A Python wheel is a pre-built binary package format for Python modules and libraries. Wheels are designed to make it easier to install and manage Python packages, by providing a convenient, single-file format that can be downloaded and installed without the need to compile the package from source code.
Wheels are intended to replace the older egg format and provide a number of benefits over eggs and other package formats, such as:
- Easier installation: Wheels can be installed simply by downloading the wheel file and running the
pip installcommand. This is much faster than installing from a source distribution, which requires the package to be compiled from source code. - Better support for versioning and dependencies: Wheels contain information about the required Python versions and dependencies, which makes it easier to install the correct package for your system.
- More consistent installs across platforms and machines: Wheels are pre-built for specific Python versions and platforms, which ensures that you will get the same installation results on any machine that meets the requirements.
Wheels are also used by many popular Python package managers, such as pip and conda. This makes it easy to find and install wheels for a wide variety of Python packages.
To create a Python wheel, you can use the wheel package. This package provides a command-line tool for building wheels from Python packages. To build a wheel, simply run the following command:
wheel build <package_name>
This will create a wheel file for the package in the current directory. You can then install the wheel file using the pip install command:
pip install <wheel_file_name>
If you are distributing a Python package, it is recommended that you provide a wheel file for the package. This will make it easier for users to install your package, and it will also help to ensure that your package is installed correctly on a variety of systems.
Benefits of using Python wheels
There are many benefits to using Python wheels, including:
- Faster installation: Wheels can be installed much faster than source distributions, because they do not need to be compiled from source code.
- Better support for versioning and dependencies: Wheels contain information about the required Python versions and dependencies, which makes it easier to install the correct package for your system.
- More consistent installs across platforms and machines: Wheels are pre-built for specific Python versions and platforms, which ensures that you will get the same installation results on any machine that meets the requirements.
- Easier distribution: Wheels can be easily distributed to users via package repositories or by directly uploading the wheel file to a website or cloud storage service.
Overall, Python wheels are a great way to install, manage, and distribute Python packages. They offer a number of benefits over other package formats, such as faster installation, better support for versioning and dependencies, and more consistent installs across platforms and machines.
