge

Let’s save the following code in the file my_module.py:

PYTHON

x = 10

Then we open an interpetter and call the following:

PYTHON

>>> import my_module
>>> my_module.x += 5
>>> import my_module
>>> print(my_module.x)

What is the result?

Show me the solution

The result is 15, as the second import does not run the code in my_module.py, and therefore my_module.x is not reset back to 10.

Making a Reusable Module

A good Python module will tend to do the following:

Define functions, classes and constants that the user might want to use.
Not rely on global variables (those defined within the module but not inside of functions/classes), except in a few scenarios where it only makes sense for a single instance of the an object to exist.
Avoid performing runtime calculations at the import stage.

Most Python modules shouldn’t do anything if we try to run them from the command line, and instead they should provide import-able tools that can be used in the Python interpretter, by other Python modules, or by dedicated scripts. We’ll see later how to write a reusable Python module that doubles as a runnable script.

Most scripts can be converted into reusable modules using the following steps:

Identify each major stage of our data processing. Examples may include reading in data, running a model, processing results, creating plots, etc.
For each stage, identify what data is an input, and what is an output.
Bundle each processing stage into a function that takes the input data as arguments and returns the output data.

For example, the script SIR_model_script has two stages that can be bundled into functions. The first stage runs the SIR model, and it takes the following input parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
`pop_size`	`int`	Total number of susceptible people at the start of an outbreak
`beta`	`float`	Average no. of new infections per infected person per day
`gamma`	`float`	Inverse of the average number of days taken to recover
`days`	`int`	Number of days to run the simulation for
`I_0`	`int`	Number of infected people at the start of the simulation

The output data from this stage is:

Parameter	Type	Description
`S`	`List[float]`	Number of susceptible people each day
`I`	`List[float]`	Number of infected people each day
`R`	`List[float]`	Number of recovered people each day

We can therefore bundle this portion of the script into the function SIR_model:

PYTHON

def SIR_model(pop_size, beta, gamma, days, I_0):
    """
    Solves a SIR model numerically using a simple integration scheme.

    Parameters
    ----------
    pop_size: int
        Total number of susceptible people at the start of an outbreak.
    beta: float
        Average number of new infections per infected person per day.
    gamma: float
        Inverse of the average number of days taken to recover.
    days: int
        Number of days to run the simulation for.     
    I_0: int
        Number of infected people at the start of the simulation.

    Returns
    -------
    S: List[float]
        Number of susceptible people on each day.
    I: List[float]
        Number of infected people on each day.
    R: List[float]
        Number of recovered people on each day.
    """
    # Initialise data
    S = [] # Number of susceptible people each day
    I = [] # Number of infected people each day
    R = [] # Number of recovered people each day
    S.append(pop_size - I_0)
    I.append(I_0)
    R.append(0)

    # Solve model
    for i in range(days):
        # Get rate of change of S, I, and R
        dS = - beta * S[i] * I[i] / pop_size
        dR = gamma * I[i]
        dI = -(dS + dR)
        # Get values on next day
        S.append(S[i] + dS)
        I.append(I[i] + dI)
        R.append(R[i] + dR)

    return S, I, R

Note that we’ve provided a nice docstring, so that users of our function can understand how to use it. The second stage of our script takes the results of the SIR model as input data, and produces a plot. We can therefore bundle the plotting parts of the script as follows:

PYTHON

# Note: imports should go at the top of the file
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def plot_SIR_model(S, I, R):
    """
    Plot the results of a SIR simulation.

    Parameters
    ----------
    S: List[float]
        Number of susceptible people on each day.
    I: List[float]
        Number of infected people on each day.
    R: List[float]
        Number of recovered people on each day.

    Returns
    -------
    None
    """
    plt.plot(range(len(S)), S, label="S")
    plt.plot(range(len(I)), I, label="I")
    plt.plot(range(len(R)), R, label="R")
    plt.xlabel("Time /days")
    plt.ylabel("Population")
    plt.legend()
    plt.show()

If we save the two code blocks above to a file called SIR_model.py, we can then open up a Python interpreter and run the following:

PYTHON

>>> from SIR_model import SIR_model, plot_SIR_model
>>> S, I, R = SIR_model(
        pop_size=8000000, beta=0.5, gamma=0.1, days=150, I_0=10
    )
>>> plot_SIR_model(S, I, R)

This should give us the same results as when we ran the script earlier, and we can run the SIR_model function with different inputs without needing to change the input parameters in the file itself. The functions in our script are now therefore ‘reusable’, and can be integrated in other workflows. The nice docstrings we added can be viewed using the built-in help() function:

PYTHON

>>> help(SIR_model)

However, the script-like behaviour has been lost:

BASH

$ python3 SIR_model.py
$ # Nothing happens!

In the next section, we’ll show how to maintain script-like behaviour, and write reusable modules in the same file.

Maintaining Script-Like Functionality

If we wish, we can also maintain the script-like behaviour using the if __name__ == "__main__".py idiom at the bottom of the file SIR_model.py. Here, we create a special if block at the bottom of our module, and within this we call each of our functions in turn, using the outputs of one as inputs to the next:

PYTHON

# file: SIR_model.py

# Add this after our function definitions
if __name__ == "__main__":
    S, I, R = SIR_model(
        pop_size=8000000, beta=0.5, gamma=0.1, days=150, I_0=10
    )
    plot_SIR_model(S, I, R)

With this is place, we can still run the module as if it were a script:

BASH

$ python3 SIR_model.py

However, this section will not run if we import the file. Let’s break down how this works:

Each Python module is automatically assigned a variable __name__, and this is usually set to the name of the file without the .py extension.

PYTHON

>>> import SIR_model
>>> print(SIR_model.__name__)

OUTPUT

"SIR_model"

The exception to the rule is when we run a Python module as a script. In this case, the top-level file instead has its __name__ variable set to "__main__".

Therefore, the code written under if __name__ == "__main__" will run if we use the module as a script, but not if we import the file.

Challenge

If we create the the file name_test.py, which contains only the following line:

PYTHON

print(__name__)

What happens if we run the following on the command line?

BASH

$ python3 name_test.py

Show me the solution

It prints "__main__"

Challenge (continued)

What if instead we open an interpreter and import it?

PYTHON

>>> import name_test

Show me the solution

It prints "name_test"

As we’ll see later, it can also be handy to bundle the contents of our if __name__ == "__main__" block into a function, as then we can import that function and access our script-like behaviour in another way. This function can take any name, but is often called main:

PYTHON

# file: SIR_model.py

def main():
    S, I, R = SIR_model(
        pop_size=8000000, beta=0.5, gamma=0.1, days=150, I_0=10
    )
    plot_SIR_model(S, I, R)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

We’ll use this format later when discussing ways to make runnable packages.

Managing PYTHONPATH

Our script is now import-able, so the SIR_model function can be used from any other Python script, module, or interpretter session. However, we still need to know where the module is stored on our file system, which can make it difficult to reuse the functions in a separate project. A simple solution is to set the PYTHONPATH environment variable on our system. On Linux machines, this can be achieved using:

TODO: Add an example here where we change dir and then try to import a module. This will fail without setting python path.

BASH

$ export PYTHONPATH="${PYTHONPATH}:/path/to/my/module/directory"

If you want this to be set every time you open a terminal, you can add the line to the file ~/.bashrc.

However, this is not recommended as a long-term solution, as a custom PYTHONPATH can cause dependency conflicts between different packages on our system and can be difficult to debug. In a later chapter, we will show how to install our own modules using the pip package manager, which gives us much more control over how we integrate our modules into our Python environments (which may be managed using tools such as venv or conda), and also allows us to install packages from a remote repository. We’ll also show how to upload our own packages to the remote repository PyPI, and therefore allow others to download and install our code from the command line!

Extra: Better Automation with Matplotlib

Earlier, we converted the plotting section of our script into a function that the user can call. There are two issues with the implementation as it stands:

The use of plt.show() interrupts the flow of the program and requires the user to manually save the figure or discard it. This makes it difficult to automate the production of figures.
As it calls plt.plot() without first creating a new figure, it may interfere with our user’s Matplotlib code.

We can improve the function with a few changes:

Rather than using Matplotlib’s ‘implicit’ API (such as by using plt.plot()), which manages global Matplotlib objects, use the ‘explicit’ API, sometimes called the ‘object-oriented’ API. This requires handling Figure and Axes objects directly.
Optionally take in an Axes object. This way, the user can choose to set up their own Figure and Axes, and our function can write to it.
Return the Axes object that we worked on, so that the user can make further changes if they wish.
Only use plt.show() if the user requests it. Also provide an option to save the figure.

