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# 9.3 Distribution

At some point you might want to give your code to someone else, possibly just a co-worker.
This section gives the most basic technique of doing that.   For more detailed
information, you'll need to consult the [Python Packaging User Guide](https://packaging.python.org).

### Creating a setup.py file

Add a `setup.py` file to the top-level of your project directory. 

```python
# setup.py
import setuptools

setuptools.setup(
    name="porty",
    version="0.0.1",
    author="Your Name",
    author_email="you@example.com",
    description="Practical Python Code",
    packages=setuptools.find_packages(),	
)
```

### Creating MANIFEST.in

If there are additional files associated with your project, specify them with a `MANIFEST.in` file.
For example:

```
# MANIFEST.in
include *.csv
```

Put the `MANIFEST.in` file in the same directory as `setup.py`.

### Creating a source distribution

To create a distribution of your code, use the `setup.py` file.  For example:

```
bash % python setup.py sdist
```

This will create a `.tar.gz` or `.zip` file in the directory `dist/`.  That file is something
that you can now give away to others.  

### Installing your code

Others can install your Python code using `pip` in the same way that they do for other
packages.  They simply need to supply the file created in the previous step.
For example:

```
bash % python -m pip install porty-0.0.1.tar.gz
```

### Commentary

The steps above describe the absolute most minimal basics of creating
a package of Python code that you can give to another person.  In
reality, it can be much more complicated depending on third-party
dependencies, whether or not your application includes foreign code
(i.e., C/C++), and so forth.  Covering that is outside the scope of
this course.  We've only taken a tiny first step.

## Exercises

### Exercise 9.5:  Make a package

Take the `porty-app/` code you created for Exercise 9.3 and see if you
can recreate the steps described here.  Specifically, add a `setup.py`
file and a `MANIFEST.in` file to the top-level directory.  
Create a source distribution file by running `python setup.py sdist`.

As a final step, see if you can install your package into a Python
virtual environment.

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