python -m build: Build Wheels and Sdists

The standard, frontend-agnostic way to build distributions.

python -m build (the pypa/build tool) builds an sdist and a wheel in an isolated environment using the backend declared in pyproject.toml. It is the modern replacement for "setup.py sdist bdist_wheel".

What it does

Reads [build-system] from pyproject.toml, creates an isolated build environment, and produces a source distribution and a wheel in dist/. Requires the "build" package to be installed.

Common usage

python -m pip install build
python -m build
python -m build --wheel
python -m build --sdist

Common CI error: missing build-system

Without a [build-system] table, build cannot determine a backend and fails. Declare requires and build-backend in pyproject.toml.

# Failure:
# ERROR Missing dependencies / no build-backend

# Fix:
[build-system]
requires = ["setuptools>=61", "wheel"]
build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"

Options

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