Your first Python package in 1 min

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Create the directory for your package

Here is the very minimal directory you need to create a package.

my_package
├── my_package
│   └── __init__.py
└── setup.py

Let’s see what’s in each of the files.

__init__.py

It is the main file, where you’ll put all your functions, class, objects… Here is an example :

def my_function():
    print("Hello world!")

And that’s it !

setup.py

This file is used for installation. Here is an minimal example:

from setuptools import setup, find_packages
setup(
    name="my_package",
    version="0.1",
    packages=find_packages(),
)

find_packages() is used so that, during installation, all the packages necessary for the proper functioning of your package are also installed.

Let’s test it

Open a terminal, and go to the folder containing your package:

$ cd folder_that_contains_your_package
$ pip install my_package/
Processing ./my_package
Installing collected packages: my-package
    Running setup.py install for my-package ... done
Successfully installed my-package-0.1

Your package is now installed. To use it with Python:

import my_package
my_package.my_function()