pymsbuild

This is a PEP 517 backend for building packages via MSBuild or dotnet build.

Configuration file

The file is named _msbuild.py, and is executed by running python -m pymsbuild.

The package definition specifies all the files that end up in the released packages.

from pymsbuild import *

METADATA = {
    "Metadata-Version": "2.1",
    "Name": "package",
    "Version": "1.0.0",
    "Author": "My Name",
    "Author-email": "myemail@example.com",
    "Description": File("README.md"),
    "Description-Content-Type": "text/markdown",
    "Classifier": [
        "Development Status :: 3 - Alpha",
        "Intended Audience :: Developers",
        "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9",
    ],
}

PACKAGE = Package(
    "my_package",
    PyFile(r"my_package\*.py"),
    PydFile(
        "_accelerator",
        CSourceFile(r"win32\*.c"),
        IncludeFile(r"win32\*.h"),
    ),
    Package(
        "subpackage",
        PyFile(r"subpackage\*.py"),
    ),
)

Note that subpackages must be specified as a Package element, as the nesting of Package elements determines the destination path. Otherwise you will find all of your files flattened. Recursive wildcards are supported, however, be aware that it is not always intuitive how the paths are going to be remapped.

Also note that without a source= named argument, all source paths are relative to the configuration file.

pyproject.toml file

You will need this file in order for pip to build your sdist, but otherwise it's generally easier and faster to use pymsbuild directly.

[build-system]
requires = ["pymsbuild"]
build-backend = "pymsbuild"

On Windows, a Visual Studio installation will be required. It will be automatically detected, or the path to MSBuild can be provided as the MSBUILD environment variable.

On other platforms, the .NET SDK will be required. The dotnet command must be available on PATH or specified as the MSBUILD environment variable.

If you have additional requirements for building either sdist or wheels, add them as BuildSdistRequires or BuildWheelRequires values in METADATA. They will be parsed after init_METADATA and/or init_PACKAGE have been called, so may be modified by these functions.

[project] table support

There is no support for the [project] table at this time. All metadata that is written into the final distribution files comes from your _msbuild.py file.

However, the pyproject.toml included in sdists is a direct copy of the one from the root of your project. Other than the project table, sdists have no predictable metadata for analysis tools to use, so if you want your project to provide that metadata, feel free to list it in the pyproject.toml as well as in your _msbuild.py (remembering to mark as dynamic anything that is updated by your build process).

A future release may automatically use _msbuild.py metadata to fill out missing fields in a pyproject.toml project table, and pymsbuild init may use the project table to initialise the configuration file. However, at this point, both files are totally independent and the configuration file is the canonical source of metadata.

Usage

Rebuild the current project in-place.

python -m pymsbuild

Interactively generate the _msbuild.py file with project spec.

(Or at least, it will, once implemented.)

python -m pymsbuild init

Build the project and output an sdist

python -m pymsbuild sdist

Output is put into dist by default, but can be overridden with --dist-dir (-d).

Build the project and output a wheel

python -m pymsbuild wheel

Output is put into dist by default, but can be overridden with --dist-dir (-d).

Clean any recent builds

python -m pymsbuild clean

Advanced Examples

Dynamic METADATA

Metadata may be dynamically generated, either on import or with the init_METADATA function. This function is called and must either return the metadata dict to use, or update METADATA directly.

However, if a PKG-INFO file is found adjacent to the configuration file, it will be used verbatim. Sdist generation adds this file, so all metadata is static from that point onward. init_METADATA is not called in this case.

from pymsbuild import *

METADATA = {
    "Metadata-Version": "2.1",
    "Name": "package",
    "Version": os.getenv("VERSION", "1.0.0"),
    "Author": "My Name",
    "Author-email": "myemail@example.com",
    "Description": File("README.md"),
    "Description-Content-Type": "text/markdown",
    "Classifier": [
        "Development Status :: 3 - Alpha",
        "Intended Audience :: Developers",
        "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9",
    ],
}

def init_METADATA():
    if os.getenv("BUILD_BUILDNUMBER"):
        METADATA["Version"] = f"1.0.{os.getenv('BUILD_BUILDNUMBER', '')}"
    # Updated METADATA directly, so no need to return anything

Also see the earlier section regarding the pyproject.toml project table (and the fact that it is not used by pymsbuild, but will be added to your sdist without modification).

