Ask HN: Does Python package management suck or is it just me?

servilio · on Oct 30, 2014

Have you read the packaging tool recommendations[1]? And the packaging glossary[2]?

For the little of npm I've seen its equivalent is pip, and package.json maybe pip's requirements files.

[1] https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/current.html [2] https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/glossary.html

sysk · on Oct 30, 2014

Thanks for those links, they do a better job at explaining those various tools then most descriptions I've read so far.

So if I understand correctly, the usual workflow is to create a distribution for your source code using setuptools (python setup.py sdist) and then upload them to Pypi using (python setup.py upload) or using Twine (twine upload dist/*). The uploaded distributions can then be installed by third party users by using pip (pip install somedistname).

servilio · on Nov 4, 2014

You are welcome, glad that they were helpful. My recommendation going forward: try the official documentation first always, it is of very high quality.

* You are right on the usual workflow

* I haven't used Twine so I can't comment on it

Additional things you might want to look into:

* Using ssh[2] to upload to PyPI

* Signing distributions with OpenPGP

[1] http://buildout.org

[2] https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pypissh