Here is an example of an improved function:

PYTHON

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def plot_SIR_model(S, I, R, ax=None, save_to=None, show=False):
    """
    Plot the results of a SIR simulation.

    Parameters
    ----------
    S: List[float]
        Number of susceptible people on each day.
    I: List[float]
        Number of infected people on each day.
    R: List[float]
        Number of recovered people on each day.
    ax: Optional[plt.Axes], default None
        Axes object on which to create the plot.
        A new Axes is created if this is None.
    save_to: Optional[str], default None
        Name of the file to save the plot to.
        Does not save if None.
    show: bool, default False
        If True, call plt.show() on completion.

    Returns
    -------
    plt.Axes
        The axes object the results have been plotted to.
    """
    # Use plt.subplots to create Figure and Axes objects
    # if one is not provided.
    if ax is None:
        fig, ax = plt.subplots()

    # Create plot
    ax.plot(range(len(S)), S, label="S")
    ax.plot(range(len(I)), I, label="I")
    ax.plot(range(len(R)), R, label="R")
    ax.set_xlabel("Time /days")
    ax.set_ylabel("Population")
    ax.legend()

    # Optionally save the figure
    if save_to is not None:
        fig = ax.get_figure()
        fig.savefig(save_to)

    # Optionally show the figure
    if show:
        plt.show()

    return ax

This gives our users much more control over how to create plots, and it allows our function to be used as part of a larger automated pipeline that runs without needing human input. There are many further ways we could improve this function and allow our users to finely control what’s plotted, such as by allowing the user to overwrite axis/line labels or interact with legend placement, but we’ll move on from this topic for now.

Extra: Better scripting with `argparse`

TODO: split arg parsing off into a separate episode

We showed earlier how to maintain script-like functionality in our modules. We’ll update that code to include our updated plotting function, so we’ll automatically save to a file if the user runs our script:

PYTHON

# file: SIR_model.py

def main():
    S, I, R = SIR_model(
        pop_size=8000000, beta=0.5, gamma=0.1, days=150, I_0=10
    )
    plot_SIR_model(S, I, R, save_to="SIR_model.png")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

An issue with our example is that it still requires the user to manually edit the file if they wish to change the input or outputs. This problem can be solved by instead taking arguments from the command line. A simple interface can be created using sys.argv, which is a list of command line arguments in the form of strings:

PYTHON

# file: SIR_model.py
import sys

def main():
    # Note: sys.argv[0] is the name of our program!
    pop_size = int(sys.argv[1])
    beta = float(sys.argv[2])
    gamma = float(sys.argv[3])
    days = int(sys.argv[4])
    I_0 = int(sys.argv[5])
    output = sys.argv[6]

    S, I, R = SIR_model(
        pop_size=pop_size,
        beta=beta,
        gamma=gamma,
        days=days,
        I_0=I_0,
    )
    plot_SIR_model(S, I, R, save_to=output)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

However, this requires the user to provide every argument in order, and doesn’t allow default arguments. We can achieve a better interface using the built-in argparse library. The comments in the code below explain how this works:

PYTHON

# file: SIR_model.py
from argparse import ArgumentParser

def main():
    # Create an argument parser object. We can provide
    # some info about our program here.
    parser = ArgumentParser(
        prog="SIR_model",
        description="Solves SIR model and creates a plot",
    )

    # Add each argument to the parser. We can specify
    # the types of each argument. Optional arguments
    # should have single character names with a hypen,
    # or longer names with a double dash.
    parser.add_argument(
        "-p", "--pop_size", type=int, default=10000000,
        help="Total population size",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "-b", "--beta", type=float, default=0.5,
        help="Average no. of new infections per infected person per day",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "-g", "--gamma", type=float, default=0.1,
        help="Inverse of average number of days taken to recover",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "-d", "--days", type=int, default=150,
        help="Number of days to run the simulation",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "-i", "--i0", type=int, default=10,
        help="Number of infected people at the start of the simulation",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "-o", "--output", default="SIR_model.png",
        help="Output file to save plot to",
    )

    # Get each argument from the command line
    args = parser.parse_args()

    # Run our code
    S, I, R = SIR_model(
        pop_size=args.pop_size,
        beta=args.beta,
        gamma=args.gamma,
        days=args.days,
        I_0=args.i0,
    )
    plot_SIR_model(S, I, R, save_to=args.output)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

We can now run our script using inputs from the command line:

BASH

$ python3 SIR_model.py --pop_size=1000 --days=10 -o mymodel.png

We defined each option with a default, so we don’t need to provide all of them if we don’t want to. Each option has a long form with two dashes (--output, --beta), and a short form with one dash (-o, -b), which are interchangeable (if we wish, we could provide only the short form or the long form). Note that we can use either an equals = or a space to separate the option name from its value.

If we had provided options without preceeding dashes, they would become ‘positional’ arguments, and would be required. The order positional arguments should be supplied is given by the order in which they are added to the parser. For example, if we had added beta and gamma as follows:

PYTHON

    parser.add_argument(
        "beta", type=float,
        help="Average no. of new infections per infected person per day",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "gamma", type=float,
        help="Inverse of average number of days taken to recover",
    )

We would need to supply these arguments in order when running our code. Positional arguments are not specified by name on the command line:

BASH

$ python3 SIR_model.py 0.5 0.1 --pop_size=1000 --days=10 -o mymodel.png

If we forget how our script is supposed to be run, argparse automatically provides a nice help message if we run it with -h or --help:

BASH

$ python3 SIR_model.py --help

usage: SIR_model [-h] [-p POP_SIZE] [-b BETA] [-g GAMMA] [-d DAYS] [-i I0] [-o OUTPUT]

Solves SIR model and creates a plot

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -p POP_SIZE, --pop_size POP_SIZE
                        Total population size
  -b BETA, --beta BETA  Average no. of new infections per infected person per day
  -g GAMMA, --gamma GAMMA
                        Inverse of average number of days taken to recover
  -d DAYS, --days DAYS  Number of days to run the simulation
  -i I0, --i0 I0        Number of infected people at the start of the simulation
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        Output file to save plot to

There are many ways to control our command line interface in more detail, such as constraining the possible user input choices, parsing lists of inputs, and using ‘sub-parsers’ to split functionality across a number of sub-commands, much like how pip handles its many utilities:

BASH

$ pip install --upgrade mypkg myotherpkg
$ pip list --exclude numpy

Here, install and list are sub-commands, which each handle a different set of their own args. We’ll show how to achieve this in the next lesson, where we’ll expand our code from a single module to a collection of modules known as a ‘package’.

Key Points

Any Python file can be considered a ‘module’, and can be import-ed. This just runs the code in the file, and makes the names of any objects in the module accessible using dot-notation.
If we bundle our Python scripts into a collection of functions, we can reuse those functions in other modules or in the Python interpretter.
After turning our scripts into reusable modules, we can maintain script-like behaviour using the idiom if __name__ == "__main__".
argparse can be used to create sophisticated command line interfaces.

Content from From Modules to Packages

Last updated on 2025-05-06 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 20 minutes

Overview

Questions

What is a ‘package’ in Python?
Why should we organise our code into packages?

Objectives

Explain how to group multiple modules into a package.
Understand the purpose of an __init__.py file.
Understand how __all__ works.
Understand the purpose of a __main__.py file.

Packages

In the previous lesson, we showed how to convert a simple Python script into a reusable module by bundling up different parts of the script into functions. However, as our project grows, we may find it beneficial to spread the functionality of our project over multiple files. Separating logically distinct units of code into their own files will help others to understand how our project works, and it allows us to control which features of our code are exposed to users at the top level.

The primary tool for organising a project across multiple files is the package. Packages are very similar to modules, and they are defined by the directory structure we use to organise our files.

To demonstrate how to create a package, we’ll convert our SIR model module from the last lesson into a package. Let’s say we have it stored within a directory epi_models – short for epidemiology models:

📁 epi_models | |____📜 SIR.py

To convert this to a package, we’ll simply create a new directory – also called epi_models – and move our Python module to it:

BASH

$ cd /path/to/my/workspace/epi_models
$ mkdir epi_models
$ mv SIR.py epi_models

We’ll also add a new empty file called __init__.py:

BASH

$ touch epi_models/__init__.py

Our directory structure should now be:

That’s all we need for a basic package! But why did we need to create a new directory with the same name, and what is __init__.py for?