Separate packages

Packages are just Python objects, so they may be kept in variables and used later. They also expose a members attribute, which is a list, so that members can be added or inserted later, as well as find, findall and insert methods to help (see the Dynamic Packages section below).

After the entire module is executed, the package in PACKAGE is the only one used to generate output.

P1 = Package(
    "submodule",
    PyFile(r"src\submodule\__init__.py")
)

P2 = Package(
    "submodule_2",
    PyFile(r"src\submodule_2\__init__.py")
)

PACKAGE = Package("my_package", P1)
PACKAGE.members.append(P2)

Wildcard handling

Files can be added recursively using wildcard operators. These are evaluated at generation time by pymsbuild and not by MSBuild/ dotnet build, as it allows greater control over target names.

PACKAGE = Package(
    "my_package",
    # All .py files, relative to the 'src' directory
    PyFile(r"**\*.py"),
    # All license files, if any, with path separators converted to '-'
    File(r"**\license*", flatten="-", allow_none=True),
    # All .bin files from all data directories, moved to the root
    File(r"**\data\*.bin", flatten=True),
    source="src"
)

flatten specifies the string sequence to replace path separators in the name. Passing True indicates that only the file name should be retained.

allow_none merely suppresses a build-time error when the wildcard fails to match any files. This is usually an important problem, and should be suppressed with care.

The flatten and allow_none properties are not written to the build file. However, they are case-sensitive while MSBuild is not, so the capitalised versions will be ignored for this processing and passed through.

Final install location (also known as the element's name) are generated from the default name (source file name or name argument and all package names in the hierarchy) combined with the pattern according to these rules:

• if the pattern contains no wildcards, the default name is preserved
• each segment from the first one containing a wildcard will be joined to the parent of the default name
• if the pattern filename contains no wildcards, it is preserved in the final name. Otherwise, it is replaced by matched files

These rules ensure consistency across many forms of paths, making it reliable to use calculated absolute paths with wildcards (for example, a package extending the build system to add its own files). To create a directory in the destination, use a new Package element:

# Installs as 'A/__init__.py'
PACKAGE = Package("A", PyFile("B/__init__.py"))
PACKAGE = Package("A", PyFile("B/source.py", name="__init__.py"))

# Installs as 'A/*.txt'
PACKAGE = Package("A", File("B/*.txt"))

# All of these install as 'A/B/*.txt'
PACKAGE = Package("A", Package("B", File("B/*.txt")))
PACKAGE = Package("A", Package("B", File("*.txt"), source="B"))
PACKAGE = Package("A", File("*/*.txt"))  # assuming no other matches

Specifying the Name metadata (as opposed to name, which is a keyword argument) will override the destination name of every matched file. This is applied before flattening, and so will preserve the relative path in whatever form is specified by flatten. To bypass this additional processing and use the name as an MSBuild literal, wrap it in a ConditionalValue with no condition:

PACKAGE = Package(
    "my_package",
    File("**/*.dat", Name=ConditionalValue("%(Filename)-1.dat")),
)

For more complex transforms on filename, we recommend using the init_PACKAGE function described below.

Dynamic packages

After metadata processing, if an init_PACKAGE(tag=None) function exists it will be called with the intended platform tag. It must modify or return PACKAGE. This function is called for in-place, sdist and wheel generation, however, for sdists (and any scenario that should not generate binaries), tag will be None. Otherwise, it will be a string like cp38-cp38-win32.

PACKAGE = Package(
    "my_package",
    PyFile(r"my_package\*.py"),
)

def init_PACKAGE(tag=None):
    if tag and tag.endswith("-win_amd64"):
        data_file = generate_data_amd64()
        PACKAGE.members.append(File(data_file))

Note that all files to be included in an sdist must be referenced when tag is None. Conditional compilation is best performed using conditions in the package elements, rather than using init_PACKAGE. However, if you are going to use init_PACKAGE, you should remove elements rather than adding them if they should be included in your sdist.

