Usage¶

pbr is a setuptools plugin and so to use it you must use setuptools and call setuptools.setup(). While the normal setuptools facilities are available, pbr makes it possible to express them through static data files.

`setup.py`¶

pbr only requires a minimal setup.py file compared to a standard setuptools project. This is because most configuration is located in static configuration files. This recommended minimal setup.py file should look something like this:

#!/usr/bin/env python

from setuptools import setup

setup(
    setup_requires=['pbr'],
    pbr=True,
)

Note

It is necessary to specify pbr=True to enabled pbr functionality.

Note

While one can pass any arguments supported by setuptools to setup(), any conflicting arguments supplied in setup.cfg will take precedence.

`pyproject.toml`¶

If your project only supports Python 3.7 or newer, PBR can be configured as a PEP517 build-system in pyproject.toml. The main benefits are that you can control the versions of PBR and setuptools that are used avoiding easy_install invocation. Your build-system block in pyproject.toml will need to look like this:

[build-system]
requires = ["pbr>=6.1.1"]
build-backend = "pbr.build"

Eventually PBR may grow its own direct support for PEP517 build hooks, but until then it will continue to need setuptools with a minimal setup.py and setup.cfg as follows…

setup.py:

import setuptools
setuptools.setup(pbr=True)

setup.cfg:

[metadata]
name = myproject

If desired, any other metadata can be placed in your pyproject.toml instead of setup.cfg.

`setup.cfg`¶

The setup.cfg file is an INI-like file that can mostly replace the setup.py file. It is similar to the setup.cfg file found in recent versions of setuptools. A simple example:

[metadata]
name = my_project
summary = A brief one-line descriptive title of my project
author = My Project's Contributors
author_email = my-project-mailing-list@lists.example.org
classifiers =
    Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable
    Environment :: Console
    Intended Audience :: Developers
    Intended Audience :: Information Technology
    License :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software License
    Operating System :: OS Independent
    Programming Language :: Python
    Programming Language :: Python :: 3
    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10
    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11
    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12
    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13
    Topic :: Utilities
keywords = commandline utility
long_description = file: README.rst
long_description_content_type = text/x-rst; charset=UTF-8
project_urls =
    Homepage = https://my-project.example.org/
    Bug Tracker = https://my-project.example.org/bugs/
    Documentation = https://my-project.example.org/docs/
    Release Notes = https://my-project.example.org/releasenotes/
    Source Code = https://my-project.example.org/code/

[options]
python_requires = >=3.10

[files]
packages =
    my_project

[entry_points]
console_scripts =
    my-project = my_project.cmd:main

[pbr]
manpages =
    my-project.1

Recent versions of setuptools provide many of the same sections as pbr. However, pbr does provide a number of additional sections:

files
entry_points
backwards_compat
pbr

In addition, there are some modifications to other sections:

metadata

For all other sections, you should refer to either the setuptools documentation or the documentation of the package that provides the section, such as the extract_messages section provided by Babel.

Note

Comments may be used in setup.cfg, however all comments should start with a # and may be on a single line, or in line, with at least one white space character immediately preceding the #. Semicolons are not a supported comment delimiter. For instance:

[section]
# A comment at the start of a dedicated line
key =
    value1 # An in line comment
    value2
    # A comment on a dedicated line
    value3

Note

On Python 3 setup.cfg is explicitly read as UTF-8. On Python 2 the encoding is dependent on the terminal encoding.

`files`¶

The files section defines the install location of files in the package using three fundamental keys: packages, namespace_packages, and data_files.

packages

A list of top-level packages that should be installed. The behavior of packages is similar to setuptools.find_packages in that it recurses the Python package hierarchy below the given top level and installs all of it. If packages is not specified, it defaults to the value of the name field given in the [metadata] section.

namespace_packages

Similar to packages, but is a list of packages that provide namespace packages.

data_files

A list of files to be installed. The format is an indented block that contains key value pairs which specify target directory and source file to install there. More than one source file for a directory may be indicated with a further indented list. Source files are stripped of leading directories. Additionally, pbr supports a simple file globbing syntax for installing entire directory structures. For example:

[files]
data_files =
    etc/pbr = etc/pbr/*
    etc/neutron =
        etc/api-paste.ini
        etc/dhcp-agent.ini
    etc/init.d = neutron.init

This will result in /etc/neutron containing api-paste.ini and dhcp-agent.ini, both of which pbr will expect to find in the etc directory in the root of the source tree. Additionally, neutron.init from that directory will be installed in /etc/init.d. All of the files and directories located under etc/pbr in the source tree will be installed into /etc/pbr.

Note that this behavior is relative to the effective root of the environment into which the packages are installed, so depending on available permissions this could be the actual system-wide /etc directory or just a top-level etc subdirectory of a virtualenv.

`entry_points`¶

The entry_points section defines entry points for generated console scripts and Python libraries. This is actually provided by setuptools but is documented here owing to its importance.

The general syntax of specifying entry points is a top level name indicating the entry point group name, followed by one or more key value pairs naming the entry point to be installed. For instance:

[entry_points]
console_scripts =
    pbr = pbr.cmd:main
pbr.config.drivers =
    plain = pbr.cfg.driver:Plain
    fancy = pbr.cfg.driver:Fancy

Will cause a console script called pbr to be installed that executes the main function found in pbr.cmd. Additionally, two entry points will be installed for pbr.config.drivers, one called plain which maps to the Plain class in pbr.cfg.driver and one called fancy which maps to the Fancy class in pbr.cfg.driver.

`backwards_compat`¶

`pbr`¶

The pbr section controls pbr-specific options and behaviours.

skip_git_sdist

If enabled, pbr will not generate a manifest file from git commits. If this is enabled, you may need to define your own manifest template.

This can also be configured using the SKIP_GIT_SDIST environment variable, as described here.

skip_changelog

If enabled, pbr will not generated a ChangeLog file from git commits.

This can also be configured using the SKIP_WRITE_GIT_CHANGELOG environment variable, as described here

skip_authors

If enabled, pbr will not generate an AUTHORS file from git commits.

This can also be configured using the SKIP_GENERATE_AUTHORS environment variable, as described here

skip_reno

If enabled, pbr will not generate a RELEASENOTES.txt file if reno is present and configured.

This can also be configured using the SKIP_GENERATE_RENO environment variable, as described here.

autodoc_tree_index_modules

A boolean option controlling whether pbr should generate an index of modules using sphinx-apidoc. By default, all files except setup.py are included, but this can be overridden using the autodoc_tree_excludes option.