The top-level directory can be thought of as the project directory, while the directory contained within is the package directory. Later, we will add new files to the project directory containing descriptive metadata for our package, and this will allow us to build, install, and publish the package. It is important for these files to be kept outside of the package itself.
The choice to give the package directory the same name as the project directory is simply a common convention for Python projects, and it’ll make it easier for to build, install and publish our package later. We’ll cover alternative directory layouts in our lesson on building and installing packages.
The presence of an __init__.py file marks a directory as a package, and the contents of this file are run when the package or any modules within are imported. We’ll explain how to use this file to set up and control our package in a later section.

Namespace Packages

Since Python 3.3, if you omit __init__.py, you may find that the following code snippets continue to work. This is because directories without __init__.py act as namespace packages, which can be used to build a package using multiple ‘portions’ spread across your system. The specification for namespace packages can be found in PEP 420.

Unless you’re intending to create a namespace package, it is good practice to include __init__.py, even if you choose to leave it empty, as this makes your intentions for the package clearer.

Now that we’ve created a basic package, it is straightforward to expand it to contain additional modules. For example, we may choose to add new epidemiology models, such as the SEIR model which introduces a new population category of those who are Exposed to a pathogen, but not yet infectious themselves (this models diseases such as COVID-19 fairly well). We could also add a SIS model, which is similar to the SIR model, but Recovered individuals do not gain immunity to the pathogen, and instead return to the Susceptible population (this can apply to the common cold and some types of flu). These new modules should be added to the package directory:

TODO: Scrub unimplemented models to reduce complexity

These new modules might contain similar functions to SIR.py. For example, SEIR.py may contain:

PYTHON

# file: SEIR.py

def SEIR_model(pop_size, alpha, beta, gamma, days, I_0):
    # Function to solve the SEIR model
    # Returns lists S, E, I, R
    pass

def plot_SEIR_model(S, E, I, R):
    # Function to plot S, E, I, R over time
    pass

We won’t worry about how these functions should be implemented for now. SIS.py should contain similar functions.

To import our functions, we can now enter the top-level epi_models directory and call the following in an interactive session:

PYTHON

>>> import epi_models.SIR
>>> S, I, R = epi_models.SIR.SIR_model(
        pop_size=8000000, beta=0.5, gamma=0.1, days=150, I_0=10
    )

Having to type the package name and the module name every time can be inconvenient, so it’s a good idea to use the alternative import styles we discussed in the previous lesson:

PYTHON

>>> # Assign an alias to the import
>>> import epi_models.SEIR as SEIR
>>> S, E, I, R = SEIR.SEIR_model(
        pop_size=8000000, alpha=0.2, beta=0.5, gamma=0.1, days=150, I_0=10
    )

>>> # Use 'from ... import ...' to get the function directly
>>> from epi_models.SEIR import SEIR_model
>>> S, E, I, R = SEIR_model(
        pop_size=8000000, alpha=0.2, beta=0.5, gamma=0.1, days=150, I_0=10
    )

>>> # Import everything into the current namespace (not recommended!)
>>> from epi_models.SIS import *
>>> S, E, I, R = SEIR_model(
        pop_size=8000000, alpha=0.2, beta=0.5, gamma=0.1, days=150, I_0=10
    )

As our project develops, we may decide that we need a further level of organisation. For example, if our modelling tools and our plotting tools become sufficently complex, we may decide to move these into their own directories. To do this, we can define sub-packages within our top-level package:

Note that each sub-directory, and hence sub-package, requires its own __init__.py. With our project organised in this way, we can now import each function using:

PYTHON

>>> import epi_models.models.SIR as SIR
>>> # Alternatively, get a single function instead of a whole module:
>>> from epi_models.plotting.plot_SEIR import plot_SEIR_model

Relative Imports

One advantage of organising our code into packages and sub-packages is that it allows us to import other modules using relative imports. To show how these work, we’ll add an extra file utils.py inside the models subpackage.

This could contain utility functions that may be useful within SIR.py, SEIR.py, and SIS.py. In each of these files, we could import the function some_func from utils.py using the following syntax:

PYTHON

from .utils import some_func

The dot preceding the module name instructs Python to search inside the current (sub-)package to find a module with a matching name.

We may also find it useful for our plotting tools to have access to the modelling functions. In that case, we can add the following to plot_SIR.py:

PYTHON

from ..models.SIR import SIR_model

Here, the double dots indicate that we should look one package higher than the current sub-package.

Note that relative imports only work within packages, so they should be avoided in our plain scripts.

The `init.py` file

__init__.py files do not need to contain any code to mark a directory as a Python package, but if we wish, we can use them to control what is or isn’t visible at package-level scope, or to perform any additional setup.

TODO: This needs an interactive exercise. What happens without importing anything in init?

Consider the __init__.py file in the models directory. Let’s add the following lines:

PYTHON

# file: epi_models/models/__init__.py

from .SIR import SIR_model
from .SEIR import SEIR_model
from .SIS import SIS_model

When SIR_model, SEIR_model and SIS_model are brought into the local namespace in models/__init__.py, they are brought into the namespace of epi_models.models too:

PYTHON

>>> from epi_models.models import SIR_model
>>> # Equivalent to:
>>> from epi_models.models.SIR import SIR_model

If we wish to expose these functions to the user at the top level package, we can also add the following to epi_models/__init__.py

PYTHON

# file: epi_models/__init__.py

from .models import SIR_model, SEIR_model, SIS_model

Note that we can import these names directly from the models sub-package instead of going to each of the modules in turn. It is now much easier for users to access these functions:

PYTHON

>>> from epi_models import SIR_model

When writing __init__.py files, it is important to consider what we don’t import. Note that we did not import any functions from utils.py, as these are only intended for use within the models sub-package, and there’s no need to expose these implementation details to the user. A well crafted __init__.py allows us to define a public API, which is the portion of our code that we expect our users to interact with. The following section introduces the __all__ variable, which allows us to more rigorously define a public API.

As the contents of __init__.py is run whenever the package or any sub-packages/modules are imported, we can also use __init__.py to perform any additional package-level setup. For instance, it might be used to set up connection to a database used throughout the package. In this way, __init__.py performs a similar role for a package as an __init__ function does for a class.

Using `all` to control `from module import *`

__all__ is an optional variable that we may set in our modules and packages (to assign it to a package, it should be defined in __init__.py). It should be a list of strings matching the names of all objects – including functions, classes, constants and variables – that we wish to be considered ‘public’ features that the user may wish to use.

__all__ also changes the behaviour of from module import *. By default, this would import all objects within the namespace of module, and bring them into the current namespace. This may not be desirable, as this may bring utility functions/classes/variables into the current scope, including any objects we explicitly mark as private using a preceeding underscore, and even anything we’ve imported. If we set __all__, only those objects with names matching the strings contained within __all__ will be loaded. For example, if we wrote the following:

PYTHON

# file: epi_models/__init__.py
from .models import SIR_model, SEIR_model, SIS_model
__all__ = ["SIR_model", "SEIR_model"] # Note SIS_model is missing!

Calling the following in an interactive session would work just fine:

PYTHON

>>> from epi_models import *
>>> SIR_model

OUTPUT

<function SIR_model at 0x7f0290dc9150>

However, the following would fail:

PYTHON

>>> SIS_model

OUTPUT

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name 'SIS_model' is not defined

TODO: remove discussion of private variables :::::::::::::::::::::: discussion

‘Private’ variables in Python

It is common for Python programmers to mark objects as private by prefixing their names with an underscore. For example, _private_variable or _PrivateClass. For an added layer of protection, variables set in class instances with two underscores, such as self.__x, will have their names mangled when viewed from outside the class, but they will still be locatable and modifiable by a determined individual.

Python programmers will also sometimes use a trailing underscore, and this is commonly used to avoid a name clash with a built-in object:

PYTHON

>>> lambda = 10 # Fails! Raises SyntaxError
>>> lambda_ = 10 # Works just fine

A combination of the private naming convention, well chosen __all__ variables, and thorough documentation is more than sufficient to specify a public API.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Script-like Packages and the `main.py` file

In the previous lesson, we introduced the if __name__ == "__main__" idiom, and discussed how to use this to maintain script-like behaviour in our reusable modules. The good news is that this is still possible when we upgrade our modules to packages. For instance, let’s say that the file epi_models/plotting/plot_SIR contains the following, which excludes the enhancements added in the ‘extra’ section last lesson:

PYTHON

# file: plot_SIR.py

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def plot_SIR_model(S, I, R):
    """
    Plot the results of a SIR simulation.

    Parameters
    ----------
    S: List[float]
        Number of susceptible people on each day.
    I: List[float]
        Number of infected people on each day.
    R: List[float]
        Number of recovered people on each day.