Files added as part of a wildcard can be removed by adding a RemoveFile element. These may be added dynamically during init_PACKAGE, and must appear after the element that included the files.

PACKAGE = Package(
    "my_package",
    PyFile(r"my_package\*.py"),
    RemoveFile(PyFile, r"my_package\_internal.py"),
)

To exclude files from a wildcard in the first place, chain the .excluding method on the original element. The pattern will be evaluated in exactly the same way as the inclusion pattern, and any paths that match will be omitted.

PACKAGE = Package(
    "my_package",
    PyFile(r"my_package\*.py").excluding("my_package\internal*.py"),
)

Alternatively, a condition may be added to the file pattern to only include files matching MSBuild style conditions. Because these will be applied to item groups, the %() metadata syntax should be used to access information for the element being added. Either the .if_ method or the ConditionalValue wrapper may be used.

PACKAGE = Package(
    "my_package",
    PyFile(r"my_package\*.py").if_("%(Filename) != '_internal'"),
    File(ConditionalValue("*.txt", condition="%(Filename.StartsWith(`internal`))")),
)

Package members can be located during the dynamic stage using the find and findall functions. These take a path of member identifiers (typically their name property) and will return those that match. '**' segments are supported for recursive searches.

PACKAGE = Package(
    "my_package",
    Package("sub1", File("license.txt")),
    Package("sub2", File("license.txt")),
)

def init_PACKAGE(tag=None):
    for e in PACKAGE.findall("sub*/license.txt"):
        e.name = "LICENSE"

When inserting members, the insert function combines a find with the insert, and supports offset and range options. In general, only subclassed element types should insert additional elements, and only into themselves at construction.

class MyPydFile(PydFile):
    def __init__(self, name, *members, **options):
        super().__init__(name, *members, **options)
        self.insert(
            # Member path to insert before - this one is inherited from PydFile
            self.CommonToolsetImports.name,
            # Member to insert (in this case, an iterable)
            [Property(PROP1, VALUE1), Property(PROP2, VALUE2)],
            # Offset it by 1, so inserts after the found element (default 0)
            offset = 1,
            # Iterate over the insertion value; otherwise insert it as-is
            range = True
        )

Source offsets

If you keep your source in a src folder (recommended), provide the source= argument to Package in order to properly offset filenames. Because it is a named argument, it must be provided last.

This is important for sdist generation and in-place builds, which need to match package layout with source layout. Simply prefixing filename patterns with the additional directory is not always sufficient.

Note that this will also offset subpackages, and that subpackages may include additional source arguments. However, it only affects sources, while the package name (the first argument) determines where in the output the package will be located. In-place builds will create new folders in your source tree if it does not match the final structure.

PACKAGE = Package(
    "my_package",
    PyFile(r"my_package\__init__.py"),
    source="src",
)

Project file override

Both Package and PydFile types generate MSBuild project files and execute them as part of build, including sdists. For highly customised builds, this generation may be overridden completely by specifying the project_file named argument. All members are then ignored.

By doing this, you take full responsibility for a valid build, including providing a number of undocumented and unsupported targets.

Recommendations:

• lock your pymsbuild dependency to a specific version in pyproject.toml
• generate project files first and modify, rather than writing by hand (pass --temp-dir to specify the path where they will be generated)
• read the pymsbuild source code, especially the targets folder
• consider contributing/requesting your feature or developing an extension (see pymsbuild-winui and pymsbuild-rust for examples)

PACKAGE = Package(
    "my_package",
    PydFile("_accelerator", project_file=r"src\accelerator.vcxproj")
)

Compiler/linker arguments

Rather than overriding the entire project file, there are a number of ways to inject arbitrary values into a project. These require familiarity with MSBuild files and the toolsets you are building with.

The Property element inserts a <PropertyGroup> with the value you specifiy at the position in the project the element appears.

