leptris (Python) — lxml-shaped bindings for libleptris

leptris wraps the libleptris C API (XML 1.0 parsing, XPath 1.0) using cffi in ABI mode, with a required C accelerator for Element allocation and the hot accessors (tag, text, attrib, get, indexing, sibling navigation and plain-path XPath evaluation). Wheels ship it compiled; sdist builds require a C compiler.

The pinned libleptris version lives in libleptris-version.txt (lockstep releases); CI builds it from the release tarball. The binding loads the shared library from LEPTRIS_LIB_PATH or the loader path.

Requirements

  • Python 3.9+
  • cffi (installed automatically)
  • libleptris 1.9.3+ as a shared library (1.9.1 has an options-struct ABI break — leptris/leptris#568)
  • libleptris as a shared library (libleptris.dylib / .so / .dll) on the loader path, or pointed to by LEPTRIS_LIB_PATH (which must name the library file — the loader dlopens it verbatim). For a development checkout:
cmake -B build -S /path/to/leptris -DLEPTRIS_BUILD_SHARED=ON
cmake --build build --target leptris_shared
export LEPTRIS_LIB_PATH=/path/to/leptris/build/src/libleptris.dylib

Quick start

from leptris import fromstring, tostring

root = fromstring("<library><book id='1' lang='en'>Ulysses</book></library>")

root.tag                                # "library"
root[0].get("id")                       # "1"
root[0].attrib                          # {"id": "1", "lang": "en"}
root[0].text                            # "Ulysses"

root.xpath("count(//book)")             # 1.0
[b.text for b in root.findall("book")]  # ["Ulysses"]

tostring(root[0], encoding="unicode")   # "<book id=\"1\" lang=\"en\">Ulysses</book>"

Documents own the tree; use the context manager or close():

from leptris import parse

with parse("catalog.xml") as doc:
    doc.xpath("//book[@lang='en']")

Namespaces, variables, canonical XML and streaming:

root.xpath("//x:item", namespaces={"x": "urn:ex"})
root.xpath("//book[@id=$id]", variables={"id": "2"})
c14n(root, exclusive=True)

from leptris import sax
sax.parse(xml, handler)                       # one-shot
with sax.StreamingParser(handler) as parser:  # push, constant memory
    parser.feed(chunk, final=last)

Migrating from lxml

lxml leptris Notes
etree.fromstring / etree.XML fromstring / XML
etree.parse parse paths and file-likes; no URLs
etree.tostring(elem, …) tostring(elem, …) bytes by default, encoding="unicode" for str
elem.tag / .text / .tail same tag uses {uri}local Clark notation; CDATA merges into text (lxml's default parser behavior)
elem.attrib / .get() / .keys() / .items() same attrib is a read-only Mapping
elem.getparent/getnext/getprevious same
elem[i], len(elem), iteration, slices same indexing is child indexing, never attribute lookup
elem.iter() / .iterdescendants() / .itertext() same elements only (ElementTree semantics); lxml's iter() also yields comments/PIs
elem.find/findall/findtext same accepts full XPath 1.0 — a superset of ElementPath — including {uri}local names
elem.xpath(expr, namespaces=…) same plus variables={…} (leptris extension)
etree.c14n / etree.XInclude c14n(…) / doc.process_xinclude()
etree.XMLSyntaxError ParseError XPath failures raise XPathError; both subclass LeptrisError
etree.Element, SubElement, append, set, remove not exposed libleptris has partial mutation upstream (node content setters, set_root, remove_children) — not surfaced here; build trees elsewhere
document-level comments / PIs doc.toplevel_comments() / doc.toplevel_pis() prolog then epilog; requires libleptris 1.9.3+
etree.iterparse leptris.iterparse(source, full_document=False) bounded by the largest subtree; yields ("end", element); elements borrowed until the next yield; tags resolve namespaces (Clark notation, libleptris 1.9.4+). Truncated or malformed input raises ParseError (libleptris 1.9.4 error channel). full_document=True yields every element in completion order — error detection is unreliable in that mode pending leptris/leptris#592. Still ~2× slower than lxml's iterparse (leptris/leptris#563)
smart strings plain str XPath string/attribute results
elem.nsmap absent use elem.namespace / elem.prefix and xpath(namespaces=…)
etree.XPath compiled objects leptris.XPath(expression) compile once, evaluate many; contexts, namespaces, and variables supported
parser options (resolve_entities, …) absent libleptris 1.2.0 has no per-parse options
elem.sourceline same requires libleptris 1.3.0+
undeclared XPath prefix raises in lxml evaluates to an empty nodeset here
ATTLIST default attributes applied by lxml's default parser excluded by default (ElementTree-like; XML 1.0 §5 permits either) — Document.parse(xml, attribute_defaults=True) opts in
parser options (remove_blank_text, …) etree.XMLParser(remove_blank_text=True) Document.parse(xml, remove_blank_text=True) — ~35% faster on pretty-printed input; also attribute_defaults=True, recover=True