    Returns
    -------
    None
    """
    plt.plot(range(len(S)), S, label="S")
    plt.plot(range(len(I)), I, label="I")
    plt.plot(range(len(R)), R, label="R")
    plt.xlabel("Time /days")
    plt.ylabel("Population")
    plt.legend()
    plt.show()

def main():
    S, I, R = SIR_model(
        pop_size=8000000, beta=0.5, gamma=0.1, days=150, I_0=10
    )
    plot_SIR_model(S, I, R)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

If we jump into the directory epi_models/plotting, and call the following, we get an error:

BASH

$ python3 plot_SIR.py

OUTPUT

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "plot_SIR.py", line 2, in <module>
    from ..models.SIR import SIR_model
ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package

When running a single file as if its a script, Python will not consider it to be part of a wider package, and hence relative imports will fail. To solve this, we should run our script from outside the package using the -m flag:

BASH

$ python3 -m epi_models.plotting.plot_SIR

Note that we use dots rather than slashes to separate the names of each sub-package/module, and we don’t include .py at the end.

We can also add script-like behaviour to packages by adding a __main__.py file:

As the module name of this file is already __main__, there’s no need to use the if __name__ == "__main__" idiom, and we may write this file as if it were a simple script. If we wish to run the scripting interface from plot_SIR.py, we can do so simply by importing and calling the function main():

PYTHON

# file: __main__.py

from plotting.plot_SIR import main

main()

If we add a different scripting interface for each model type, we can use sys.argv to read the user’s model choice from the command line:

PYTHON

# file: __main__.py

import sys
from plotting.plot_SIR import main as SIR_main
from plotting.plot_SEIR import main as SEIR_main
from plotting.plot_SIS import main as SIS_main

# Read model type from the command line
model = sys.argv[1]

# Run the chosen model
if model == "SIR":
    SIR_main()
elif model == "SEIR":
    SEIR_main()
elif model == "SIS":
    SIS_main()
else:
    raise RuntimeError(
        "First cmd line arg should be 'SIR', 'SEIR', or 'SIS'"
    )

If you do intend to add scripting behaviour to your packages, it is highly recommended to read the ‘extra’ sections in this lesson and the previous one, as argparse allows you to build much more sophisticated command line interfaces.

Extra: Advanced `argparse` in `main.py`

TODO: Remove advanced argparse section

Let’s return to plot_SIR.py, and apply the enhancements discussed in the ‘extra’ sections last lesson:

PYTHON

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from argparse import ArgumentParser
from ..models.SIR import SIR_model

def plot_SIR_model(S, I, R, ax=None, save_to=None, show=False):
    """
    Plot the results of a SIR simulation.

    Parameters
    ----------
    S: List[float]
        Number of susceptible people on each day.
    I: List[float]
        Number of infected people on each day.
    R: List[float]
        Number of recovered people on each day.
    ax: Optional[plt.Axes], default None
        Axes object on which to create the plot.
        A new Axes is created if this is None.
    save_to: Optional[str], default None
        Name of the file to save the plot to.
        Does not save if None.
    show: bool, default False
        If True, call plt.show() on completion.

    Returns
    -------
    plt.Axes
        The axes object the results have been plotted to.
    """
    # Use plt.subplots to create Figure and Axes objects
    # if one is not provided.
    if ax is None:
        fig, ax = plt.subplots()

    # Create plot
    ax.plot(range(len(S)), S, label="S")
    ax.plot(range(len(I)), I, label="I")
    ax.plot(range(len(R)), R, label="R")
    ax.set_xlabel("Time /days")
    ax.set_ylabel("Population")
    ax.legend()

    # Optionally save the figure
    if save_to is not None:
        fig = ax.get_figure()
        fig.savefig(save_to)

    # Optionally show the figure
    if show:
        plt.show()

    return ax

def main():
    # Create an argument parser object. We can provide
    # some info about our program here.
    parser = ArgumentParser(
        prog="SIR_model",
        description="Solves SIR model and creates a plot",
    )

    # Add each argument to the parser. We can specify
    # the types of each argument. Optional arguments
    # should have single character names with a hypen,
    # or longer names with a double dash.
    parser.add_argument(
        "--version",
        action="version",
        version="%(prog)s {version}".format(version=__version__),
        help="Show program's version number and exit.",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "-p", "--pop_size", type=int, default=10000000,
        help="Total population size",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "-b", "--beta", type=float, default=0.5,
        help="Average no. of new infections per infected person per day",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "-g", "--gamma", type=float, default=0.1,
        help="Inverse of average number of days taken to recover",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "-d", "--days", type=int, default=150,
        help="Number of days to run the simulation",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "-i", "--i0", type=int, default=10,
        help="Number of infected people at the start of the simulation",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "-o", "--output", default="SIR_model.png",
        help="Output file to save plot to",
    )

    # Get each argument from the command line
    args = parser.parse_args()

    # Run our code
    S, I, R = SIR_model(
        pop_size=args.pop_size,
        beta=args.beta,
        gamma=args.gamma,
        days=args.days,
        I_0=args.i0,
    )
    plot_SIR_model(S, I, R, save_to=args.output)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Finally, we will need to add __version__ variable to init.py

PYTHON

# File: __init__.py

__version__ = 0.0.1

We can now check the version using the --version argument.

BASH

$ python3 -m epi_models.plotting.plot_SIR --version

Key Points

Packages can be used to better organise our code as it becomes more complex
Packages are defined by a directory structure and the presence of __init__.py
By controlling what is or isn’t imported in __init__.py, we can define a public API for our project.
A package can be run as a script using the -m flag, provided it contains a file __main__.py.
Through clever use of argparse, we can provide a rich scripting interface to a whole package.

Content from Building and Installing Packages using hatch

Last updated on 2025-05-06 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 20 minutes

Overview

Questions

How can we manage our Python environment?
How can we install our own packages?

Objectives

Use conda to manage Python environments
Understand what happens when we install a package
Use pip and hatch to install packages to our local environment

Introduction

In the first lesson, we showed how to use the PYTHONPATH environment variable to enable us to import our modules and packages from anywhere on our system. There are a few disadvantages to this method:

If we have two different versions of a package on our system at once, it can be tedious to manually update PYTHONPATH whenever we want to switch between them.
If we have multiple Python environments on our system (using tools such as venv or conda), setting PYTHONPATH will affect all of them. This can lead to unexpected dependency conflicts that can be very hard to debug.
If we share our software with others and require them to update their own PYTHONPATH, they will need to install any requirements for our package separately, which can be error prone.

It would be preferable if we could install our package using pip, the same way that we would normally install external Python packages. However, if we enter the top level directory of our project and try the following:

BASH

$ cd /path/to/my/workspace/epi_models
$ python -m pip install .

We get the following error:

OUTPUT

ERROR: Directory '.' is not installable. Neither 'setup.py' nor 'pyproject.toml' found.

In order to make our project installable, we need to add the either the file pyproject.toml or setup.py to our project. For modern Python projects, it is recommended to write only pyproject.toml. This was introduced by PEP 517, PEP 518 and PEP 621 as a standard way to define a Python project, and all tools that build, install, and publish Python packages are expected to use it.

By making our project pip-installable, we’ll also make it very easy to publish our packages on public repositories – this will be covered in our lesson on package publishing. After publishing our work, our users will be able to download and install our package using pip from any machine of their chocie!

To begin, we’ll introduce the concept of a ‘Python environment’, and how these can help us manage our workflows.

Managing Python Environments

When working with Python, it can sometimes be beneficial to install packages to an isolated environment instead of installing them globally. Usually, this is done to manage competing dependencies:

Project B might depend upon Project A, but may have been written to use version 1.0.
Project C might also depend upon Project A, but may instead only work with version 2.0.
If we install Project A globally and choose version 2.0, then Project B will not work. Similarly, if we choose version 1.0, Project C will not work.

A good way to handle these sorts of conflicts is to instead use virtual environments for each project. A number of tools have been developed to manage virtual environments, such as venv, which is a standard built-in Python tool, and conda, which is a powerful third-party tool.

Callout

You can pip install packages into a conda virtual environment.

If we’re using Linux, we can find which Python environment we’re using by calling:

BASH

$ which python

If we’re using the default system environment, the result is something like the following:

OUTPUT

/usr/bin/python

To create a new conda environment called “packaging” with Python v3.12 installed, we can call:

BASH

# Create a new environment
$ conda create -n packaging python=3.12 matplotlib hatch -c conda-forge

# It is a good idea to clean up cached and unused files 
$ conda clean --all

# You can always check available envs with
$ conda env list

Now we can activate our new conda environment:

BASH

# Start the env
$ conda activate packaging 

# To check which packages are installed in the env run:
$ conda list

Checking which Python we’re running should now give a different result:

BASH

$ which python

OUTPUT

/Users/username/miniforge3/envs/packaging/bin/python

If we now install a new package, it will be installed within our new virtual environment instead of being installed to the system libraries. For example:

BASH

$ pip install numpy

We can check the location of numpy using pip show:

BASH

pip show numpy

site-packages is a standard location to store installed Python packages.

