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PyScaffold is the tool of choice for bootstrapping high quality Python packages, ready to be shared on PyPI and installable via pip. It is easy to use and encourages the adoption of the best tools and practices of the Python ecosystem, helping you and your team to stay sane, happy and productive. The best part? It is stable and has been used by thousands of developers for over half a decade!

A single command is all you need to quickly start coding like a Python rockstar, skipping all the difficult and tedious bits:

putup my_project

This will create a new folder called my_project containing a perfect project template with everything you need for getting things done. Checkout out this demo project, which was set up using Pyscaffold.

Tip

New in version 4.0: We are trying out a brand new interactive mode that makes it even easier to use PyScaffold in its full potential. If you want to give it a shot, use the --interactive, or simply -i option.

The interactive command equivalent to the previous example is: putup -i my_project.

You can cd into your new project and interact with it from the command line after creating (or activating) an isolated development environment (with virtualenv, conda or your preferred tool), and performing the usual editable install:

pip install -e .

… all set and ready to go! Try the following in a Python shell:

>>> from my_project.skeleton import fib
>>> fib(10)
55

Or if you are concerned about performing package maintainer tasks, make sure to have tox installed and see what we have prepared for you out of the box:

tox -e docs  # to build your documentation
tox -e build  # to build your package distribution
tox -e publish  # to test your project uploads correctly in test.pypi.org
tox -e publish -- --repository pypi  # to release your package to PyPI
tox -av  # to list all the tasks available

Type putup -h to learn about other things PyScaffold can do for your project, and if you are not convinced yet, have a look on these reasons to use PyScaffold.

There is also a video tutorial on how to develop a command-line application with the help of PyScaffold.

Note

This document refers to the latest version of PyScaffold (v4). Please refer to v3.3 for the previous stable version. Both versions are compatible with Python 3.6 and greater.

For legacy Python 2.7 please install PyScaffold 2.5 (not officially supported).

Notes

  1. PyScaffold’s project template makes use of a dedicated src folder to store all the package files meant for distribution (additional files like tests and documentation are kept in their own separated folders). You can find some comments and useful links about this design decision in our FAQ.

  2. The pip install -e . command installs your project in editable mode, making it available in import statements as any other Python module. It might fail if your have an old version of Python’s package manager and tooling in your current environment. Please make sure you are using the intended environment (either a virtual environment [recommended] or the default installation of Python in the operating system) and try to update them with python -m pip install -U pip setuptools.

  3. If you are using a virtual environment, please remember to re-activate it everytime you close your shell, otherwise you will not be able to import your project in the REPL. To check if you have already activated it you can run which python on Linux and OSX, where python on the classical Windows command prompt, or Get-Command python on PowerShell.

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