Choosing a Dependency Approach

It’s okay if you haven’t chosen a dependency management approach yet.

This page will help you choose one.

A Text File: the Simplest Option

Tip

Pick this if the other sections seem overwhelming

To start using a requirements.txt to manage dependencies:

1. Go to your project’s top-level folder

2. Save an empty file to it with the name requirements.txt

3. Copy-and-paste a line from In requirements.txt

If everything works after pip install -r requirements.txt, then add the new file to any version control you’re using. That’s it. You’re done!

You can always upgrade to another approach if you end up needing more features.

The TOML: Power Without Too Much Magic

Do you want…

• something just a bit fancier?

• without too much magic or complex automation?

The TOML route is a solid choice. Although it’s more complicated than requirements.txt, the added features make better for most projects.

The TOML configuration language:

• Will be familiar if you’ve ever seen an INI file

• Loads neatly into a Python dict

• Tends to be far easier to read than JSON

To learn more, please see:

• The Python Packaging User Guide’s doc on guide to writing a pyproject.toml

• The Python Packaging Authority’s sample project

• The tomli library

• The pyproject.toml specification

• The TOML specification

Tip

If you like examples, skip to the sample project !

Its pyproject.toml is very thoroughly commented!

I Want Only The Hippest Tools

For the latest in heavy-duty automation, check out one of the following:

• Poetry

• Rye

Remember, they aren’t covered by the Fontknife doc. You’ll have to consult their documentation on how to manage dependencies instead.