If we no longer wish to use this virtual environment, we can return to the base environment by calling:

BASH

$ conda deactivate

Virtual environments are very useful when we’re testing our code, as they allow us to create a fresh Python environment without any of the installed packages we normally use in our work. This will be important later when we add dependencies to our package, as this allows us to test whether our users will be able to install and run our code properly using a fresh environment.

An Overview of TOML files

pyproject.toml is a TOML file, which stands for ‘Tom’s Obvious Minimal Langauge’ (named for its developer, Thomas Preston-Werner, who cofounded GitHub). There are many configuration file formats in common usage, such as YAML, JSON, and INI, but the Python community chose TOML as it provides some benefits over the competition:

Designed to be human writable and human readable.
Can map unambiguously to a hash table (a dict in Python).
It has a formal specification, so has an unambiguous set of rules.

A TOML file contains a series of key = value pairs, which may be grouped into sections using a header enclosed in square brackets, such as [section name]. The values are typed, unlike some other formats where all values are strings. The available types are strings, integers, floats, booleans, and dates. It is possible to store lists of values in arrays, or store a series of key-value pairs in tables. For example:

TOML

# file: mytoml.toml

int_val = 5
float_val = 0.5
string_val = "hello world"
bool_val = true
date_val = 2023-01-01T08:00:00
array = [1, 2, 3]
inline_table = {key = "value"}

# Section headings allow us to define tables over
# multiple lines
[header_table]
name = "John"
dob = 2002-03-05


# We can define subtables using dot notation
[header_table.subtable]
foo = "bar"

We can read this using the tomllib library in Python:

PYTHON

>>> import tomllib
>>> with open("mytoml.toml", "r") as f:
...     data = toml.load(f)
>>> print(data)

The result is a dictionary object, with TOML types converted to their corresponding Python types:

{
    'int_val': 5,
    'float_val': 0.5,
    'string_val': 'hello world',
    'bool_val': True,
    'date_val': datetime.datetime(2023, 1, 1, 8, 0),
    'array': [1, 2, 3],
    'inline_table': {'key': 'value'},
    'header_table': {
        'name': 'John',
        'dob': datetime.date(2002, 3, 5),
        'subtable': {
            'foo': 'bar'
        }
    }
}

Installing our package with `pyproject.toml`

First, we will show how to write a relatively minimal pyproject.toml file so that we can install our projects using pip. We will then cover some additional tricks that can be achieved with this file:

Use alternative directory structures
Include any data files needed by our code
Generate an executable so that our scripts can be run directly from the command line
Configure our development tools.

To make our package pip-installable, we should add the file pyproject.toml to the top-level learn-hatch directory:

The first section in our pyproject.toml file should specify which build system we wish to use, and additionally specify any version requirements for packages used to build our code.

We will choose to use hatchling, which requires the following:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

[build-system]
requires = ["hatchling"]
build-backend = "hatchling.build"

requires is set to a list of strings, each of which names a dependency of the build system and (optionally) its minimum version. This uses the same version syntax as pip.
build-backend is set to a sub-module of hatchling which implements the PEP 517 build interface.

With our build system determined, we can add some metadata that defines our project. At a minimum, we should specify the name of the package, its version, and our dependencies:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

# Build system configuration
[build-system]
requires = ["hatchling"]
build-backend = "hatchling.build"

# Project metadata
[project]
name = "epi_models"
version = "0.1.0"
dependencies = [
    "matplotlib",
]

# Hatch build configuration
[tool.hatch.build]
source = "src"

That’s all we need! We’ll discuss versioning in our lesson on publishing. With this done, we can install our package using:

BASH

$ pip install .

This will automatically download and install our dependencies, and our package will be importable regardless of which directory we’re in.

The installed package can be found in the directory /Users/username/miniforge3/envs/packaging/lib/python3.12/site-packages/epi_models.

If we look inside our installed package, we’ll see that our files have been copied, and there is also a __pycache__ directory:

BASH

$ ls /path/to/my/env/lib/python3.12/site-packages/epi_models

__init__.py  __main__.py  models  plotting  __pycache__

The __pycache__ directory contains Python bytecode, which is a lower-level version of Python that is understood by the Python Virtual Machine (PVM). All of our Python code is converted to bytecode when it is run or imported, and by pre-compiling our package it can be imported much faster. If we look into the directories models and plotting, we’ll see those have been compiled to bytecode too.

If we wish to uninstall, we may call:

BASH

$ pip uninstall epi_models

We can also create an ‘editable install’, in which any changes we make to our code are instantly recognised by any codes importing it – this mode can be very useful when developing our code, especially when working on documentation or tests.

BASH

$ pip install -e .

Callout

The ability to create editable installs from a pyproject.toml-only build was standardised in PEP 660, and only recently implemented in pip. You may need to upgrade to use this feature:

BASH

$ python -m pip install --upgrade pip

There are many other options we can add to our pyproject.toml to better describe our project. PEP 621 defines a minimum list of possible metadata that all build tools should support, so we’ll stick to that list. Each build tool will also define synonyms for some metadata entries, and additional tool-specific metadata. Some of the recommended core metadata keys are described below:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml


# Build system configuration
[build-system]
requires = ["hatchling"]
build-backend = "hatchling.build"

# Project metadata
[project]
name = "epi_models"
version = "0.1.0"
dependencies = [
    "matplotlib",
]

# A simple summary of the project
description = "My wonderful Python package"


# Full description of the project.
# Should be the path to your README file, relative to pyproject.toml
readme = "README.md"

# The Python version required by the project
requires-python = ">=3.8"

# The license of your project.
# Can be provided as a file or a text description.
# Discussed in the lesson on publishing
license = {file = "LICENSE.md"}
# or...
license = {text = "BDS 3-Clause License"}



# Authors / maintainers
# Each entry can have a name and/or an email
authors = [
    {name = "My Name", email = "my.email@email.net"},
    {name = "My Friend", email = "their.email@email.net"},
]

# dependencies: Array of Strings
# A list of requirements for our package
dependencies = [
    "matplotlib",
]

# Project URLs
[project.urls]
homepage = "https://github.com/username/learn-hatch"
documentation = "https://github.com/username/learn-hatch"
repository = "https://github.com/username/learn-hatch"

# Hatch build configuration
[tool.hatch.build]
source = "src"

TODO: Discuss including package data file with hatch.

Installing Scripts

If our package contains any scripts and/or a __main__.py file, we can run those from anywhere on our system after installation:

BASH

$ python -m epi_models
$ python -m epi_models.plotting.plot_SIR

With a little extra work, we can also install a simplified interface that doesn’t require python -m in front. This is how tools like pip can be invoked using two possible methods:

BASH

$ python -m pip  # Invoke with python
$ pip             # Invoke via console-scripts entrypoint

This can be achieved by adding a table scripts under the [project] header:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

# Add entry points
[project.scripts]
epi_models = "epi_models.__main__:main"

This syntax means that we should create a console script epi_models, and that running it should call the function main() from the file epi_models/__main__.py. This will require a slight modification to our __main__.py file. All that’s necessary is to move everything from the script into a function main() that takes no arguments, and then to call main() at the bottom of the script:

PYTHON

# file: main.py

def main():
    # Put the __main__ script here...

main()

This will allow us to run our package as a script directly from the command line

BASH

$ python -m pip install .
$ epi_models --help

Note that we’ll still be able to run our code using the longer form:

BASH

$ python -m src/epi_models --help

If we have multiple scripts in our package, these can all be given invidual console scripts. However, these will also need to have a function name as an entry point:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

[project.scripts]
epi_models = "epi_models.__main__:main"
epi_models_sir = "epi_models.plotting.plot_SIR:main"

TODO: remove this?

So how do these scripts work? When we activate a virtual environment, a new entry is added to our PATH environment variable linking to /path/to/my/env/bin/:

BASH

PATH = "/path/to/my/env/bin:${PATH}"

After installing our console scripts, we can find a new file in this directory with the name we assigned to it. For example, /path/to/my/env/bin/epi_models:

PYTHON

#!/path/to/my/env/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import re
import sys
from epi_models.__main__ import main
if __name__ == '__main__':
    sys.argv[0] = re.sub(r'(-script\.pyw|\.exe)?$', '', sys.argv[0])
    sys.exit(main())

Installing our project has automatically created a new Python file that can be run as a command line script due to the hash-bang (#!) on the top line, and all it does it import our main function and run it. As it’s contained with the bin/ directory of our Python environment, it’s available for use as long we’re using that environment, but as soon as we call deactivate, it is removed from our PATH.

