What is Distutils in Python?

distutils is a module in the Python standard library that provides support for building and distributing Python modules. It contains functions and classes that allow developers to create and manage Python distributions. The distutils module is typically used to create Python packages, which are collections of modules that can be easily distributed and installed.

Example

First, you would create a file called setup.py with the following contents with the following parameters:

• name: It is the name of the project. The package will be listed by this name on PyPI.
• version: It is a string which can specify the current version of the project. It is totally your choice how you want to set the scheme of the series of versions (‘1.0’ or ‘0.1’ or even ‘0.0.1’ can also be used). This version is displayed on PyPI for each release if the project is published. Every-time a new version is uploaded, you will have to change this argument as well.
• description: A short description about the package. Long description argument can be used for long descriptions.
• url: A homepage URL for the project. This makes it easier for people to follow or contribute to the project.

This setup.py file specifies the name and version of your package, as well as the name of the package directory where your package’s modules are stored. Next, you would create a directory called my_package and put your Python modules inside it. For example, if you had a module called my_module.py, you would put it in the my_package directory. Once your package is set up, you can use the distutils module to build and distribute your package. To build your package, you would run the following command:

python setup.py build

This will create a build directory containing the files needed to install your package. To actually install your package, you would run the following command:

python setup.py install

This will install your package on the local machine, making it available for use in other Python programs. Alternatively, you can create a distribution package that can be easily shared and installed on other machines. To do this, you would run the following command:

python setup.py sdist

This will create a distribution package in the dist directory. The distribution package can be shared and installed on other machines using the pip package manager. For example, to install the package on another machine, you would run the following command:

pip install my_package-1.0.tar.gz

This installs the my_package with version 1.0 from the distribution package my_package-1.0.tar.gz.

Overall, distutils is the original package management system for Python, and it is included in the standard library. setuptools is a third-party package that builds on top of distutils and provides additional features and functionality. distribute was a fork of setuptools that has since been merged back into setuptools, and distutils2 was a fork of distutils that was abandoned in favor of the packaging and packaging-setuptools-py2 projects.

There are several differences between distribute, distutils, and setuptools in Python.

• distribute is a fork of setuptools that was created to address some of the shortcomings of setuptools and to provide more features and better support for non-Python platforms. distribute was merged back into setuptools in 2013 and is no longer maintained as a separate project.
• distutils is the original package management system for Python, and it is included in the standard library. distutils provides basic functionality for packaging and distributing Python modules, but it does not provide many of the features and enhancements that are available in setuptools.
• setuptools is a third-party package that builds on top of distutils and provides additional features and functionality for packaging and distributing Python modules. setuptools is widely used in the Python community and is considered to be the de facto standard for packaging and distributing Python modules.