cibuildwheel

cibuildwheel is an open-source tool used to automate the building of Python wheel distributions in continuous integration (CI) environments across Linux, macOS, and Windows. It is designed for projects that include native extensions and need binary wheels that work on multiple Python versions. By providing a cross-platform build workflow and handling platform-specific toolchains and dependencies, cibuildwheel helps package authors deliver wheels that are compatible with CPython and PyPy across supported interpreters.

How it works: cibuildwheel is typically invoked in CI jobs to build wheels for a configured set of Python versions. On Linux, it relies on Docker-based build environments (often based on manylinux images) to provide consistent system libraries and compilers. On macOS and Windows, it runs in native build environments. The output wheels are written to the dist/ directory by default and are ready for distribution, for example via Twine to PyPI. Users control which Python versions are built with environment variables such as CIBW_BUILD and can skip versions with CIBW_SKIP. Hooks and optional configuration allow pre- and post-build steps as needed.

Usage and impact: cibuildwheel is widely used in Python packaging to simplify the creation of cross-platform binary wheels, reducing CI maintenance and ensuring broader compatibility for end users. It is maintained by a community of contributors and hosted on GitHub, with integrations available for common CI systems such as GitHub Actions.

See also: Python packaging, wheels, PyPI.