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> I don't think the Limited API is very useful, as a practical matter for the common distribution methods you need the wheel to be built with the target Python
by haberman 3y ago
> I don't think the Limited API is very useful, as a practical matter for the common distribution methods you need the wheel to be built with the target Python version.
The limited API provides ABI stability, which allows building a single artifact that will work across Python versions.
We use this for the Protobuf PyPI package. A single artifact like
protobuf-4.25.1-cp37-abi3-manylinux2014_x86_64.whl can be used with any Python version >= 3.7.
- nickelpro 3y agoYa, but so what? It's zero engineering effort to build the wheels for all the compatible versions. You don't win anything with the limited API.
- haberman 3y agoYou suggested it wasn't possible (or practical), so it seemed worth clearing up that it is indeed possible. It is nice to cut the number of distributed artifacts by a factor of four. Also, depending on third-party repositories full of build infrastructure increases your risk of supply chain attacks.