Setting Dependency Versions

TODO: make this an info box.

Earlier, when setting dependencies in our pyproject.toml, we chose to specify a minimum requirement for numpy, but not for pyyaml:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

dependencies = [
    "numpy >= 1.20",
    "pyyaml",
]

This indicates that pip should install any version of numpy greater than 1.20, but that any version of pyyaml will do. If our installed numpy version is less than 1.20, or if it isn’t installed at all, pip will upgrade to the latest version that’s compatible with the rest of our installed packages and our Python version. We’ll cover software versioning in more detail in the lesson on publishing, but now we’ll simply cover some ways to specify which software versions we need:

TOML

"numpy >= 1.20"  # Must be at least 1.20
"numpy > 1.20"   # Must be greater than 1.20
"numpy == 1.20"  # Must be exactly 1.20
"numpy <= 1.20"  # Must be 1.20 at most
"numpy < 1.20"   # Must be less than 1.20
"numpy == 1.*"   # Must be any version 1

If we separate our clauses with commas, we can combine these requirements:

TOML

# At least 1.20, less than 1.22, and not the release 1.21.3
"numpy => 1.20, < 1.22, != 1.21.3"

A useful shorthand is the ‘compatible release’ clause:

TOML

"numpy ~= 1.20"  # Must be a release compatible with 1.20

This is equivalent to:

TOML

"numpy >= 1.20,  == 1.*"

That is, we require anything which is version 1, provided it’s greater than 1.20. This would include version 1.25, but exlude version 2.0. We’ll come back to this later when we discuss publishing.

Optional Dependencies

Sometimes we might have dependencies that only make sense for certain kind of user. For example, a developer of our library might need any libraries we use to run unit tests or build documentation, but an end user would not. These can be added as optional-dependencies:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

[project.optional-dependencies]
test = [
    "pytest >= 5.0.0",
]
doc = [
    "sphinx",
]

These dependencies can be installed by adding the name of each optional dependency group in square brackets after telling pip what we want to install:

BASH

$ pip install ".[test]"     # Include testing dependencies
$ pip install ".[doc]"     # Include documentation dependencies
$ pip install ".[test,doc]" # Include all dependencies

Key Points

We can configure our projects for pip installation by setting up a pyproject.toml file.
Simple projects require very little to be added to this file, but there are many optional extras we can add.

Content from Publishing our Python Packages

Last updated on 2025-05-06 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 30 minutes

TODO: replace build and twine with hatch. local build with hatch. demo push to test-pypi. TODO: pip install from github TODO: vcs based versioning with git tags and hatch (like setuptools-vcs) TODO: Update github action to use hatch and push to test-pypi TODO: Change demo package name to _, check that this does not exist in test-pypi TODO: Create a test-pypi API token

Overview

Questions

What services can we use to publish our software?
What steps must we take to accomplish this?

Objectives

Learn how to version our software and create releases.
Learn how to publish our software on PyPi, the Python Packaging Index.

Publishing our Python Packages

Following our lesson on building and installing Python packages, we should now have a package that can be installed using pip. With just a little more work, we can now publish our software on a few free online services: GitHub for source/version control, and PyPI (the Python Packaging Index) for package hosting. The latter is the default repository used by pip, so by hosting our software there, other users will be able to install our software to any machine of their choosing, and will be able to add it as a dependency to their own projects.

Before discussing how to use these services, we’ll briefly cover ‘semantic versioning’: a method for adding meaningful versions to our software containing compatibility information, and we’ll look at some of the preparatory steps we should take before publishing our code.

Versions and Releases

Users of our software will expect it to stay consistent over time. If we were to suddenly rename a function, or change what arguments it takes, this could break our user’s code, which in turn could break another developer’s code, etc.

A good solution to this problem is to use ‘semantic versioning’, in which the version number contains compatibility information in a widely agreed-upon format. Using semanic versioning, we will periodically make a new ‘release’ of our code, each time updating its version number, and the way we change the number informs our users of whether the changes to our code will break compatibility. In its most basic form, semantic versioning requires 3 numbers, separated by periods, such as 1.2.3. These numbers stand for MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, and are typically updated right-to-left. The meaning of each number is:

PATCH: We increment the patch number whenever we make an update that doesn’t add or remove functionality. It can include things such as backwards-compatible bug fixes, internal code restructuring, and performance improvements.
MINOR: The minor version should be incremented whenever we add new backwards-compatible features to our code. This can include the addition of new functions and classes. Whenever we increment the minor version, the patch version is reset to zero.
MAJOR: The major version should be incremented whenever we make a change that breaks backwards compatibility. This could include changing a function name or signature, or removing something from the public API. It can also include changing a function’s behaviour in a significant way. Whenever we increment the major version, both the minor version and patch version should be reset to zero.

We can add a version to our code by adding a __version__ to our top-most __init__.py file:

PYTHON

# file: epi_models/__init__.py

__version__ = "1.2.3"

This should also be reflected in our pyproject.toml:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

[project]
version = "1.2.3"

To avoid having to keep these up-to-date manually, we’ll see later how to automatically generate version info using git tags.

Something to note about the major and minor version numbers is that they only need to be updated if we change the public API of our software. Therefore, if we change the behaviour of any functions or classes intended for internal use, and the public API is unchanged, we only need to update the patch number.

Unstable Versions

Software with a major version of 0 is usually understood to be ‘unstable’. This means that anything can change between minor versions, and that no promises can be made for backwards compatibility. This is common for software in early stages of development, as the public API may undergo many iterations before being finalised.

For your own software, it may be a good idea to keep the major number at zero while you’re hashing out the public API and building a userbase. Once you’ve settled on a stable API, or you’ve developed a sizable userbase that won’t appreciate having to regularly update their code to match your changing standards, you should consider setting your version to 1.0.0.

If one of the dependencies in your project is still in an unstable state, it may be a good idea to fix the minor version number instead of using the compatible release comparator ~=:

TOML

dependencies = [
    "unstable_project >= 0.6.2, == 0.6.*"
]

This is because the ~= 0.6 will get the latest release which is at least 0.6.0 but less than1.0.0, but in this case version 0.7 might break backwards compatibility with 0.6. Note that some unstable projects may also break backwards compatibiliy in their patch releases. In these cases, it may be better to fix even the patch number:

TOML

dependencies = [
    "unstable_project == 0.6.2"
]

Deprecation

It is considered good manners to give our users plenty of warning if we plan to remove features that they might depend upon in our next major release. For this reason, many developers will implement deprecation warnings to alert users that the API is due to change in future, and that they should update their code accordingly. For example:

PYTHON

import warnings

def myfunc():
    warnings.warn(
        "myfunc is deprecated, and wil be removed in version 4",
        DeprecationWarning,
    )
    return 42

When adding deprecations to our code, we should update the minor version, and include them in our changelog. When we follow through on our deprecations and remove features, this should also be clearly stated in the changelog of our major release.

Extra: Advanced Versioning

Instructor Note

This section may be skipped.

There are many more fine-grained versioning techniques that may be employed as our projects grow in complexity, although these are not universally adopted and may only be applicable to very large projects with a detailed review process. The full list of version types accepted by tools such as pip is listed in PEP 440, while the formal specification for semantic versioning can be found at semver.org. For example, we may provide pre-release specifiers:

1.1.0a0: The first alpha version of 1.1.0. This is intended for use by developers of the project and (perhaps) a small group of users, and may be subject to large changes. 1.1.0a0 comes after 1.0.N, but before 1.1.0. A second alpha version may be listed as 1.1.0a1.
1.1.0b0: The beta version of 1.1.0. This follows 1.1.0aN, and is intended for use by a wider pool of users for further testing and feedback. This is usually close to the finished product, but some large changes remain possible.
1.1.0rc0: The release-candiate version of 1.1. Sometimes called a ‘preview’ version, it is not expected that further significant changes will be made in version 1.1, but some small changes may be included. It comes after 1.1.0bN, but before 1.1.0.

The number following the pre-release specifier is optional, with no number interpretted as 0 (for example, 1.0.0a == 1.0.0a0). A dot, hyphen, or underscore separator is also allowed, such as 1.0.0-a1, 1.1.0.beta.3, or 1.1.0-rc.2. We may also make post-releases if we wish to make minor edits after a release:

1.1.0post0: An update after a release that does not change the distributed software. For example, a change in documentation or release notes. It comes after 1.1.0 but before 1.1.1.

