Scikit-build Community Meeting #1: 2022-11-18

[thewtex]

Agenda

• Review Kick-off Presentation by @henryiii

Attending

• Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin (Kitware)
• Henry Schreiner (Princeton)
• Matt McCormick (Kitware)
• Ralf Gommers (Quansight Labs)
• Jim Pivarski (Princeton)
• Driss Guessous (Meta, Pytorch)
• Alban Desmaison (Meta, Pytorch)
• Mikey Dagitses
• Nikita Shulga (Pytorch)
• Jean-Christophe Morin (ASWF)
  • Most project are C++ libraries with Python bindings. Currently using setuptools and CMake
• Vyas Ramasubramani (NVIDIA, RAPIDS)
• Saransh Chopra (undergrad at DU)
  • will probably be migrating PyBaMM to use the new scikit-build
• Vincenzo Eduardo Padulano (CERN, ROOT)
• Vineet Bansai (Princeton)
• Angus Hollands (Awkward)

Discussion

• pip - HS

  • missing short way for specifying config setting. Currently only support --config-settings <settings>. See documentation here
    • Ideally it should match what is available through build tool: --config-setting CONFIG_SETTING, -C CONFIG_SETTING
  • missing ability to pass list as setting

• We kind of need a way of mapping dependencies to outside of PyPI too. CMake/ninja/patchelf happen to be on PyPI, but BLAS, OpenMP & co are not. That's one thing we plan to work on at Quansight Labs soon (is going to need a prototype & PEP at some point). - RG

  • CI build wheel discussion
  • Pre-pep discussions have been too specific
  • sdist -> people try to build from source
    • sdist dependencies for non-PyPI dependencies like complier, etc.
    • Declare that things other than packages are provided
    • sdist specify that it should not be built unless specifically requested
      • pip install --no-sdist, but this is not the default
      • package metadata to make this the default behavior (although changing metadata is required)

• need to address the package config question. Currently do not own the corresponding pypi package. (Henry: I probably missing some of the details her)

• to help with conversion from setup.py to pyproject.toml hatch provide a tool. This was used to help with Use scikit-build-core scikit-hep/iminuit#812. (HS: Do you have reference to the documentation ?)

• "how large scikit-build-core appears" - RG

  • smaller than it looks - HS
  • most features are for wheel creation
  • most other features come from CMake
  • does not support non-PEP 621

• Artifact that generates what should be package data - VB

  • Difficult with setuptools
  • Install into ${SKBUILD_DATA_DIR} and it goes into the wheel data dir
  • Also scripts dir

• How to start a transition from setuptools / scikit-build classic?

  • Avoid heavy, custom things in setup.py
    • Open issues for functionality not possible in scikit-build-core, discuss need for creating a hook?
  • Example for getting started: scikit-build tests/projects, sckit-build-example, CMake for Python Awkward v2, IMinuit, GooFit
  • Examples in scikit-build
    • Will be transitioned to be based on scikit-build-core for scikit-build v1.0

• List of packages transitioning to scikit-build-core

  • GitHub Dicussion, forum topic

• Forum, etc

  • Will redirect mailing list to forum - JCFR

• "core" -> "build", "pyproject" ?

• Awkward initial success

• Next meeting Dec 16:

Scikit-build Community Meeting
Friday, December 16 · 12:00 – 1:00pm Eastern Time
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/dvx-jkai-xhq
Or dial: ‪(US) +1 561-614-0679‬ PIN: ‪891 659 411‬#
More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/dvx-jkai-xhq?pin=9457587794472

[thewtex]

Following up on the list of packages transitioning to scikit-build-core, @henryiii suggested that folks can post their project in the scikit-build GitHub Discussion Forum Category Show and tell.