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<H1><A NAME="SECTION002700000000000000000"></A>
<A NAME="meta-data"></A>
<BR>
2.7 Additional meta-data
</H1>
<P>
The setup script may include additional meta-data beyond the name and
version. This information includes:
<P>
<div class="center"><table class="realtable">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="left" >Meta-Data</th>
<th class="left" >Description</th>
<th class="left" >Value</th>
<th class="center">Notes</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>name</code></td>
<td class="left" >name of the package</td>
<td class="left" >short string</td>
<td class="center">(1)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>version</code></td>
<td class="left" >version of this release</td>
<td class="left" >short string</td>
<td class="center">(1)(2)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>author</code></td>
<td class="left" >package author's name</td>
<td class="left" >short string</td>
<td class="center">(3)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>author_email</code></td>
<td class="left" >email address of the package author</td>
<td class="left" >email address</td>
<td class="center">(3)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>maintainer</code></td>
<td class="left" >package maintainer's name</td>
<td class="left" >short string</td>
<td class="center">(3)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>maintainer_email</code></td>
<td class="left" >email address of the package maintainer</td>
<td class="left" >email address</td>
<td class="center">(3)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>url</code></td>
<td class="left" >home page for the package</td>
<td class="left" >URL</td>
<td class="center">(1)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>description</code></td>
<td class="left" >short, summary description of the package</td>
<td class="left" >short string</td>
<td class="center"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>long_description</code></td>
<td class="left" >longer description of the package</td>
<td class="left" >long string</td>
<td class="center"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>download_url</code></td>
<td class="left" >location where the package may be downloaded</td>
<td class="left" >URL</td>
<td class="center">(4)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>classifiers</code></td>
<td class="left" >a list of Trove classifiers</td>
<td class="left" >list of strings</td>
<td class="center">(4)</td></tr></tbody>
</table></div>
<P>
Notes:
<DL>
<DT><STRONG>(1)</STRONG></DT>
<DD>These fields are required.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>(2)</STRONG></DT>
<DD>It is recommended that versions take the form
<em>major.minor<big>[</big>.patch<big>[</big>.sub<big>]</big><big>]</big></em>.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>(3)</STRONG></DT>
<DD>Either the author or the maintainer must be identified.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>(4)</STRONG></DT>
<DD>These fields should not be used if your package is to be
compatible with Python versions prior to 2.2.3 or 2.3. The list is
available from the <a class="ulink" href="http://www.python.org/pypi"
>PyPI website</a>.
<P>
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>'short string'</STRONG></DT>
<DD>A single line of text, not more than 200 characters.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>'long string'</STRONG></DT>
<DD>Multiple lines of plain text in reStructuredText
format (see <a class="url" href="http://docutils.sf.net/">http://docutils.sf.net/</a>).
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>'list of strings'</STRONG></DT>
<DD>See below.
</DD>
</DL>
<P>
None of the string values may be Unicode.
<P>
Encoding the version information is an art in itself. Python packages
generally adhere to the version format
<em>major.minor<big>[</big>.patch<big>]</big><big>[</big>sub<big>]</big></em>. The major number is
0 for
initial, experimental releases of software. It is incremented for
releases that represent major milestones in a package. The minor
number is incremented when important new features are added to the
package. The patch number increments when bug-fix releases are
made. Additional trailing version information is sometimes used to
indicate sub-releases. These are "a1,a2,...,aN" (for alpha releases,
where functionality and API may change), "b1,b2,...,bN" (for beta
releases, which only fix bugs) and "pr1,pr2,...,prN" (for final
pre-release release testing). Some examples:
<P>
<DL>
<DT><STRONG>0.1.0</STRONG></DT>
<DD>the first, experimental release of a package
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>1.0.1a2</STRONG></DT>
<DD>the second alpha release of the first patch version of 1.0
</DD>
</DL>
<P>
<span class="du-option">classifiers</span> are specified in a python list:
<P>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
setup(...
classifiers=[
'Development Status :: 4 - Beta',
'Environment :: Console',
'Environment :: Web Environment',
'Intended Audience :: End Users/Desktop',
'Intended Audience :: Developers',
'Intended Audience :: System Administrators',
'License :: OSI Approved :: Python Software Foundation License',
'Operating System :: MacOS :: MacOS X',
'Operating System :: Microsoft :: Windows',
'Operating System :: POSIX',
'Programming Language :: Python',
'Topic :: Communications :: Email',
'Topic :: Office/Business',
'Topic :: Software Development :: Bug Tracking',
],
)
</pre></div>
<P>
If you wish to include classifiers in your <span class="file">setup.py</span> file and also
wish to remain backwards-compatible with Python releases prior to 2.2.3,
then you can include the following code fragment in your <span class="file">setup.py</span>
before the <tt class="function">setup()</tt> call.
<P>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
# patch distutils if it can't cope with the "classifiers" or
# "download_url" keywords
from sys import version
if version < '2.2.3':
from distutils.dist import DistributionMetadata
DistributionMetadata.classifiers = None
DistributionMetadata.download_url = None
</pre></div>
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<span class="release-info">Release 2.4.3, documentation updated on 29 March 2006.</span>
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