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What IS Poetry

Short introduction to Poetry

Poetry is a Python package management and dependency management tool that aims to simplify and improve the Python packaging and distribution workflow. It provides a modern and user-friendly approach to managing Python projects, their dependencies, and the packaging of Python libraries and applications.

What IS Poetry - Tutorial provided by AppSeed.

Poetry offers several features and benefits:

✅ Dependency Management​

Poetry simplifies the management of project dependencies by using a single file called pyproject.toml to specify the project's dependencies, including their versions. It supports both direct dependencies (the packages your project needs) and development dependencies (packages required for testing and development but not for production).

✅ Dependency Resolution​

Poetry has a robust dependency resolver that automatically resolves and locks down compatible versions of dependencies, ensuring that your project uses a consistent set of packages across different environments and installations.

✅ Virtual Environments​

Poetry can automatically create and manage virtual environments for your Python projects, ensuring that dependencies are isolated from system-wide packages and other projects. This helps prevent conflicts between dependencies.

✅ Dependency Constraints​

You can specify detailed dependency constraints in the pyproject.toml file, including version ranges, specific versions, or even git repository references. This gives you fine-grained control over which package versions your project uses.

✅ Dependency Updates​

Poetry provides commands to easily update your project's dependencies, keeping them up to date while respecting your specified constraints.

✅ Package Building and Publishing​

Poetry can build distributable packages (e.g., Wheel and Source distributions) for your Python project, making it easy to share your code with others or publish it to the Python Package Index (PyPI). It also handles the publishing process for you.

✅ Script Management​

Poetry allows you to define and run custom scripts and commands within your project's virtual environment. This simplifies common development tasks, such as testing and running your application.

✅ Project Metadata​

Poetry collects and manages project metadata, including project name, version, author information, and license details, which are used when packaging and distributing your project.

✅ Poetry Commands​

  • poetry new <project_name>: Creates a new Python project with a basic project structure.
  • poetry add <package_name>: Adds a package as a dependency to your project.
  • poetry install: Installs project dependencies.
  • poetry update: Updates project dependencies based on your constraints.
  • poetry build: Builds distribution packages for your project.
  • poetry publish: Publishes your project to PyPI.

✅ In Summary​

Poetry has gained popularity in the Python community for its user-friendly and modern approach to managing Python projects and dependencies. It's a valuable tool for Python developers looking to simplify package management, improve project reproducibility, and streamline the packaging and distribution of Python libraries and applications.

✅ Resources​