Docs request: how to place files in `dist/`

[jamesbraza]

I have a publish GitHub Action that looks like this, using https://github.com/hynek/build-and-inspect-python-package/tree/v2.9.0:

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: hynek/build-and-inspect-python-package@v2
      - uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@release/v1

However, this does not work, the gh-action-pypi-publish fails due to not finding the dist/ (CI run):

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/app/print-pkg-names.py", line 30, in <module>
    pkg_name for file_path in packages_dir.iterdir() if
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.12/pathlib.py", line 1056, in iterdir
    for name in os.listdir(self):
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/github/workspace/dist'
Warning: Trusted Publishers allows publishing packages to PyPI from automated environments like GitHub Actions without needing to use username/password combinations or API tokens to authenticate with PyPI. Read more: https://docs.pypi.org/trusted-publishers

Warning:  It looks like there are no Python distribution packages to publish in the directory 'dist/'. Please verify that they are in place should you face this problem.
ERROR    InvalidDistribution: Cannot find file (or expand pattern): 'dist/*'   

Can you add docs on how to pipe the output of hynek/build-and-inspect-python-package into a publish step such as pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish or uv publish?

Alternately, can you add an input to let one specify where to place the built wheel and sdist?

[jamesbraza]

Doing something like this does not work:

      - id: build
        uses: hynek/build-and-inspect-python-package@v2
      - uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@release/v1
        with:
          packages-dir: ${{ steps.build.outputs.dist }}

The gh-action-pypi-publish fails (CI run):

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/app/print-pkg-names.py", line 30, in <module>
    pkg_name for file_path in packages_dir.iterdir() if
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.12/pathlib.py", line 1056, in iterdir
    for name in os.listdir(self):
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/baipp/dist'
Warning: Trusted Publishers allows publishing packages to PyPI from automated environments like GitHub Actions without needing to use username/password combinations or API tokens to authenticate with PyPI. Read more: https://docs.pypi.org/trusted-publishers

Warning:  It looks like there are no Python distribution packages to publish in the directory '/tmp/baipp/dist/'. Please verify that they are in place should you face this problem.
ERROR    InvalidDistribution: Cannot find file (or expand pattern):             
         '/tmp/baipp/dist/*'     

[jamesbraza]

This was what needed to be done btw:

      - id: build
        uses: hynek/build-and-inspect-python-package@v2
      - name: Download built artifact to dist/
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: ${{ steps.build.outputs.artifact-name }}
          path: dist
      - uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@release/v1

It would be nice to document this if possible

[hynek]

Hmmm, this might be GHA tightening the protection between steps and not allowing actions to access each others /tmp.

It's a bit extra, but try adding:

      - name: Download packages built by build-and-inspect-python-package
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: Packages
          path: dist

before the publish step.

[hynek]

Ah you figured it out yourself. Another option would've been setting the dist output:

      - id: build
        uses: hynek/build-and-inspect-python-package@v2
        with:
          dist: dist

That might be simpler for your usecase.

[jamesbraza]

Hello @hynek thanks for getting back. I like your suggestion of with: dist: dist, but is that possible?

From https://github.com/hynek/build-and-inspect-python-package/blob/v2.9.0/action.yml#L9-L25, I don't see dist being an input argument, unless I am missing something

[hynek]

Yeah sorry, you're right, I misread. I wrote that before 5am my time. ;)

Maybe something like that should be added. Not to make excuses, but I'm confident that the reason for packages-dir: ${{ steps.build.outputs.dist }} not working is that GHA changed the rules and I pray they don't change it any further.

This will take some testing, but it really should work, I think.

[jamesbraza]

Hi @hynek yes I agree with everything you're saying. Thanks again for making this, we are going to roll this GHA universally for all packages within FutureHouse 🚀

I made a brief docs PR documenting this workflow, feel free to not accept it if you want to do something different