Similarly, post-release specifiers may have dot, hypen or underscore separators, and may exclude the trailing number. The use of ‘rev’ or ‘r’ in place of ‘post’ is also common. Note that a post-release is not the appropriate place for a quick bug fix after a full release – that should be an update to the patch number.

Finally, it is possible to create local versions in cases where a developer has made progress on a new development but has not finalised their work in a new release. If you use a tool such as Git to control your versioning, it may automatically generate the local version. In general, there is no ordering to local versions. A local version is specified with a + followed by a dot-separated list of numbers, letters, and hyphens, for example 1.1.0+001 or 1.2.0-alpha-630-g60eca14.

Preparing to Publish

README Files

Before sharing our software with the world, it is a good idea to let others know what it is and how it works! A good README file should explain what a project is for, how users can install it, and how to use it. For example, we may use the following file README.md, written using markdown:

MARKDOWN

    # epi_models

    A collection of Python utilities for solving epidemiology problems.

    ## Installation

    The project can be installed using \`pip\`:

    ```
    $ pip install epi_models
    ```

    To install from this repo:

    ```
    $ git clone github.com/username/learn-hatch
    $ cd epi_models
    $ pip install .
    ```

    ## Usage

    The project offers a command line interface, which can be used as
    follows:

    ```
    $ epi_models SIR input.yaml
    ```

    `SIR` can be exchanged for a model of your choice, and `input.yaml`
    is an input file with the following entries...

This should be included at the top level of our project:

It should be included in our package metadata by adding the following line in our pyproject.toml:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

[project]
readme = "README.md"

Licensing

It is important for our software to have a license so that any potential users know what their rights are with regards to usage and redistribution. This can also provide us with legal protections in some cases.

There are several open source licenses available, and they can be applied to our project simply by adding a LICENSE, LICENSE.txt, or LICENSE.md file to the top level of our project:

One of the simplest and most widely used licenses is the MIT License, which is very permissive. It requires users of your software to retain its copyright notice if they redistribute or modify it (or ‘substantial portions’ of it), but otherwise allows users to do what they wish. It also ensures the author is not liable for anything the users do with their software:

MIT License

Copyright (c) [year] [fullname]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

Information on alternative open source licenses can be found at choosealicense.com. Note that your choice of license may be determined by your dependencies. For example, if your code uses software licensed under the GNU GPLv3.0 license, it too should be licensed under GPLv3.0.

We should include our license in our pyproject.toml file as follows:

TOML

[project]
license = {file = "LICENSE.md"}

We can instead simply state the name of the license:

TOML

[project]
license = {text = "MIT License"}

If you’re developing code on behalf of an organisation, it’s worth checking in with their legal team (or at the very least, your supervisor) before deciding on a license.

Publishing our Software on GitHub

git is a powerful version control tool that allows us to track changes to our source code over time. This lesson is not the place for teaching how to use git, but it is highly recommended that you use it for managing your Python projects.

GitHub is an online service for hosting git-based software projects, and it is a great way to share our code and collaborate with others.

Once our code is hosted on GitHub, we can create releases and assign them a tag. This tag should be the version number of the release. We will see later how to use GitHub Actions to automatically publish our code on other services whenever a new release is created.

Whenever we make new releases of our code, we should write a detailed changelog that describes all of the changes since the last version. This should include new features, bug fixes, removals, and deprecations. A good changelog document should include all code changes in reverse chronological order (so the latest changes should be first in the list), and should credit anybody who contributed to the code.

With our code hosted on GitHub, it is possible for others to install it using pip:

BASH

$ pip install "git+https://github.com/user/project"

However, this will simply get the latest commit to the main branch, which may be a work-in-progress and not a true release. We can specify a particular release by providing the version number after an @ sign:

BASH

$ pip install "git+https://github.com/user/project@1.2.3"

Note that we can also supply a branch name or a commit hash here:

BASH

$ pip install "git+https://github.com/user/project@branch"
$ pip install "git+https://github.com/user/project@1a2b3c4"

Projects hosted on GitHub can also be added to dependencies in pyproject.toml as so:

TOML

dependencies = [
    "mypkg @ git+https://github.com/user/mypkg@1.2.3",
]

However, it is relatively slow for pip to install in this way, as it must clone the whole repository. We can instead install from a snapshot by pointing pip towards an archived .zip:

BASH

$ pip install "https://github.com/user/project/archive/1.2.3.zip"

TOML

dependencies = [
    "mypkg @ https://github.com/user/mypkg/archive/1.2.3.zip",
]

However, this is still slower than installing from a dedicated Python package repository such as PyPI, which hosts pre-built .whl files, and it only allows our users to specify a single version of our code. This means that they may miss out on crucial patch releases. In general, it is a good idea to use GitHub to host our source code and to manage its development, and to use a service like PyPI to host packages that our users can install.

Extra: Consistent Versioning with `hatch-vcs`

An issue with using GitHub to create new releases is that the project version can easily become desynced. The version needs to be specified in three places:

git tags, determined by releases on GitHub
The version field in pyproject.toml
__version__ in our __init__.py

It is possible to have all three determined by git tags using hatch-vcs. This can be set as a requirement of the build system:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

# Build system configuration
[build-system]
requires = ["hatchling", "hatch-vcs"]

build-backend = "hatchling.build"

With this, we no longer need to provide an entry for project.version, and instead should add:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

[project]
name = "epi_models"
# version = "1.2.3" # no longer needed!
dynamic = ["version"]

Following this, we should add the following section elsewhere in pyproject.toml:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

# Hatch versioning configuration
[tool.hatch.version]
source = "vcs"

# Version control system (VCS) versioning
[tool.hatch.version.vcs]
tag-pattern = "v*"  # Git tags starting with 'v' will be used for versioning
fallback-version = "0.0.0"

# Version file location for VCS
[tool.hatch.build.hooks.vcs]
version-file = "src/epi_models/_version.py"

Now, when we install or build the project, hatch-vcs will create a new file _version.py inside of our built package. If our git tag is 1.2.3, this will contain:

PYTHON

# file generated by setuptools_scm
# don't change, don't track in version control
__version__ = version = '1.2.3'
__version_tuple__ = version_tuple = (1, 2, 3)

This can be retrieved at runtime by adding the following to __init__.py:

PYTHON

# file: __init__.py

from epi_models._version import __version__

Now, our Git tags, __version__, and pyproject.toml version will automatically be kept in sync.

We will need to add the dynamically generated _version.py to our .gitignore

BASH

# file: .gitignore

src/epi_models/_version.py

Adding git tags

Before adding a new tag we should commit all our current changes and push them to our remote repo.

Then we can add a new tag like so:

BASH

# list tags
git tag

# Add new tag
git tag -a 0.1.0 -m "Initial minor release"

# Push the tag to github
git push origin 0.1.0

# list tags
git tag

Now that we have a new tag let’s re-install the package and check the version:

BASH

pip install -e .

epi_models --version

PyPI, the Python Packaging Index

PyPI is the official package repository for the Python community. It is equivalent to CRAN, used for the R programming language. This is the repository that pip uses when we install remote packages from the command line. It is recommended to upload packages here if we want our projects to reach a wider audience.

To begin, you will need to create an account on PyPI and its sister-site, TestPyPI – the latter is used to check that our packages have been uploaded and set up properly before committing to the standard repository.

To help people find our project after it’s uploaded, we should add some keywords they can search for. We can also add ‘classifiers’ that categorise our project and describe its intended audience. A list of possible classifiers are available on the PyPI website. These should be added to our pyproject.toml:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

[project]

# keywords should contain search terms so users can
# find our project
keywords = [
    "epimediology",
    "virology",
    "SIR",
    "SEIR",
    "Compartmental",
    "Model",
]

# Classifiers are a standard set of categories for
# our project, including which level of development
# we're at, who our intended audience is, which
# license we're using, etc.
classifiers = [
    "Development Status :: 3 - Alpha",
    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
    "Intended Audience :: Science/Research",
    "Topic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Bio-Informatics",
    "License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License",
]

Before discussing how to get our project hosted on PyPI, we’ll quickly discuss ‘wheel’ files, which are the standard way for Python to distribute packages.

Wheel files

When we install packages using pip, it first creates a ‘wheel’ file, with the file extension .whl. For example:

BASH

$ cd epi_models
$ pip install .

... installs dependencies ...