Note that project files also interpret (most) named arguments as properties, so the two properties shown here are equivalent.

PYD = PydFile(
    "module",
    Property("WindowsSdkVersion", "10.0.18363.0"),
    ...
    # Alternative to Property(), but named arguments must be
    # specified last, so using Property() may be more readable
    WindowsSdkVersion="10.0.18363.0",
)

The ItemDefinition element inserts an <ItemDefinitionGroup> with the type and metadata you specify at the position in the project the element appears. These generally apply metadata to all subsequent items of that type.

PYD = PydFile(
    "module",
    ItemDefinition("ClCompile", PreprocessorDefinitions="Py_LIMITED_API"),
    ...
)

The ConditionalValue item may wrap any element value to add conditions or concatenate the value. This may also be used on source arguments for file elements.

    ...
    Property("Arch", ConditionalValue("x86", condition="$(Platform) == 'Win32'")),
    Property("Arch", ConditionalValue("x64", if_empty=True)),
    ...
    ItemDefinition(
        "ClCompile",
        AdditionalIncludeDirectories=
            ConditionalValue(INCLUDES + ";", prepend=True),
        ProprocessorDefinitions=
            ConditionalValue(";Py_LIMITED_API", append=True),
    ),
    ...

The Prepend shortcut may be used to reduce the amount of text for property values. Remember to include the appropriate separator. It is usually a semicolon.

    ...
    ItemDefinition(
        "ClCompile",
        AdditionalIncludeDirectories=Prepend(INCLUDES + ";"),
        ProprocessorDefinitions=Prepend("Py_LIMITED_API;"),
    ),
    ...

ConditionalValue may also be used to dynamically update values in the init_PACKAGE function, allowing you to keep the structure mostly static but insert values from the current METADATA (which is fully evaluated by the time init_PACKAGE is called). This saves having to access internal members of other types in order to replace literal values.

Assign a ConditionalValue to a variable without specifying any condition, then use the variable in a later Property element and modify its value attribute in init_PACKAGE.

VER = ConditionalValue("1.0.0")

PYD = PydFile(
    "module",
    Property("Version", VER),
    CSourceFile(r"src\*.c"),
    IncludeFile(r"src\*.h"),
)

def init_PACKAGE(tag):
    VER.value = METADATA["Version"]

As a last resort, the LiteralXml element inserts plain text directly into the generated file. It will be inserted as a child of the top-level Project element.

    ...
    LiteralXml("<Import Project='my_props.props' />"),
    ...

Version info for DLLs/PYDs

Platform: Windows

To embed version info into a compiled extension module, add a VersionInfo element into the PydFile. All the fields from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/menurc/versioninfo-resource are available, using the names as shown in the tables (e.g. FILEVERSION for the '1,0,0,0' fields and FileVersion for the string table entry).

The recommended usage is to add a default instance into your project and then use init_METADATA to find it again and update based on the final metadata.

PACKAGE = Package(
    "package",
    PydFile("mod1", VersionInfo()),
    PydFile("mod2", VersionInfo()),
)

def init_METADATA():
    # Update our metadata
    METADATA["Version"] = calculate_current_version()
    # Ensure built modules reflect these updates
    for vi in PACKAGE.findall("*/VersionInfo"):
        vi.from_metadata(METADATA)

from_metadata will fill in any empty fields from the set of metadata that is passed in.

Alternate config file

To use a configuration file other than _msbuild.py, specify the --config (-c) argument or the PYMSBUILD_CONFIG environment variable.

python -m pymsbuild --config build-spec.py sdist
python -m pymsbuild --config build-spec.py wheel

# Alternatively
$env:PYMSBUILD_CONFIG = "build-spec.py"
python -m pymsbuild sdist wheel

Generated sdists will rename the configuration file back to _msbuild.py in the package to ensure that builds work correctly. There is no need to override the configuration file path when building from sdists.

Note that this is different from the PYMSBUILD_CONFIGURATION variable, which is used to select debug/release settings for compiled modules.

