CodeMetaPy 0.3.2

Generate CodeMeta metadata for Python packages

CodeMetaPy

The goal of CodeMetaPy is to generate the JSON-LD file, codemeta.json containing software metadata describing a Python package. For more general information about the CodeMeta Project for defining software metadata, see https://codemeta.github.io. In particular, new users might want to start with the User Guide, while those looking to learn more about JSON-LD and consuming existing codemeta files should see the Developer Guide.

For Python packages, codemetapy uses importlib.metadata (Python 3.8+) or its backported variant (for older Python versions) to read the metadata of installed packages. It should therefore be compatible irregardless of whether you specified in your metadata in setup.py, setup.cfg, pyproject.toml or using any other backend.

Moreover, CodeMetaPy also supports conversions from other package types, such as debian packages (APT) (but this is limited). For R, see codemetar instead.

One of the most notable features of this tool is that it allows chaining to successively update metadata based on multiple sources.

Installation

pip install codemetapy

Usage

Query and convert any installed python package:

$ codemetapy somepackage

Output will be to standard output by default, to write it to an output file instead, do either:

$ codemetapy somepackage > codemeta.json

or use the -O parameter:

$ codemetapy -O codemeta.json somepackage

The tool also supports adding properties through parameters:

$ codemetapy --developmentStatus active somepackage > codemeta.json

To read an existing codemeta.json and extend it:

$ codemetapy -i json,python codemeta.json somepackage > codemeta.json

This tool can also deal with debian packages by parsing the output of apt show (albeit limited):

$ apt show somepackage | codemetapy -i apt -

Here - represents standard input, which enables you to use piping solutions on a unix shell, -i denotes the input types, you can chain as many as you want. The number of input types specifies must correspond exactly to the number of input sources (the positional arguments).

Entrypoint Extension

Though this is not part of the codemeta specification, the tool currently supports an extra entryPoints property with type EntryPoint. This can be used to describe the entry points specified in a python package (entry points will have use a file:// url to refer to the actual entrypoints, this is a bit of a liberal use…). Because this is a non-standard extension it has to be explicitly enabled using --with-entrypoints.

Integration in setup.py

You can integrate codemeta.json generation in your project’s setup.py, this will add an extra python setup.py codemeta command that will generate a new metadata file or update an already existing metadata file. Note that this must be run after python setup.py install (or python setup.py develop).

To integrate this, add the following to your project’s setup.py:

try:
    from codemeta.codemeta import CodeMetaCommand
    cmdclass={
        'codemeta': CodeMetaCommand,
    }
except ImportError:
    cmdclass={}

And in your setup() call add the parameter:

cmdclass=cmdclass

This will ensure your setup.py works in all cases, even if codemetapy is not installed, and that the command will be available if codemetapy is available.

To make use of the entrypoint extension, you need to explicitly specify python setup.py codemeta --with-entrypoints.

If you want to ship your package with the generated codemeta.json, then simply add a line saying codemeta.json to the file MANIFEST.in in the root of your project.