What Are Python Eggs and How Are They Used?

Python Eggs: A Primer

In the Python ecosystem, eggs play a significant role in distributing code as packages. Similar to a Java's .jar file, an egg is essentially a .zip file with additional metadata files, providing portable bundles of Python code.

Purpose and Benefits of Eggs

Eggs encapsulate the code, resources, and metadata related to a specific Python project. The advantage of this format lies in its self-contained nature. Each project resides within a single directory or file, segregated from other code, simplifying distribution, uninstallation, and upgrades. Additionally, it allows multiple versions of a project to coexist, enabling individual programs to choose their preferred versions.

Internal Structure of Python Eggs

A Python egg is a collection of files and directories conforming to specific conventions:

• The egg metadata is stored in a special file named .egg-info.
• The actual code and resources are organized within a directory (e.g., lib or src).
• Optionally, scripts and data files can be included in other directories (e.g., scripts or data).

Creating Python Eggs

To create an egg, the following steps are typically involved:

1. Gather the project's code, resources, and metadata.
2. Use the setup.py script to define the project's metadata and dependencies.
3. Run the python setup.py bdist_egg command to build the egg.

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