Python Packaging

Overview

Historically Python packaging has been a bit of a mess. There were lots of different tools that did some things well and other things very poorly and distributing applications that use Python was a pain.

In 2021, I wrote a detailed post about Python package managers and environment managers and the pros and cons of each. At the time, I made recommendations around Miniconda, PDM and Poetry. For pure Python projects (that didn't require specialised C libraries or Nvidia toolkits) Poetry remained the best tool until very recently.

UV: The Modern Solution

Within the last 12 months the whole landscape has shifted. uv is now the reigning champion when it comes to all things Python packaging related.