bdistwheel

bdist_wheel is a distutils/setuptools command used to create wheel distributions for Python projects. A wheel (.whl) is the standard built distribution format for Python, designed to enable fast installations by avoiding a package build step at install time. The command is implemented by the wheel project and is commonly used alongside setuptools to produce a ready-to-install archive from a project’s source.

When you run the command, it reads the project’s metadata (such as name, version, and dependencies) and assembles a wheel that may also include compiled extension modules. The resulting wheel file is placed in the dist/ directory. Wheels are then suitable for distribution and uploading to repositories like PyPI; they can be installed by tools such as pip without invoking a build process, provided the wheel is compatible with the target Python version and platform.

Wheels use a filename convention that encodes compatibility information, for example: package-1.2.3-py3-none-any.whl. The segments indicate distribution name, version, build (optional), Python tag, ABI tag, and platform tag. A wheel can be universal (for pure Python code) or platform-specific (for compiled extensions), and platform-specific wheels typically require builds targeted to a particular operating system and architecture.

Usage and context: a common workflow is python setup.py bdist_wheel, producing a wheel in dist/. In modern Python packaging, build backends following PEP 517/518 may use commands like python -m build --wheel, but bdist_wheel remains a widely used tool when working with setuptools-based projects. Wheels are a core component of the Python packaging ecosystem, enabling reliable and efficient installations.