mkrelease is a no-frills Python package releaser. It is designed to take the cumber out of building and distributing Python packages. The releaser supports source distributions, eggs, and wheels.

After preparing a package for release (update version strings, dates) we typically have to:

1. Commit modified files.
2. Tag the release.
3. Build a source distribution and wheel.
4. Distribute the results via scp or upload them to an index server.

If we are doing this a lot, the need for automation becomes obvious.

• Installation
• Usage
• Options
• Arguments
• Configuration
• Upload with SCP
• Upload to Index Servers
• Using GnuPG
• Requirements
• Footnotes
• Related
• Changelog

mkrelease works with Python >= 3.7 and all recent versions of setuptools.

Use pip install jarn.mkrelease to install the mkrelease script.

Since version 4.4 mkrelease requires twine for register and upload operations. Twine may be installed as a global utility on the system PATH or into the same environment as jarn.mkrelease.¹

Use pip install jarn.mkrelease[twine] to install mkrelease + twine.

Since version 5.0 file-finder extensions are no longer installed by default. If you still want to use file-finders specify the filefinder extra.

Use pip install jarn.mkrelease[filefinder] to install mkrelease + file-finder extensions.

Use pip uninstall setuptools-subversion setuptools-hg setuptools-git to uninstall file-finder extensions.

mkrelease [options] [scm-sandbox|scm-url [rev]]

-C, --no-commit

Do not commit modified files from the sandbox.

-T, --no-tag

Do not tag the release in SCM.

-P, --no-push

Do not push commits and tags upstream.

-R, --no-register

Do not register the release with dist-location.

-S, --no-upload

Do not upload the release to dist-location.

-n, --dry-run

Dry-run; equivalent to -CTPRS. This flag turns mkrelease into a simple package builder.

--svn, --hg, --git

Select the SCM type. Only required if the SCM type cannot be guessed from the argument.

-d dist-location, --dist-location=dist-location

An scp destination specification, an index server configured in ~/.pypirc, or an alias name for either. This option may be specified more than once.

-s, --sign

Sign the release with GnuPG.

-i identity, --identity=identity

The GnuPG identity to sign with. Implies -s.

-z, --zip

Release a zip archive.

-g, --gztar

Release a tar.gz archive (default).

-b, --egg

Release a binary egg.

-w, --wheel

Release a wheel file (default).

-m, --manifest-only

Ignore setuptools file-finder extensions and collect files via MANIFEST.in only.

-e, --develop

Allow setuptools build tags. Implies -T.

-q, --quiet

Suppress output of setuptools commands.

-t twine, --twine=twine

Override the twine executable used.

-c config-file, --config-file=config-file

Use config-file instead of the default ~/.mkrelease.

-l, --list-locations

List known dist-locations and exit.

-h, --help

Print the help message and exit.

-v, --version

Print the version string and exit.

--no-color

Disable output colors.

--non-interactive

Do not prompt for username and password if the required credentials are missing.

scm-sandbox

A local SCM sandbox. Defaults to the current working directory.

scm-url [rev]

The URL of a remote SCM repository. The optional rev argument specifies a branch or tag to check out.

mkrelease reads available index servers from the distutils configuration file ~/.pypirc. This file should contain your PyPI account information:²

[distutils]
index-servers =
    pypi

[pypi]
repository = https://upload.pypi.org/legacy/
username = fred
password = secret

Next, mkrelease reads its own configuration file ~/.mkrelease. It may be used to change defaults and to define location aliases:

[mkrelease]
# Release steps
commit = yes
tag = yes
push = yes
register = no
upload = yes

# One or more of: zip gztar egg wheel
formats = gztar wheel

# Setuptools options
manifest-only = yes
develop = no
quiet = no

# Sign with GnuPG
sign = no
identity =

# Default dist-location
dist-location =

[aliases]
# Map name to one or more dist-locations
customerA =
    jarn.com:/var/dist/customerA/
public =
    jarn.com:/var/dist/public/
world =
    pypi
    public

The simplest distribution location is a server directory reachable by ssh. Releasing a package means scp-ing it to the appropriate place on the server:

$ mkrelease -d customerA
$ mkrelease -d jarn.com:/var/dist/customerB/
$ mkrelease -d scp://jarn.com/var/dist/customerC/
$ mkrelease -d stefan@jarn.com:eggs -C -e -q

To upload via sftp instead of scp, use the sftp URL scheme:

$ mkrelease -d sftp://jarn.com/var/dist/customerD/

Note: Unlike scp, the sftp client does not prompt for login credentials. This means that non-interactive login must be configured on the destination server or the upload will fail.

Another way of publishing a Python package is by uploading it to a dedicated index server like PyPI. Given the ~/.pypirc file from above, we can release to PyPI simply by typing:

$ mkrelease -d pypi

Index servers are not limited to PyPI though. There is TestPyPI, and there are alternative index servers like devpi. We extend our ~/.pypirc:³

[distutils]
index-servers =
    pypi
    testpypi

[pypi]
repository = https://upload.pypi.org/legacy/
username = fred
password = secret

[testpypi]
repository = https://test.pypi.org/legacy/
username = fred
password = secret

We can now release to TestPyPI with:

$ mkrelease -d testpypi -C -e

Release a package and sign the distributions with GnuPG:

$ mkrelease -d pypi -s -i fred@bedrock.com

The -i flag is optional and GnuPG will pick your default key if not given.

The following commands must be available on the system PATH (you only need what you plan to use):

• svn
• hg
• git
• scp
• sftp
• gpg
• twine⁴

Also see our Python documentation viewer jarn.viewdoc.