3.4.9. Packaging and Distribution#
The (Ana)conda ecosystem provides a robust infrastructure for packaging and distributing software spanning multiple languages, including Python, R, C, and C++. Unlike Python’s native ecosystem, which primarily targets Python packages, Conda offers a more expansive approach with cross-language compatibility, environment isolation, and efficient dependency management.
This section delves into the details of the packaging and distribution process in the Conda ecosystem, highlighting relevant parallels and contrasts with Python’s native process.
Learn More
For more detailed information, see:
Conda-build Documentation—The official documentation for building Conda packages.
Conda-forge Documentation—The official documentation for contributing Conda packages to the conda-forge repository.
Anaconda.org Documentation—The official documentation for building and uploading packages to Anaconda.org.
3.4.9.1. Package Structure#
Conda packages are compressed archives that can contain different types of files from package metadata, Python modules, and other source files, to system-level libraries and executable programs. Therefore, a conda package can be anything from a pure-Python package (called a Noarch package in conda) to complex applications containing multiple platform-specific binaries. Since Conda packages are language-agnostic, they also do not impose a specific import package structure.
3.4.9.2. Configuration and Metadata#
Similar to the pyproject.toml file for Python packages,
Conda packages must define build settings and package metadata
in a so-called Conda-build recipe,
consisting of a meta.yaml file written in YAML
plus other optional files such as
build scripts
for Unix and Windows-based systems.
Conda-build recipes and pyproject.toml files share many configurations
like package name, version, and other descriptors,
but differ in defining the build process.
While pyproject.toml files are only meant for Python packages,
Conda-build recipes can be used to build any software and
thus offer a more generic solution.
In contrast to pyproject.toml files that can only build
Python packages located at the same filepath,
Conda-build recipes allow users to dynamically
collect the required source
files from any online or local location.
The recipe must then define a build script,
in which files are installed into an isolated build environment.
For example, to build a Python package,
this involves using pip to install the package into the build environment.
Conda will then bundle all files added to the build environment into a Conda package,
along with package metadata defined in the recipe.
3.4.9.3. Build#
The build process
in the Conda ecosystem involves converting source code
and dependencies into a distributable binary package.
This is achieved using the conda-build tool,
which automates the creation of .conda files
(superseding the older .tar.bz2 format) optimized for fast installation.
This generates platform-specific binaries that are ready for distribution.
Unlike Python’s reliance on wheel for binary distributions,
Conda packages inherently bundle all required dependencies,
including compiled libraries,
which ensures smooth installation regardless of the target environment.
3.4.9.4. Publication#
Once a package is built, it can be published to repositories like Anaconda.org or conda-forge. For Anaconda.org, developers must create an account on the platform and use the anaconda-client library to upload the package to their Anaconda.org repository/channel, similar to how twine is used for PyPI.
Developers are also encouraged to publish to the conda-forge community repository, which provides a curated collection of high-quality packages that are automatically built and tested on a variety of platforms. Conda-forge has its own process for contributing packages, which involves submitting a Conda-build recipe to the staged-recipes repository on GitHub, where it is reviewed and tested by the community before being merged into the repository. Once merged, the package is automatically built and uploaded to the conda-forge channel, and made available to the users.