https://github.com/tttapa/py-build-cmake
Modern, PEP 517 compliant build backend for creating Python packages with extensions built using CMake.
https://github.com/tttapa/py-build-cmake
build cmake nanobind pep517 pybind11 python
Last synced: about 2 months ago
JSON representation
Modern, PEP 517 compliant build backend for creating Python packages with extensions built using CMake.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/tttapa/py-build-cmake
- Owner: tttapa
- License: mit
- Created: 2022-01-21T23:34:42.000Z (over 3 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-04-07T18:55:39.000Z (about 2 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-04-13T12:08:21.152Z (about 2 months ago)
- Topics: build, cmake, nanobind, pep517, pybind11, python
- Language: Python
- Homepage: https://tttapa.github.io/py-build-cmake/
- Size: 2.56 MB
- Stars: 58
- Watchers: 3
- Forks: 10
- Open Issues: 8
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
py-build-cmake
[](https://github.com/tttapa/py-build-cmake/actions/workflows/wheel.yml)
[](https://tttapa.github.io/py-build-cmake)
[](https://pypi.org/project/py-build-cmake)
A modern, [PEP 517](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0517/) compliant build
backend for creating Python packages with extensions built using CMake.
## Features
- Building and packaging C, C++ or Fortran extension modules for Python using CMake
- Declarative configuration using `pyproject.toml` ([PEP 621](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0621/))
- Editable/development installations for Python modules ([PEP 660](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0660/))
- Easy integration with [pybind11](https://github.com/pybind/pybind11), [nanobind](https://github.com/wjakob/nanobind) and [SWIG](https://github.com/swig/swig), with stable ABI support
- Stub generation for type checking and autocompletion
- Customizable CMake configuration, build, and installation options
- Support for installation of multiple configurations and components, across different Wheel packages
- First-class cross-compilation support
- Reproducible Wheels and source distributions
- No dependency on [setuptools](https://github.com/pypa/setuptools)
- Compatible with [cibuildwheel](https://github.com/pypa/cibuildwheel) for building Wheels
## Installation
The py-build-cmake package is available on
[PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/py-build-cmake/):
```sh
pip install py-build-cmake
```
## Documentation
The documentation can be found on ****.
The format of the configuration file is explained in
[Config.md](https://tttapa.github.io/py-build-cmake/reference/config.html).
Alternatively, use the [command-line interface](https://tttapa.github.io/py-build-cmake/usage/cli.html)
to get the documentation for all supported options:
```sh
py-build-cmake config format
```
To get started quickly, have a look at the following section and the README in
[`examples/minimal`](https://github.com/tttapa/py-build-cmake/tree/main/examples/minimal),
which goes over the project structure and the configuration files you'll need.
## Usage
If you don't have one already, add a `pyproject.toml` configuration file to your
project's repository. Specify the mandatory project metadata ([PyPA: Declaring project metadata](https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/specifications/declaring-project-metadata)),
and tell py-build-cmake how to build your CMake project. For example:
```toml
[project] # Project metadata
name = "example-project"
requires-python = ">=3.7"
readme = "README.md"
license = { "file" = "LICENSE" }
dependencies = ["numpy"]
dynamic = ["version", "description"]
[build-system] # How pip and other frontends should build this project
requires = ["py-build-cmake~=0.4.3"]
build-backend = "py_build_cmake.build"
[tool.py-build-cmake.module] # Where to find the Python module to package
directory = "src-python"
[tool.py-build-cmake.sdist] # What to include in source distributions
include = ["CMakeLists.txt", "src/*"]
[tool.py-build-cmake.cmake] # How to build the CMake project
build_type = "RelWithDebInfo"
source_path = "src"
build_args = ["-j"]
install_components = ["python_modules"]
[tool.py-build-cmake.stubgen] # Whether and how to generate typed stub files
```
The README of [`examples/minimal`](https://github.com/tttapa/py-build-cmake/tree/main/examples/minimal)
describes this configuration file in much more detail.
Then use [`pip`](https://github.com/pypa/pip), [`build`](https://github.com/pypa/build)
or another PEP 517 compatible frontend to build and/or install the package.
Build sdist and wheel packages you can upload to PyPI:
```sh
python -m pip install -U build
python -m build . # find the sdist and wheel file in the 'dist' folder
```
Install the package in the current environment:
```sh
pip install . # normal installation
pip install -e . # editable installation
```
## Examples
As an introduction to py-build-cmake, see [`examples/minimal`](https://github.com/tttapa/py-build-cmake/tree/main/examples/minimal)
for a detailed overview of the configuration files and the directory structure,
using a very simple Python module as an example.
For a more advanced, real-world example, see [`examples/pybind11-project`](https://github.com/tttapa/py-build-cmake/tree/main/examples/pybind11-project)
and [`examples/nanobind-project`](https://github.com/tttapa/py-build-cmake/tree/main/examples/nanobind-project).
Alternatively, SWIG can also be used instead of pybind11 or nanobind, as
demonstrated in [`examples/swig-project`](https://github.com/tttapa/py-build-cmake/tree/main/examples/swig-project).
If you are interested in packaging C/C++/Fortran programs using py-build-cmake,
have a look at [`examples/minimal-program`](https://github.com/tttapa/py-build-cmake/tree/main/examples/minimal-program).
See the [`examples`](https://github.com/tttapa/py-build-cmake/tree/main/examples) folder for a full list of examples.
A full example that uses the Conan package manager for C++ dependencies, and
that uses GitHub Actions to deploy the Wheel packages built by py-build-cmake
to PyPI can be found in [tttapa/py-build-cmake-example](https://github.com/tttapa/py-build-cmake-example).
## Projects using py-build-cmake
If you need more examples, you can look at the following projects using
py-build-cmake as their Python build backend:
- [alpaqa](https://github.com/kul-optec/alpaqa/tree/develop)
- [QPALM](https://github.com/kul-optec/QPALM)
## Alternatives and related tools
- [scikit-build-core](https://github.com/scikit-build/scikit-build-core): alternative CMake build backend, successor of [scikit-build](https://github.com/scikit-build/scikit-build)
- [meson-python](https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson-python): Meson build backend
- [flit](https://github.com/pypa/flit): pure-Python packaging tool and build backend
- [hatchling](https://hatch.pypa.io/latest/config/build/#build-system): build backend of the [Hatch](https://hatch.pypa.io/latest/) project manager, supports build hooks
- [poetry-core](https://python-poetry.org/docs/pyproject/#poetry-and-pep-517): pure-Python build backend for the [Poetry](https://python-poetry.org/) package manager
- [crossenv](https://github.com/benfogle/crossenv): tool to trick `setuptools` into cross-compiling by monkey patching the `sysconfig` and `distutils` modules