API Reference

importlib_metadata module

class importlib_metadata.Distribution

Bases: object

A Python distribution package.

static at(path)

Return a Distribution for the indicated metadata path

Parameters:

path – a string or path-like object

Returns:

a concrete Distribution instance for the path

classmethod discover(**kwargs)

Return an iterable of Distribution objects for all packages.

Pass a context or pass keyword arguments for constructing a context.

Context:

A DistributionFinder.Context object.

Returns:

Iterable of Distribution objects for all packages.

property entry_points

property files

Files in this distribution.

Returns:

List of PackagePath for this distribution or None

Result is None if the metadata file that enumerates files (i.e. RECORD for dist-info or SOURCES.txt for egg-info) is missing. Result may be empty if the metadata exists but is empty.

classmethod from_name(name: str)

Return the Distribution for the given package name.

Parameters:

name – The name of the distribution package to search for.

Returns:

The Distribution instance (or subclass thereof) for the named package, if found.

Raises:

• PackageNotFoundError – When the named package’s distribution metadata cannot be found.

• ValueError – When an invalid value is supplied for name.

abstractmethod locate_file(path)

Given a path to a file in this distribution, return a path to it.

property metadata: PackageMetadata

Return the parsed metadata for this Distribution.

The returned object will have keys that name the various bits of metadata. See PEP 566 for details.

property name

Return the ‘Name’ metadata for the distribution package.

abstractmethod read_text(filename)

Attempt to load metadata file given by the name.

Parameters:

filename – The name of the file in the distribution info.

Returns:

The text if found, otherwise None.

property requires

Generated requirements specified for this Distribution

property version

Return the ‘Version’ metadata for the distribution package.

class importlib_metadata.DistributionFinder

Bases: MetaPathFinder

A MetaPathFinder capable of discovering installed distributions.

class Context(**kwargs)

Bases: object

Keyword arguments presented by the caller to distributions() or Distribution.discover() to narrow the scope of a search for distributions in all DistributionFinders.

Each DistributionFinder may expect any parameters and should attempt to honor the canonical parameters defined below when appropriate.

name = None

Specific name for which a distribution finder should match. A name of None matches all distributions.

property path

The sequence of directory path that a distribution finder should search.

Typically refers to Python installed package paths such as “site-packages” directories and defaults to sys.path.

abstractmethod find_distributions(context=<importlib_metadata.DistributionFinder.Context object>)

Find distributions.

Return an iterable of all Distribution instances capable of loading the metadata for packages matching the context, a DistributionFinder.Context instance.

class importlib_metadata.PackageMetadata(*args, **kwargs)

Bases: Protocol

get_all(name: str, failobj: _T = Ellipsis) → List[Any] | _T

Return all values associated with a possibly multi-valued key.

property json: Dict[str, str | List[str]]

A JSON-compatible form of the metadata.

exception importlib_metadata.PackageNotFoundError

Bases: ModuleNotFoundError

The package was not found.

property name

module name

importlib_metadata.distribution(distribution_name)

Get the Distribution instance for the named package.

Parameters:

distribution_name – The name of the distribution package as a string.

Returns:

A Distribution instance (or subclass thereof).

importlib_metadata.distributions(**kwargs)

Get all Distribution instances in the current environment.

Returns:

An iterable of Distribution instances.

importlib_metadata.entry_points(**params) → EntryPoints | SelectableGroups

Return EntryPoint objects for all installed packages.

Pass selection parameters (group or name) to filter the result to entry points matching those properties (see EntryPoints.select()).

For compatibility, returns SelectableGroups object unless selection parameters are supplied. In the future, this function will return EntryPoints instead of SelectableGroups even when no selection parameters are supplied.

For maximum future compatibility, pass selection parameters or invoke .select with parameters on the result.

Returns:

EntryPoints or SelectableGroups for all installed packages.

importlib_metadata.files(distribution_name)

Return a list of files for the named package.

Parameters:

distribution_name – The name of the distribution package to query.

Returns:

List of files composing the distribution.

importlib_metadata.metadata(distribution_name) → PackageMetadata

Get the metadata for the named package.

Parameters:

distribution_name – The name of the distribution package to query.

Returns:

A PackageMetadata containing the parsed metadata.

importlib_metadata.packages_distributions() → Mapping[str, List[str]]

Return a mapping of top-level packages to their distributions.

>>> import collections.abc
>>> pkgs = packages_distributions()
>>> all(isinstance(dist, collections.abc.Sequence) for dist in pkgs.values())
True

importlib_metadata.requires(distribution_name)

Return a list of requirements for the named package.

Returns:

An iterator of requirements, suitable for packaging.requirement.Requirement.

importlib_metadata.version(distribution_name)

Get the version string for the named package.

Parameters:

distribution_name – The name of the distribution package to query.

Returns:

The version string for the package as defined in the package’s “Version” metadata key.