Pip.wtf: Inline dependencies for small Python scripts

[forgottofloss]

https://pip.wtf

[Flimm]

A development version of pipx supports a feature that address this pain point. See pull request #916 [1]

In your script example.py, you would specify your dependencies in a special comment like this:

  # Requirements:
  #     requests
  
  import requests
  ...

Then you could run the script like this:

  pipx run file:example.py

This would install the dependencies in a temporary virtual environment, and run the script in that virtual environment.

[1] https://github.com/pypa/pipx/pull/916

[networked → Flimm]

There is also fades (https://github.com/PyAr/fades) and pip-run (https://github.com/jaraco/pip-run). Debian and Ubuntu package fades.

[deivid]

Why not use something like shiv[0]? You can bundle all your dependencies into one file and distribute that.

[0] https://pypi.org/project/shiv/

[diarrhea]

I was going to mention that an official solution to this problem is around the corner, but the corresponding PEP has been rejected. Anyone know what happened there?

https://peps.python.org/pep-0722/

[jefferph → diarrhea]

Looks like https://peps.python.org/pep-0723/ was accepted instead. See discussion here: https://discuss.python.org/t/pep-722-723-decision/36763

[Flimm → jefferph]

Fascinating! It looks like PEP 723 (the one that was accepted provisionally) will allow you to embed a comment in your script that looks like this, to specify dependencies on request and rich:

  # /// pyproject
  # [run]
  # requires-python = ">=3.11"
  # dependencies = [
  #   "requests<3",
  #   "rich",
  # ]
  # ///
  
  import requests
  from rich.pretty import pprint
  
  resp = requests.get("https://peps.python.org/api/peps.json")
  data = resp.json()
  pprint([(k, v["title"]) for k, v in data.items()][:10])

[greensh]

nix can do something similar via nix shell https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/command-ref/nix-shell.ht...

[Kim_Bruning → greensh]

I have used nix shell like this before; super handy!

[extraduder_ire]

Cool. I'm surprised this didn't exist earlier.

Now someone upload it to pypi for even more hilarity.

[guappa → extraduder_ire]

There was (and is) no reason for it to exist since python supports running .zip files that contain all the dependencies.

[tarxvf → guappa]

I had never heard of that, reading up on it now. Thanks for posting!

[lawtalkinghuman → tarxvf]

pex is a build tool built on the top of the zip trick. A pex file doesn't contain a bundled interpreter, but it zips up the entire virtualenv. Also no Windows support.

https://pex.readthedocs.io/en/latest/