Layout

  • leptris/_ffi.py — cdef mirror of the public headers + loader (the only place libleptris is declared)
  • leptris/_leptrisaccel.c — the C accelerator (abi3): allocates Elements and runs the hot accessors, subtree iteration, the parse and serialization seams, and the per-document element registry; bound to libleptris by the positional protocol in element.py
  • leptris/element.py, document.py, node.py, xpath.py — the Python surface: queries, walks, documents; node.py exposes the full DOM (comments, CDATA, PIs) beneath the ElementTree shape
  • leptris/api.py — fromstring/parse/tostring/c14n/ iterparse
  • leptris/sax.py — SAX one-shot and streaming
  • tests/ — pytest suite (pytest with LEPTRIS_LIB_PATH set)
  • benchmarks/ — matrix vs lxml/ElementTree/minidom (pip install .[bench], then python -m benchmarks.matrix)

Memory model

The Document owns the whole tree and its pool. Accessor strings are copied into Python str at the boundary, so nothing depends on document lifetime after a call returns. Elements keep a reference to their Document, so the pool cannot be freed while any wrapper is alive. Prefer explicit close() / the context manager; __del__ is a refcounting safety net, not a contract. Using an element after its document is closed raises LeptrisError.

Versioning

libleptris-version.txt pins the library release the binding is built and tested against. From 1.3.0 the package follows its own semver: 1.2.0 shipped an interim bespoke API to no adopters, and 1.3.0 replaces it with the lxml-shaped API (breaking, but pre-adoption). pyproject.toml and leptris/__init__.py must agree at release time.

Publishing

Releases publish to PyPI via .github/workflows/release.yml, using PyPI trusted publishing (no stored credentials). The workflow runs on manual dispatch (ships the version in pyproject.toml) and is called by the libleptris release flow (publish: true), so every libleptris release ships the wheel.

Local development

python3 -m venv .venv
./.venv/bin/pip install --upgrade build pytest cffi
./.venv/bin/pip install -e .[test,bench]
LEPTRIS_LIB_PATH=/path/to/libleptris.dylib ./.venv/bin/python -m pytest tests/ -q

Project links

Data verified by PyPI on Aug 28, 2026
Data provided by the project maintainers, verified at the time the release was uploaded to PyPI.

Key dates

PyPI data
Data sourced directly from PyPI's database.
  • Released:
Newer release available (1.27.1)

1 maintainer

PyPI data
Data sourced directly from PyPI's database.
Avatar for leptris from gravatar.com leptris

Credits

Author: Ribose

GitHub Statistics

Data verified by PyPI on Aug 28, 2026
The GitHub source repository was provided by the project maintainers and verified by PyPI at the time of upload. Stars, forks, and open issues/PRs are derived from that repository and have not been independently verified.

License expression

MIT
View SPDX License List

Requires

Python >=3.9

Provides Extra

test bench

Tags

xml xpath parser lxml ffi cffi

Classifiers

Report project as malware

Download files

Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.

Source Distribution

leptris-1.20.0.tar.gz (48.8 kB view details)

Uploaded Source

Built Distributions

If you're not sure about the file name format, learn more about wheel file names.

leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-win_amd64.whl (43.1 kB view details)

Uploaded CPython 3.9+Windows x86-64

leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux2014_aarch64.whl (98.3 kB view details)

Uploaded CPython 3.9+manylinux: glibc 2.17+ ARM64

leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-manylinux_2_5_x86_64.manylinux1_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (94.4 kB view details)

Uploaded CPython 3.9+manylinux: glibc 2.17+ x86-64manylinux: glibc 2.5+ x86-64

leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl (41.5 kB view details)

Uploaded CPython 3.9+macOS 11.0+ ARM64

leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl (40.9 kB view details)

Uploaded CPython 3.9+macOS 10.9+ x86-64

File details

Details for the file leptris-1.20.0.tar.gz.

