Have you managed to use distribute successfully with GitHub, particularly for private repositories?

Other Questions Github
1

I developed a lightweight framework for our web service and hosted it in a private GitHub repository. I included this repository in the dependency_links section and double-checked that it appears correctly in dependency_links.txt.

When I attempt to run python setup.py install, I receive the error unknown url type: git+ssh. After further investigation, I discovered that distribute only supports svn+ URL types. I had assumed that distribute utilized pip, but it appears to still rely on easy_install.

I’m looking for advice on how to effectively use distutils or distribute for installing private GitHub repositories as dependencies. Here’s a brief code snippet illustrating my current approach:

from setuptools import setup, find_packages

setup(
    name='my-web-service',
    version='1.0.0',
    packages=find_packages(),
    install_requires=[
        'requests>=2.0.0',
        'my-lightweight-framework>=1.0.0',
    ],
    dependency_links=[
        'git+ssh://[email protected]/myorganization/my-lightweight-framework.git#egg=my-lightweight-framework-1.0.0'
    ]
)

Is there a method to configure distutils for private GitHub repositories, or should I consider another solution?

2

totally get your struggle! git+ssh can be a real pain with setup.py. you might wanna look into using pip with a requirements.txt for your git dependencies instead. it makes managing everything easier and keeps setup.py neat for PyPI stuff.

3

Honestly, just ditch dependency_links entirely - it’s broken with newer pip versions anyway. I switched to pip-tools and pin exact commit hashes in requirements.in, then generate a locked requirements.txt. Way more reliable than fighting with setup.py.

4

Been wrestling with this exact issue for months at my company. Switching to editable installs during development fixed it for us. Run pip install -e git+ssh://[email protected]/myorganization/my-lightweight-framework.git#egg=my-lightweight-framework - this installs the package in development mode. For production, we use a two-step process: install private dependencies with pip first, then run setup.py for the main package. Not elegant but works reliably. Also, use environment variables in your CI/CD pipeline for SSH keys - authentication issues with private repos are brutal to debug.

5

The dependency_links approach is deprecated and doesn’t work with modern pip. Skip setup.py for git dependencies and use pip directly instead. Just run pip install git+ssh://[email protected]/myorganization/my-lightweight-framework.git and keep only PyPI packages in your install_requires. Better yet, build your framework into a wheel file and host it on a private PyPI server or store wheels in a separate repo. This kills the git+ssh dependency problems and gives you proper version control.