Python - Egg distribution (bdist_egg)

About

Python Eggs are a python binary distribution format.

A “Python egg” is a logical structure embodying the release of a specific version of a Python project, comprising:

• its code,
• resources
• project metadata including scripts
• and information about the project’s dependencies.

They are:

• cross-platform (for “pure” packages),
• directly importable,

They can be simply downloaded and added to sys.path directly, or they can be placed in a directory on sys.path and then automatically discovered by the egg runtime system.

Articles Related

Format

https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/formats.html

There are two basic formats currently implemented for Python eggs:

• .egg format: a directory or zipfile containing the project’s code and resources, along with an EGG-INFO subdirectory that contains the project’s metadata
• .egg-info format: a file or directory placed adjacent to the project’s code and resources, that directly contains the project’s metadata.

egg-info

the project’s metadata (.egg-info) directory

See the command

Example:

• Creating a dated “nightly build” snapshot egg:

python setup.py egg_info --tag-date --tag-build=DEV bdist_egg

• Creating a release with no version tags, even if some default tags are specified in setup.cfg:

python setup.py egg_info -RDb "" sdist bdist_egg

Documentation / Reference

• https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/setuptools.html#bdist-egg-create-a-python-egg-for-the-project