This module provides the Distribution class, which represents the module distribution being built/packaged/distributed/installed.
A Distribution describes how to build, package, distribute and install a Python project.
The arguments accepted by the constructor are laid out in the following table. Some of them will end up in a metadata object, the rest will become data attributes of the Distribution instance.
| argument name | value | type |
|---|---|---|
| name | The name of the project | a string |
| version | The version number of the release; see packaging.version | a string |
| summary | A single line describing the project | a string |
| description | Longer description of the project | a string |
| author | The name of the project author | a string |
| author_email | The email address of the project author | a string |
| maintainer | The name of the current maintainer, if different from the author | a string |
| maintainer_email | The email address of the current maintainer, if different from the author | a string |
| home_page | A URL for the proejct (homepage) | a string |
| download_url | A URL to download the project | a string |
| packages | A list of Python packages that packaging will manipulate | a list of strings |
| py_modules | A list of Python modules that packaging will manipulate | a list of strings |
| scripts | A list of standalone scripts to be built and installed | a list of strings |
| ext_modules | A list of Python extensions to be built | a list of instances of packaging.compiler.extension.Extension |
| classifiers | A list of categories for the distribution | a list of strings; valid classifiers are listed on PyPi. |
| distclass | the Distribution class to use | a subclass of packaging.dist.Distribution |
| script_name | The name of the setup.py script - defaults to sys.argv[0] | a string |
| script_args | Arguments to supply to the setup script | a list of strings |
| options | default options for the setup script | a string |
| license | The license for the distribution; should be used when there is no suitable License classifier, or to refine a classifier | a string |
| keywords | Descriptive keywords; used by catalogs such as PyPI | a list of strings or a comma-separated string |
| platforms | Platforms compatible with this distribution; should be used when there is no suitable Platform classifier | a list of strings or a comma-separated string |
| cmdclass | A mapping of command names to Command subclasses | a dictionary |
| data_files | A list of data files to install | a list |
| package_dir | A mapping of Python packages to directory names | a dictionary |
