Basket 0.8

Basket - a local static PyPI repository builder

Basket is a small command-line utility that downloads Python packages from a (real) PyPI server and store them in a single place so that they can be found by easy_install or pip when offline.

I often work offline (typically in the train). It is not unusal then to have to create a virtual environment and fill it with the Python packages I need. Without an Internet connection, I could copy Python packages from an environment to another, but this is a bit cumbersome. I need a local PyPI repository. Basket allows me to build and maintain such a repository.

Basket is not a PyPI mirror. It is not a server: you cannot register or upload packages. It does not install Python packages in a Python installation or a virtual environment.

Usage

You need Python 2.7 to run Basket. It may work with prior versions of Python 2 and/or Python 3 but this has not been tested (yet).

1. Install Basket:

   $ easy_install Basket

   or:

   $ pip install Basket

2. Initialize your Basket repository:

   $ basket init
   Repository has been created: ~/.basket

   This will create a .basket/ directory in your home folder. If this location is not appropriate, you may configure it by setting a BASKET_ROOT environment variable. If the directory already exists, an error message will be printed.

3. Download one or more packages:

   $ basket download docutils
   Added docutils 0.8.1.
   $ basket download nose coverage
   Added coverage 3.5.1.
   Added nose 1.1.2.

   Basket searches for the name of the package so the case does not matter:

   $ basket download MySql-pYthon
   Added MySQL-python 1.2.3.

   If you already have the latest version of the requested package, Basket will not download it again. If there is a more recent version, Basket will download it but will also keep the old one. This is a feature: if you want to remove old versions, use the prune command (see below).

   Note that Basket also downloads requirements:

   $ basket download sphinx
   Added Sphinx 1.1.2.
     -> requires: Pygments, Jinja2, docutils
   Added Pygments 1.4.
   Added Jinja2 2.6.
     -> requires: Babel
   docutils is already up to date (0.8.1).
   Added Babel 0.9.6.

   See the Limitations and features section below for further details about how Basket handle requirements.

4. List all downloaded packages:

   $ basket list
   Babel 0.9.6
   coverage 3.5.1
   docutils 0.8.1
   Jinja2 2.6
   MySQL-python 1.2.3
   nose 1.1.2
   Pygments 1.4
   Sphinx 1.1.2

   Or only one or more specific packages:

   $ basket list docutils
   docutils 0.8.1
   $ basket list nose coverage
   coverage 3.5.1
   nose 1.1.2

5. You probably want to update packages regularly. The following will download the latest version of each existing package if you do not have it already:

   $ basket update docutils
   docutils is already up to date (0.8.1).

   Ok, we have the latest versions. Let’s mess with the repository to make it think that we have an old version of docutils:

   $ mv ~/.basket/docutils-0.8.1.tar.gz ~/.basket/docutils-0.7.tar.gz
   $ basket list docutils
   docutils 0.7

   And ask again:

   $ basket update docutils
   Added docutils 0.8.1.

   As indicated above for the download command, old versions are kept alongside the latest one. This is a feature.

   $ basket list docutils
   docutils 0.7
   docutils 0.8.1

   You may also update only a particular package or a set of packages:

   $ basket update Sphinx
   Sphinx is already up to date (1.1.2).
   $ basket update nose coverage
   coverage is already up to date (3.5.1).
   nose is already up to date (1.1.2).

   Usually, though, you would ask for an update of all downloaded packages:

   $ basket update
   Babel is already up to date (0.9.6).
   coverage is already up to date (3.5.1).
   docutils is already up to date (0.8.1).
   Jinja2 is already up to date (2.6).
   MySQL-python is already up to date (1.2.3).
   nose is already up to date (1.1.2).
   Pygments is already up to date (1.4).
   Sphinx is already up to date (1.1.2).

6. If you wish to keep only the latest version of each package, use the prune command:

   $ basket list docutils
   docutils 0.7
   docutils 0.8.1
   $ basket prune docutils
   Removed docutils 0.7 (kept 0.8.1).

   You may do the same thing on all downloaded packages:

   $ basket prune
   Babel has only one version. Nothing to prune.
   coverage has only one version. Nothing to prune.
   docutils has only one version. Nothing to prune.
   Jinja2 has only one version. Nothing to prune.
   MySQL-python has only one version. Nothing to prune.
   nose has only one version. Nothing to prune.
   Pygments has only one version. Nothing to prune.
   Sphinx has only one version. Nothing to prune.

   Of course, it would be wiser to update downloaded packages before pruning anything. Otherwise, you may end up keeping only your latest downloaded packages instead of the latest released packages.

Obviously, all commands above (except list) require an Internet connection. The point of Basket is that if you are offline, you can install your preferred packages from your Basket repository:

$ easy_install -f ~/.basket -H None pyramid

Or if you prefer Pip:

$ pip install --no-index -f file:///path/to/.basket pyramid

Running Basket without any argument, with wrong arguments or with the help will print an helpful message that describe each command.

Commands

help

Display an helpful message with the syntax of each command.

init

Initialize a new repository named .basket in your home folder (unless a BASKET_ROOT environment variable is set, in which case its value is used as the path to the repository)

download <package1> <package2> ...

Download one or more packages.

list [<package1> <package2> ...]

List all downloaded packages (or only the requested ones).

prune [<package1> <package2> ...]

Keep only the latest version of each downloaded package (or only the requested ones).

update [<package1> <package2> ...]

Download latest version of each downloaded package (or only the requested ones) if we do not already have it.

Limitations and features

Basket downloads source distributions only. That may or may not cause issues for certain packages on certain platforms.

When looking at requirements, Basket only cares about the name of the package, ignoring any particular version requirements (e.g. “docutils>=0.8.1”) and thus always downloading the latest version. This may be a problem for packages that explictly require a version that is not the latest.

Also, Basket downloads optional requirements. This is a feature.

Meta

Basket is hosted on GitHub: https://github.com/dbaty/basket. Feel free to report bugs and contribute there.

Basket is written by Damien Baty and is licenced under the 3-clause BSD license, a copy of which is included in the source.

List of releases of Basket

Basket 0.8

First public release.