Then I'm thoroughly confused since the Wheel PEP says in its rationale
Brett Cannon <brett <at> python.org> writes: that "Python needs a package format that is easier to install than sdist". That would suggest a wheel would work for a source distribution and replace sdist zip/tar files. If wheels aren't going to replace what sdist spits out as the installation file format of choice for pip what is it for, just binary files alone? Another way to look at it: The wheel contains all the code needed to use a distribution at run or build time - Python code, .so files, header files, data files, scripts. "Just stuff - no fluff" :-) The sdist generally contains all the files in the wheel, plus those needed to build the wheel (e.g. .pyx, .f, .c), + docs, tests, test data etc. but not the built files. This isn't hard and fast, though - an sdist could e.g. choose to include a .c file created from a .pyx, so that the user doesn't need to have Cython installed, but just a C compiler. Of course some people bundle their test code in a tests subpackage which would then end up in the wheel, but hopefully I've given the gist of the distinction. Regards, Vinay Sajip