DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / dh-python / pybuild.1.en
PYBUILD(1) General Commands Manual PYBUILD(1)

pybuild - invokes various build systems for requested Python versions in order to build modules and extensions

pybuild [ACTION] [BUILD SYSTEM ARGUMENTS] [DIRECTORIES] [OPTIONS]


  • build depend on dh-python,
  • build depend on all supported Python interpreters, pybuild will use it to create a list of interpreters to build for. Recognized dependencies:
  • python3-all-dev - for Python extensions that work with Python 3.X interpreters,
  • python3-all-dbg - as above, add this one if you're building -dbg packages,
  • python3-all - for Python modules that work with Python 3.X interpreters,
  • python3-dev - builds an extension for default Python 3.X interpreter (useful for private extensions, use python3-all-dev for public ones),
  • python3 - as above, used if headers files are not needed to build private module,



  • add --buildsystem=pybuild to dh's arguments in debian/rules,
  • if more than one binary package is build: add debian/python3-foo.install files, or export PYBUILD_NAME=modulename (modulename will be used to guess binary package prefixes), or export PYBUILD_DESTDIR env. variables in debian/rules
  • add --with=python3 to dh's arguments in debian/rules (see proper helper's manpage for more details) or add dh-sequence-python3 to Build-Depends

debian/rules file example:

#! /usr/bin/make -f
export PYBUILD_NAME=foo
%:


       dh $@ --with python3 --buildsystem=pybuild


Most options can be set (in addition to command line) via environment variables. PyBuild will check:
  • PYBUILD_OPTION_VERSIONED_INTERPRETER (f.e. PYBUILD_CLEAN_ARGS_python3.2)
  • PYBUILD_OPTION_INTERPRETER (f.e. PYBUILD_CONFIGURE_ARGS_python3-dbg)
  • PYBUILD_OPTION (f.e. PYBUILD_INSTALL_ARGS)



show this help message and exit
turn verbose mode on
doesn't show external command's output
be quiet
show program's version number and exit



The default is to build, install and test the library using detected build system version by version. Selecting one of following actions, will invoke given action for all versions - one by one - which (contrary to the default action) in some build systems can overwrite previous results.
return the name of detected build system
clean files using auto-detected build system specific methods
invoke configure step for all requested Python versions
invoke build step for all requested Python versions
invoke install step for all requested Python versions
invoke tests for auto-detected build system
list available build systems and exit
print pybuild's internal parameters





unittest's discover from standard library is used in test step by default.
--test-nose
use nose module in test step, remember to add python-nose and/or python3-nose to Build-Depends
--test-nose2
use nose2 module in test step, remember to add python-nose2 and/or python3-nose2 to Build-Depends
--test-pytest
use pytest module in test step, remember to add python-pytest and/or python3-pytest to Build-Depends
--test-tox
use tox command in test step, remember to add tox to Build-Depends. Requires tox.ini file
--test-custom
use a custom command in the test step. The full test command is then specified with --test-args or by setting the PYBUILD_TEST_ARGS environment variable. Remember to add any needed packages to run the tests to Build-Depends.



Tests are invoked from within build directory to make sure newly built files are tested instead of source files. If test suite requires other files in this directory, you can list them in debian/pybuild.testfiles file (you can also use debian/pybuild_pythonX.testfiles or debian/pybuild_pythonX.Y.testfiles) and files listed there will be copied before test step and removed before install step. By default only test and tests directories are copied to build directory.


Additional arguments passed to the build system. --system=custom requires complete command in --foo-args parameters.
invoked before the clean command
--clean-args ARGUMENTS
arguments added to clean command generated by build system plugin
invoked after the clean command
invoked before the configure command
--configure-args ARGUMENTS
arguments added to configure command generated by build system plugin
invoked after the configure command
invoked before the build command
--build-args ARGUMENTS
arguments added to build command generated by build system plugin
invoked after the build command
invoked before the install command
--install-args ARGUMENTS
arguments added to install command generated by build system plugin
invoked after the install command
invoked before the test command
--test-args ARGUMENTS
arguments added to test command generated by build system plugin
invoked after the test command





variables that can be used in ARGUMENTS and COMMAND

  • {version} will be replaced with current Python version, you can also use {version.major}, {version.minor}, etc.
  • {interpreter} will be replaced with current interpreter, you can also use {interpreter.include_dir}
  • {dir} will be replaced with sources directory,
  • {destdir} will be replaced with destination directory,
  • {home_dir} will be replaced with temporary HOME directory, where plugins can keep their data (.pybuild/interpreter_version/ by default),
  • {build_dir} will be replaced with build directory
  • {install_dir} will be replaced with install directory.
  • {package} will be replaced with suggested package name, if --name (or PYBUILD_NAME) is set to foo, this variable will be replaced with python3-foo.

