pybin

This project was inspired by how Maturin packages rust binaries. The key observation is that in the wheel format, the distribution-1.0.data/scripts/ directory is copied to bin, which means we can leverage this to seamlessly copy binaries into a user's PATH.

Combined with Python's platform-specific wheels, this allows us to use pip as a "cross-platform package manager" for distributing single-binary CLI applications.

This is the list of tools bundled this way, which can be installed with pip install $TOOLNAME-bin.

Wheel Building Process

The core of the logic lies in the buildlib.py module.

• A mapping from download URL (often github releases) to pypi platform tag is required.
• For each platform:
  • Download the release & extract the binary.
  • Set file permissions and place into scripts directory within wheel archive.
  • Create the METADATA and WHEEL files within wheel archive.
  • Place wheel into dist/ folder.
• Once all wheels are constructed, the distribution is uploaded to PyPI.

CICD is configured to automatically recognize new PyPI releases by looking for a diff on the PYPI_VERSION. When this happens, a build-and-release cycle is performed for that release version.