conda-press

Press conda packages into wheels.

The wheels created by conda-press are usable in a general Python setting, i.e. outside of a conda managed environment.

Quick start

Run the conda press command and point it at either an artifact file or spec. For example:

# from artifact spec, produces single wheel, including all non-Python requirements
$ conda press --subdir linux-64 --skip-python --fatten scikit-image=0.15.0=py37hb3f55d8_2

# from artifact file, produces a single wheel
$ conda press numpy-1.14.6-py36he5ce36f_1201.tar.bz2

# from artifact spec, produces wheels for package and all requirements
$ conda press --subdir linux-64 xz=5.2.4=h14c3975_1001

# merge many wheels into a single wheel
$ conda press --merge *.whl --output scikit_image-0.15.0-2_py37hb3f55d8-cp37-cp37m-linux_x86_64.whl

What we are solving

conda-press allows us to build out a pip-usable package index which is ABI compatible with conda packages. This can help address the following issues / workflows:

Issue 1:

It can be very difficult to build wheels for packages that have C extensions. Also, the provenance of wheels with C extentions can be hard to know (who built it, how it was built, etc.). Conda-press enables community building of wheels, based on conda-forge provided packages. This should make it very easy to build a valid wheel.

Issue 2:

Many packages with compiled extensions do not have wheels available on one or more popular platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux). This is because building wheels can be very difficult. Conda has a lot of packages that are not available as wheels otherwise. Conda-press allows these packages to easily become generally usable wheels.

Issue 3: Some people want a package index built on newer ABIs than manylinux<N>

How to install

From conda:

conda install -c conda-forge conda-press

From the source code:

$ pip install --no-deps .

More technical details about what we are doing

What conda-press does is take an artifact or spec, and turn it into wheel(s). When using pip to install such a wheel, it shoves the root level of the artifact into site-packages. It then provides wrapper / proxy scripts that point to site-packages/bin so that you may run executables and scripts.

How to get involved

Please feel free to open up a PR or open an issue!