set source files directory - base for other relative dirs [by default: current working directory]
set destination directory [default: debian/tmp]
set destination directory for .so files
regular expression for files that should be moved if --ext-dest-dir is set [default: .so(.[^/]*)?$]
regular expression for part of path/filename matched in --ext-pattern that should be removed or replaced with --ext-sub-repl
replacement for matches in --ext-sub-pattern
--install-dir DIR
set installation directory [default: .../dist-packages]
use this name to guess destination directories ("foo" sets debian/python3-foo) This overrides --dest-dir.



variables that can be used in DIR

  • {version} will be replaced with current Python version,
  • {interpreter} will be replaced with selected interpreter.

select a build system [default: auto-detection]
build for Python VERSIONS. This option can be used multiple times. Versions can be separated by space character. The default is all Python 3.X supported versions.
change interpreter [default: python{version}]
disable action, interpreter, version or any mix of them. Note that f.e. python3 and python3-dbg are two different interpreters, --disable test/python3 doesn't disable python3-dbg's tests.



  • --disable test/python3.9-dbg - disables tests for python3.9-dbg
  • --disable '3.8 3.9' - disables all actions for version 3.8 and 3.9
  • PYBUILD_DISABLE=python3.9 - disables all actions for Python 3.9
  • PYBUILD_DISABLE_python3.3=test - disables tests for Python 3.3
  • PYBUILD_DISABLE=test/python3.3 - same as above
  • PYBUILD_DISABLE=configure/python3 3.2 - disables configure action for all python3 interpreters, and all actions for version 3.2

pybuild supports multiple build system plugins. By default it is automatically selected. These systems are currently supported:

* distutils (most commonly used)
* cmake
* flit (deprecated)
* pyproject
* custom


The flit plugin is deprecated, please use the pyproject plugin instead.

The flit plugin can be used to build Debian packages based on PEP 517 metadata in pyproject.toml when flit is the upstream build system. These can be identified by the presence of a build-backend = "flit_core.buildapi" element in pyproject.toml. The flit plugin only supports python3. To use this plugin:

* build depend on `flit` and either
* build depend on `python3-tomli` so flit can be automatically selected or
* add `export PYBUILD_SYSTEM=flit` to debian/rules to manually select


debian/rules file example:

#! /usr/bin/make -f
export PYBUILD_NAME=foo
export PYBUILD_SYSTEM=flit (needed if python3-tomli is not installed)
%:


    dh $@ --with python3 --buildsystem=pybuild


The pyproject plugin drives the new PEP-517 standard interface for building Python packages, upstream. This is configured via pyproject.toml. This plugin is expected to replace the distutils and flit plugins in the future. The entry points generated by the package are created during the build step (other plugins make the entry points during the install step); the entry points are available in PATH during the test step, permitting them to be called from tests.

To use this plugin:

•
build depend on pybuild-plugin-pyproject as well as any build tools specified by upstream in pyproject.toml.

As described above in OPTIONS, pybuild can be configured by PYBUILD_ prefixed environment variables.

Tests are skipped if nocheck is in the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS or DEB_BUILD_PROFILES environment variables.

DESTDIR provides a default a default value to the --dest-dir option.

Pybuild will export http_proxy=http://127.0.0.1:9/, https_proxy=https://127.0.0.1:9/, and no_proxy=localhost to hopefully block attempts by the package's build-system to access the Internet. If network access to a loopback interface is needed and blocked by this, export empty http_proxy and https_proxy variables before calling pybuild.

If not set, LC_ALL, CCACHE_DIR, DEB_PYTHON_INSTALL_LAYOUT, _PYTHON_HOST_PLATFORM, _PYTHON_SYSCONFIGDATA_NAME, will all be set to appropriate values, before calling the package's build script.

  • dh_python3(1)
  • https://wiki.debian.org/Python/Pybuild
  • http://deb.li/pybuild - most recent version of this document

Piotr Ożarowski, 2012-2019