Developing a python module and publishing it on Github is cool, but most of the times you want others to download and use it easily. That is the role of PyPi, the python package repository. In this post I show you how to publish your package in less than 10 minutes.

Choose a fancy name

If you haven't done so yet, take a minute or two to think about this. To publish on PyPi you need a name for your package that isn't taken. What's more, a catchy and unique name will help people remember your module and feel more inclined to at least try it.

The package name should hint what your module does, but that's not always the case. That's your call. I personally put uniqueness and memorability over describing the functionality.

Create a .pypirc configuration file

[distutils] # this tells distutils what package indexes you can push to
index-servers =
    pypi # the live PyPI
    pypitest # test PyPI

[pypi] # authentication details for live PyPI
repository = https://pypi.python.org/pypi
username = { your_username }
password = { your_password } # not necessary

[pypitest] # authentication details for test PyPI
repository = https://testpypi.python.org/pypi
username = { your_username }

As you can see, you need to register both in the main pypi repository and the testing server. The usernames and passwords might be different, that is up to you!

Prepare your package

This should be the structure:

root-dir/    # Any name you want
    setup.py
    setup.cfg
    LICENSE.txt
    README.md
    mypackage/
        __init__.py
        foo.py
        bar.py
        baz.py

setup.cfg

[metadata]
description-file = README.md

The markdown README is the de facto standard in Github, but you can also use rST (reStructuredText), the standard in the python community.

setup.py

from distutils.core import setup

setup(name = 'mypackage',
      packages = ['mypackage'], # this must be the same as the name above
      version = '{ version }',
      description = '{ description }',
      author = '{ name }',
      email = '{ email }',
      url = 'https://github.com/{user}/{package}', # URL to the github repo
      download_url = 'https://github.com/{user}/{repo}/tarball/{version}',
      keywords = ['websockets', 'display', 'd3'], # list of keywords that represent your package
      classifiers = [], )

You might notice that the download_url points to a Github URL. We could host our package anywhere, but Github is a convenient option. To create the tarball and the zip packages, you only need to tag a tag in your repository and push it to github:

git tag {version} -m "{ Description of this tag/version}"
git push --tags origin master

Push to the testing/main pypi server

It is advisable that you try your package on the test repository and fix any problems first. The process is simple:

python setup.py register -r {pypitest/pypi} python setup.py sdist upload -r {pypitest/pypi}

If everything went as expected, you can now install your package through pip and browse your package's page. For instance, check my senpy package: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/senpy

pip install senpy