Cross-compiling wheels

Cross compilation may be used by overriding the wheel tag, ABI tag, or build platform, as well as the source for Python's includes and libraries. These all use environment variables, to ensure that the same setting can flow through a package installer's own process.

It is also possible to permanently override the wheel tag by adding a 'WheelTag' metadata value, or the ABI tag by adding an 'AbiTag' metadata value.

The wheel tag is used for the generated wheel file, and to fill in a missing ABI tag and platform.

The ABI tag is used for any native extension modules, and to fill in a missing platform.

Any * elements in the wheel tag are filled in from other locations. For example, specifying *-none-any will infer the interpreter field from the current runtime, whil py3-none-* will infer the platform from the currnet system (or a specific ABI tag).

The platform is used to determine the MSBuild target platform. It cannot yet automatically select the correct Python libraries, and so you will need to set PYTHON_INCLUDES and PYTHON_LIBS (or with a PYMSBULID_ prefix) environment variables as well to locate the correct files.

You can override the platform toolset with the 'PlatformToolset' metadata value, for scenarios where this information ought to be included in an sdist.

The set of valid platforms for auto-generated .pyd project files are hard-coded into pymsbuild and are currently Win32, x64, ARM and ARM64. Custom project files may use whatever they like. These platforms should behave properly cross-platform, though in general only x64 and ARM64 are supported.

# Directly specify the resulting wheel tag
# This is used for the wheel filename/metadata
$env:PYMSBUILD_WHEEL_TAG = "py38-cp38-win_arm64"

# Directly set the ABI tag (or else taken from wheel tag)
# This is used for extension module filenames
$env:PYMSBUILD_ABI_TAG = "cp38-win_arm64"

# Specify the Python platform (or else taken from ABI tag)
# This is used for MSBuild options
$env:PYMSBUILD_PLATFORM = "win_arm64"

# Specify the paths to ARM64 headers and libs
$env:PYTHON_INCLUDES = "$pyarm64\Include"
$env:PYTHON_LIBS = "$pyarm64\libs"

# If necessary, specify an alternate C++ toolset
$env:PLATFORMTOOLSET = "Intel C++ Compiler 19.1"

Cython

Cython support is available from the pymsbuild.cython module.

from pymsbuild import PydFile, ItemDefinition
from pymsbuild.cython import CythonIncludeFile, CythonPydFile, PyxFile

PACKAGE = CythonPydFile(
    "cython_module",
    ItemDefinition("PyxCompile", IncludeDirs=PYD_INCLUDES),
    CythonIncludeFile("mod.pxd"),
    PyxFile("mod.pyx"),
)

The CythonPydFile type derives from the regular PydFile and also generates a C++ project, so all options that would be available there may also be used.

The PyxCompile.IncludeDirs metadata specifies search paths for Cython headers (*.pxd). You may also need to specify ClCompile.AdditionalIncludeDirectories for any C/C++ headers.

Two-Step Builds

By default, the sdist and wheel commands will perform the entire process in a single invocation. However, sometimes there are build steps that must be manually performed between compilation and packaging.

To run the build in two stages, invoke as normal, but add the --layout-dir argument followed by a directory. The package will be laid out in this directory so that you can perform any extra processing.

Later, use the pack command and specify the --layout-dir again. If you have added new files into the layout directory, specify each with an --add option (filenames starting with @ are treated as newline-separated, UTF-8 encoded text files listing each new file). These paths may be absolute or relative to the layout directory, but only files located within the layout directory will be included.

All other options are retained from the original invocation.

python -m pymsbuild sdist --layout-dir tmp

# Generate additional metadata in tmp/EXTRA.txt

python -m pymsbuild pack --layout-dir tmp --add tmp/EXTRA.txt

# List many additional files in build/TO_ADD.txt

python -m pymsbuild pack --layout-dir tmp --add @build/TO_ADD.txt

Experimental Features

DLL Packing

Experimental. (POSIX is very experimental)

DLL Packing is a way to compile a complete Python package (.py source and resource files) into an extension module. It is basically equivalent to packing in a ZIP file, except that additional native code may also be included (though not an entire native module), and the whole file may be cryptographically signed and validated by the operating system.

