distman

Distributes files and directories to versioned destinations defined in dist.json files.

Installation

The easiest way to install:

$ pip install -U distman

Alternatively, use distman to dist to a deployment area using options defined in the dist.json and distman.env environment stack files:

$ distman [-d]

Files and directories can be distributed from any folder or git repo containing a dist.json file.

Quickstart

distman looks for a dist file called dist.json at the root of a directory or git repo. The dist file defines the file distrubution instructions.

The basic format of the dist.json file is:

{
    "author": "<email>",
    "targets": {
        "<target>": {
            "source": "<source-path>",
            "destination": "<target-path>"
        },
    }
}

where <source-path> is the relative path to the source file or directory, and <target-path> is the target destination path, and <target> is a named target label to use when running distman commands. You can define as many targets as you need.

See the dist.json file in this repo for an example.

Target paths can include environment variables, such as those defined in the distman.env envstack file, where variables are defined with curly brackets only, e.g.:

"{DEPLOY_ROOT}/lib/python/distman"

When files are distributed (or disted), they are copied to a versions folder and a symlink is created to the version. When a new version is disted, the version number is incremented and the link is updated.

Usage

To dist files defined in a dist.json file (remove -d when ready):

$ distman -d

This will dist files to the ${DEPLOY_ROOT} folder defined in the provided distman.env envstack file and might look something like this when disted:

${DEPLOY_ROOT}
├── bin
│   ├── distman -> versions/distman.0.c73fe42
│   └── versions
│       └── distman.0.c73fe42
└── lib
    └── python
        ├── distman -> versions/distman.0.c73fe42
        └── versions
            └── distman.0.c73fe42
                ├── cli.py
                ├── config.py
                ├── dist.py
                ├── __init__.py
                ├── logger.py
                ├── source.py
                └── util.py

To override the deployment folder, update the distman.env environment stack file then re-dist:

$ distman [-d]

By default, distman dists to a prod folder under ${DEPLOY_ROOT}. This can be changed at any time using ${ENV} or updating or modifying the distman.env envstack file:

$ ENV=dev distman [-d]

This will change prod to dev in the target deplyment path. This is useful for deploying files or code to different development environments.

Dist Info

When disting files, distman will create hidden dist info files that meta data about the source files. For example, if the source file is called foobar.py then the dist info file that will be created will be called .foobar.py.dist. The dist info files will be created at the deployment root.

Config

Most configuration is done in the distman.env envstack file.

Default config settings are in the config.py module. The following environment variables are supported:

Variable	Description
$DEPLOY_ROOT	file deployment root directory
$ENV	target environment (e.g. prod or dev)
$ROOT	dist root directory