File metadata

  • Download URL: leptris-1.20.0.tar.gz
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 48.8 kB
  • Tags: Source
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? Yes
  • Uploaded via: twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14

File hashes

Hashes for leptris-1.20.0.tar.gz
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 6a789a33269a51a348a594f8867e0aedbe518182adf25d80e3c4fd9e4b3a2b39
MD5 49ba2802fb363cf7d8ae261a0f2e0b4b
BLAKE2b-256 f107ccc3d97377bcf234749d59e5a58032f6e385a48f44934553bb2c2aea7b93

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for leptris-1.20.0.tar.gz:

Publisher: release.yml on leptris/leptris-py

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-win_amd64.whl.

File metadata

  • Download URL: leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-win_amd64.whl
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 43.1 kB
  • Tags: CPython 3.9+, Windows x86-64
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? Yes
  • Uploaded via: twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14

File hashes

Hashes for leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-win_amd64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 543c54da9dcb69d56023c1b7e375556a97a7f1855bca73881ac9db4cca9ba370
MD5 7c0eae0500830fc99c17e557ffc4a885
BLAKE2b-256 dc7c7d3f76346c53c14c642537f5aeeb6779a863b31f3aced057e1dd0625f94f

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-win_amd64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on leptris/leptris-py

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux2014_aarch64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux2014_aarch64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 0bb0c7f97076e1633eb4c6724018732ee6e657b5900e2bd313848d65a90eabb1
MD5 77536d405078980a69b4c15e7b7c5dff
BLAKE2b-256 3716500752e4bc03b537cac842e793924192f39626fd681543071aa8e8043a25

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux2014_aarch64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on leptris/leptris-py

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-manylinux_2_5_x86_64.manylinux1_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-manylinux_2_5_x86_64.manylinux1_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 c4d3b52e2f34187e51796e6cf73e680a26fb276d58678cfa3c674992d50a91db
MD5 6d4ded92ff4647e8cb49d4e20c706e36
BLAKE2b-256 3403190122c89deb3d73da2398ef85029e3d0a09164f42eb0b456e2e69b96079

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-manylinux_2_5_x86_64.manylinux1_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on leptris/leptris-py

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 6da007268507d48e55d356f1753ee04213f79558483dfce37c1854a7cf9a2b95
MD5 33db73745fdba3942fad906fd5f67ec1
BLAKE2b-256 7d7679c77d7ac068a67585e1f7c0ba2b92fa6ba88062dd80f9dd36b95fe5263f

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on leptris/leptris-py

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 dea8fb16f86d8131f2b19857808852fabe586fdd674370972a4f8224d5ba5259
MD5 68d317353036a3869e81c85e14d30b97
BLAKE2b-256 0816ac1bafd3bf7faa30cfc2c17e8e4eb2de498686ff6907c7ac2fb07e5421d2

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for leptris-1.20.0-cp39-abi3-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on leptris/leptris-py

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

Release history Release notifications | RSS feed

1.27.1

6 files

1.27.0

6 files

1.26.1

6 files

1.26.0

6 files

1.25.4

6 files

1.25.3

6 files

1.25.2

6 files

1.25.1

6 files

1.25.0

6 files

1.24.3

6 files

1.24.2

6 files

1.24.1

6 files

1.24.0

6 files

1.23.3

6 files

1.23.2

6 files

1.23.1

6 files

1.23.0

6 files

1.22.2

6 files

1.22.1

6 files

1.22.0

6 files

1.21.0

6 files

This release

1.20.0 This release

6 files

1.19.0

6 files

1.18.0

6 files

1.17.1

6 files

1.17.0

6 files

1.16.1

6 files

1.16.0

6 files

1.15.1

6 files

1.15.0

6 files

1.14.3

6 files

1.14.2

6 files

1.14.1

6 files

1.14.0

6 files

1.13.3

6 files

1.13.2

6 files

1.13.1

6 files

1.13.0

6 files

1.12.0

6 files

1.11.1

6 files

1.11.0

6 files

1.10.0

6 files

1.9.93.2

6 files

1.9.93.0

6 files

1.9.90.0

6 files

1.9.87.0

6 files

1.9.86.0

6 files

1.9.84.0

6 files

1.9.83.0

6 files

1.9.80.0

6 files

1.9.79.0

6 files

1.9.76.0

6 files

1.9.0

6 files

1.8.0

6 files

1.7.0

6 files

1.6.1

6 files

1.6.0

5 files

1.5.0

2 files

1.4.1

2 files

1.4.0

2 files

1.3.1

2 files

1.3.0

2 files

1.2.0

2 files

Anthropic, PBC Visionary sponsor Bloomberg Visionary sponsor Hudson River Trading Visionary sponsor Meta Visionary sponsor NVIDIA Visionary sponsor Microsoft Sustainability sponsor Depot Continuous Integration AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page