Building wheels for collected packages: epi-models
  Building wheel for epi-models (pyproject.toml) ... done
  Created wheel for epi-models: filename=epi_models-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl size=5378 sha256=005bcad72e7f6cc773f4180960e402e3bdbdf0fcb6fb683a019d9521775edfc8
  Stored in directory: /tmp/pip-ephem-wheel-cache-69r0h48p/wheels/d9/4d/ac/bbc1437fd83635787dd0fb8c3df8da61fc7b57f6eaa2b0d17b
Successfully built epi-models
Installing collected packages: epi-models
Successfully installed epi-models-0.1.0

The installation goes through several steps:

pip analyses our package and creates a .whl file.
The .whl file is stored in a temporary directory.
The package is installed to our system from the .whl file.

After installation, we can find our installed package at /path/to/my/env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/epi_models, and within we’ll find that every file has been compiled to Python bytecode, contained within __pycache__ directories. So what is a wheel file, and how does it help with this process?

A wheel is a standard package distribution format, defined in PEP 427. It is essentially a .zip file with a descriptive name that contains our package. When we installed our package above it created the following wheel file:

epi_models-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl

The filename has seveal components separated by dashes. In order, these are:

The package name
The package version
Language implementation, such as py3, py27, or py2. Packages that are compatible with any Python version will be py2.py3. Packages that are only compatible with a particular Python implementation, such as CPython, may be listed cpy38.
The ABI tag, which stands for ‘Application Binary Interface’. This specifies the binary compatibility of the CPython API, and may take a value such as abi3. This won’t be relevant unless you’re distributing compiled extensions written in C, and will be none if your package is pure Python. This is beyond the scope of these lessons.
Platform tag, which specifies which operating system your package is compatible with. any means it will run on Windows, Mac or Linux, while it may say something like macosx_10_9_x86_64 if it includes compiled C extensions for Mac OSX 10.9 on an x86_64 architecture. The manylinux tag encompasses many different popular Linux distros.

When we upload our package to PyPI, we will do so in the form of a wheel file, which contains all Python files in our package along with any compiled binaries for extensions written in C. When a wheel file is installed, Python files are compiled to bytecode, and the package is installed to the site-packages of our environment.

As the wheel file contains compatibility information in its name, pip can quickly check to see whether any wheels uploaded to PyPI are compatible with our system whenever we try to install something. In order to meet the needs of as many users as possible, it’s also possible for us to upload multiple wheels for each release – one for each targeted Python version and operating system.

`hatch build`

So how do we create a wheel file to upload? The Hatch library can be used to build and publish wheels.

BASH

$ pip install hatch

As we already have a pyproject.toml, build has everything it needs to create a wheel file. It can be called simply using:

BASH

$ hatch build

This will create a new directory ./dist containing the following:

📁 dist | |____📜 epi_models-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl |____📜 epi_models-0.1.0.tar.gz

We can see the contents of the .whl file by unzipping it:

BASH

$ cd dist
$ unzip dist/epi_models-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl

We’ll see that it contains our package along with a second directory epi_models-0.1.0.dist-info, which contains package metadata such as our license and README file. Note that we should remove the unzipped directories from ./dist before the upload stage.

The second file hatch build created is a .tar.gz file – a gzip-compressed tarball. This is a ‘source distribution’, which is used as a backup by pip if it can’t find a suitable wheel file to install.

Publish Wheels to test-pypi

The tool for uploading our package to PyPI is hatch publish.

Note: before we upload our package we will need to make sure we are using unique package names.

Change you package name from to githubusername-epi_modules.

You will need to change the package name in the following locations: - pyproject.toml - project.name - project.scripts entrypoint - The src/epi_models dir - Any relative imports in the modules

Test that the package can still be installed.

BASH

pip uninstall epi_modules

pip install -e .

epi_modules --version

Lets commit those changes and add a new tag.

BASH

# list tags
git tag

# Add new tag
git tag -a 0.1.1 -m "Edit package name"

# Push the tag to github
git push origin 0.1.1

# list tags
git tag

We can test the distribution of our package by uploading to TestPyPI.

First we will need to create a “token” on test-pypi to use as a temporary password.

BASH

$ hatch publish --repo testpypi --user __token__ --auth <your_token_here>

To avoid entering you token on the cmd line you can provide details as env variables

BASH

export HATCH_INDEX_USER=__token__ 
export HATCH_INDEX_AUTH=<your-token>

For more authentication options see the Hatch documentation.

Note that there is a registration process for TestPyPI, and a separate one for PyPI.

Once uploaded to TestPyPI we can check that everything looks correct using the web interface.

If you choose to pip download from TestPyPI you may need to specify that the dependencies are gotten from PyPI proper by using the --extra-indec-url flag. This is because the dependencies may not be available through TestPyPI.

BASH

$. pip install -i https://test.pypi.org/pypi/ --extra-index-url https://pypi.org/simple githubusername-epi_models==0.1.0

The process is the same for publishing to PyPi (but please don’t publish this test project!).

Users will then be able to install our package to any machine by calling the following:

BASH

$ pip install epi_models

Similarly, it can be included as a dependency to other Python projects:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

[project]
dependencies = [
    "epi_models",
]

As we continue to develop our software, we should upload each new version to PyPI. Our users will then be able to request a particular version:

TOML

# file: pyproject.toml

[project]
dependencies = [
    "epi_models ~= 1.2",
]

Extra: Automating Package Publishing with GitHub Actions

We saw earlier how to ensure that the version of our package was stored only in the Git tags. We can similarly set up our GitHub project to automatically publish our package whenever we make a new release. We can use GitHub Actions for this, which is a service used for continuous integration. It can achieve tasks such as:

Automatically run tests on a variety of platforms each time a new commit is pushed or version is published.
Enforce a code style automatically.
Publish work on each release.

GitHub Actions are controlled using a YAML file. Though the full specification is beyond the scope of this course, the following file will cause GitHub to automatically upload our package to PyPI with each new release:

YAML

# Provide a name for the workflow
name: Upload Python Package

# Tell GitHub when to run the action
# This will run every time a new release is published
on:
  release:
    types: [published]

jobs:
  deploy:
    # Run the workflow on the latest Ubuntu version
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      # This will checkout our GitHub project and enter
      # the directory
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      # This will set up a Python environment
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
        with:
          python-version: '3.x'
      # Here we update pip to the latest version and
      # install 'hatch'
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
          pip install hatch
      # Here we run build to create a wheel and a
      # .tar.gz source distribution.
      - name: Build package
        run: hatch build
      # Finally, we use a pre-defined action to publish
      # our package 
      - name: Publish package
        uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@release/v1
        with:
          user: __token__
          password: ${{ secrets.PYPI_API_TOKEN }}

This should be included in the file .github/workflows/publish.yml, where the .github directory is located at the top level of our project (at the same level as pyproject.toml). In order for this to work, we’ll need to set up a PYPI_DEPLOYMENT_TOKEN in the ‘secrets’ section of our project’s GitHub settings. A guide to doing this may be found on the PyPI website.

Callout

You should never push sensitive information such as passwords directly to your GitHub projects!

With this set up, our projects will be automatically pushed to PyPI each time we make a new release.

Key Points

Versioning our projects is important so that our users know what’s compatible.
GitHub is a powerful service for hosting our projects and managing their development.
Each new release of our packages should be uploaded to PyPI using hatch build and hatch publish.

Overview

Questions

Objectives

Python as a Scripting Language

Instructor Note

PYTHON

BASH

Challenge

Show me the solution

What is a ‘Module’?

PYTHON

PYTHON

PYTHON

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The dangers of from module import *

PYTHON

Challenge

PYTHON

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Show me the solution

Making a Reusable Module

PYTHON

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BASH

Maintaining Script-Like Functionality

PYTHON

BASH

PYTHON

OUTPUT

Challenge

PYTHON

BASH

Show me the solution

Challenge (continued)

PYTHON

Show me the solution

PYTHON

Managing PYTHONPATH

BASH

Extra: Better Automation with Matplotlib

PYTHON

Extra: Better scripting with argparse

PYTHON

PYTHON

PYTHON

BASH

PYTHON

BASH

BASH

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Key Points

Overview

Questions

Objectives

Packages

BASH

BASH

Namespace Packages

PYTHON

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Relative Imports

PYTHON

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The __init__.py file

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Using __all__ to control from module import *

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OUTPUT

PYTHON

OUTPUT

‘Private’ variables in Python

PYTHON

The dangers of `from module import *`

Extra: Better scripting with `argparse`

The `init.py` file

Using `all` to control `from module import *`

Script-like Packages and the `main.py` file

Extra: Advanced `argparse` in `main.py`

Installing our package with `pyproject.toml`