DllPackage is a drop-in substitute for the Package type. It will generate a native extension module the same as the PydFile type, but only includes Python source and resource files.

from pymsbuild import *
from pymsbuild.dllpack import *

PACKAGE = DllPackage(
    "packed_package",
    PyFile("__init__.py"),
    File("data.txt"),
    ...
)

An entire existing library, such as cryptography could be packed like this:

from pymsbuild import *
from pymsbuild.dllpack import *

MODULE_TO_PACK = "cryptography"

from importlib.util import find_spec
spec = find_spec(MODULE_TO_PACK)
if not spec:
    raise RuntimeError(f"{MODULE_TO_PACK} must be installed")

PACKAGE = DllPackage(
    MODULE_TO_PACK,
    PyFile("**/*.py"),
    PydRedirect("**/*.pyd"),
    source = spec.submodule_search_locations[0],
)

See the azure-pack sample in our source repository for a more complete example.

DllPackage is a subclass of PydFile, and so all logic or elements by that type are also available. ClCompile elements will be compiled and linked into the output and functions may be exposed in the root of the package using the Function element.

// extra.c

PyObject *my_func(PyObject *, PyObject *args, PyObject **kwargs) {
    ...
}

PACKAGE = DllPackage(
    "packed_package",
    PyFile("__init__.py"),
    CSourceFile("extra.c"),
    CFunction("my_func"),
    ...
)

Nested extension modules

To allow referencing other extension modules that would normally be nested within the module, add a PydRedirect element and reference the extension module. The filename does not have to match the original name, or even need to be a normally importable name, as it will be passed directly to the module loader. The file will be included in your wheel in the expected location (alongside the packed DLL). Wildcards are supported.

PACKAGE = DllPackage(
    "packed",
    PydRedirect(source="packed/nested.pyd", name="packed-nested.pyd"),
    ...
)

Other PydFile modules may be nested inside the DllPackage, which will automatically add a redirect, as well as building the module. The nested module will be built using the name specified and sit adjacent to the packed module, but should be imported via the packed module.

The ImportName metadata may be specified on either a PydRedirect or a PydFile to specify the name that must be used to import the module. Redirected extension modules do not need to have an importable name when ImportName is specified. You might include an invalid character in the filename to ensure the module is not importable directly. When specifying ImportName, the name of the packed DLL must be used as the first part.

PACKAGE = DllPackage(
    "packed",
    PydRedirect("module/nested.pyd", ImportName="packed.nested"),
    ...
)

Encryption

To encrypt your content using symmetric AES encryption, provide the name of the environment variable holding your key as the EncryptionKeyVariable option. The key will need to be a valid size (usually 16, 24 or 32 bytes) when encoded to UTF-8 or decoded from base 64. Base 64 keys should start with base64:.

The same variable will need to be set when importing the module. It is your responsibility to protect the key! The benefit of this encryption is best realised when you avoid storing the key to disk. That way, an attacker who steals a copy of your module is unlikely to have access to the key. An attacker with access to a running copy of your module will be able to easily extract the key.

PACKAGE = DllPackage(
    "package",
    ...,
    EncryptionKeyVariable="MY_KEY_VARIABLE"
)

> $env:MY_KEY_VARIABLE="base64:MDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDA="
> python -m pymsbuild
> del env:\MY_KEY_VARIABLE
> python -c "import package"
ImportError: Module cannot be decrypted

Redirected or nested extension modules are not encrypted.

Cross-platform builds

Experimental.

With the .NET SDK installed, pymsbuild is able to run builds on platforms other than Windows. The dotnet command must be available on PATH or specified as the MSBUILD environment variable.

In general, no platform-specific modifications to a build script are required. Cython and pyd builds are transparently mapped to the target system. To run build-time actions for specific platforms, add them to init_PACKAGE and check the tag argument to determine the target platform.

When building native components on POSIX, a python3-config script is needed to determine compilation options. By default, only the location adjacent to the running interpreter is checked. This may be overridden by setting the PYTHON_CONFIG variable to the preferred command.