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pypa/wheel

Command-line tool for inspecting, unpacking, repacking and retagging Python wheel (.whl) files, and converting eggs to wheels.

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Last commit
10 days ago

What is it?

wheel is the official command-line tool from the PyPA project for working with Python binary distribution files in the wheel format defined by PEP 427. A wheel is a pre-built package archive that lets pip install a Python project without running a build step on the user's machine.

The tool covers four tasks: converting legacy .egg archives into .whl, unpacking a wheel into a directory, repacking an edited directory back into a wheel, and adding or removing platform and interpreter tags on an existing wheel. These operations are useful when a package needs to be retargeted to a different platform or repackaged after modification.

The project no longer provides the bdist_wheel build command; since setuptools v70.1, setuptools builds wheels on its own. Install this package only if you need the wheel command-line tool.

Key features

  • 01Converts .egg archives into .whl format
  • 02Unpacks wheel archives into a directory
  • 03Repacks edited directories back into wheel files
  • 04Adds or removes tags on existing wheels

Use cases

  • Retagging a wheel so it targets a different platform or Python version
  • Inspecting or editing the contents of a wheel before redistributing it
  • Migrating older egg-based distributions to the wheel format

Things to know

  • Only useful if you need the wheel command-line tool, since setuptools no longer requires it for building wheels.

Topics

#python#packaging#wheel#command-line#pep-427#pip

FAQ

What is wheel?
Command-line tool for inspecting, unpacking, repacking and retagging Python wheel (.whl) files, and converting eggs to wheels. wheel is the official command-line tool from the PyPA project for working with Python binary distribution files in the wheel format defined by PEP 427. A wheel is a pre-built package archive that lets pip install a Python project without running a build step on the user's machine.
Is wheel free to use? What license does it have?
wheel is open source under the MIT license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is wheel still maintained?
Actively maintained. The last commit to wheel was on Oct 28, 2026.
What can I use wheel for?
Retagging a wheel so it targets a different platform or Python version Inspecting or editing the contents of a wheel before redistributing it Migrating older egg-based distributions to the wheel format
Where can I get wheel?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/pypa/wheel

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