PIP-WHEEL(1)

📦 version 22.3.1, in centos-stream 9

💖 PIP-WHEEL(1) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the pip-wheel page from the pip manual — yes that pip, the one you already have seventeen opinions about 💅

✨ NAME ✨

pip-wheel — literally just the description of the pip wheel command, no cap 🎀

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So what does it do? It builds Wheel archives for your requirements and dependencies. That's the whole vibe 🦋

Wheel is a built-package format, and the way it slays is that it offers the advantage of not recompiling your software during every install. Imagine not sitting there watching a C compiler churn for nine minutes every single time. Iconic behaviour honestly 👑

For more details, see the wheel docs: https://wheel.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

And pip wheel uses the build system interface as described here: https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/reference/build-system/ 🧚

⭐ USAGE ⭐

here's the shape of it, all five forms, keep them exactly like this:

python -m pip wheel [options] <requirement specifier> ...
python -m pip wheel [options] -r <requirements file> ...
python -m pip wheel [options] [-e] <vcs project url> ...
python -m pip wheel [options] [-e] <local project path> ...
python -m pip wheel [options] <archive url/path> ...

pick your fighter 💜

💅 OPTIONS 💅

okay this is the long part, but every single one matters, so stay with me:

  • -w, --wheel-dir <dir> — build wheels into <dir>, where the default is the current working directory. put them somewhere cute 🎀
  • --no-binary <format_control> — do not use binary packages, periodt. can be supplied multiple times, and each time adds to the existing value. it accepts either :all: to disable all binary packages, :none: to empty the set (notice the colons, bestie, they're load-bearing 🫶), or one or more package names with commas between them (no colons). heads up: some packages are tricky to compile and may fail to install when this option is used on them 😭
  • --only-binary <format_control> — the mirror image, do not use source packages. can be supplied multiple times, and each time adds to the existing value. accepts either :all: to disable all source packages, :none: to empty the set, or one or more package names with commas between them. and ngl, packages without binary distributions will fail to install when this option is used on them 💀
  • --prefer-binary — prefer older binary packages over newer source packages. grandma binary but make it a strategy 🌸
  • --no-build-isolation — disable isolation when building a modern source distribution. build dependencies specified by PEP 518 must be already installed if this option is used. like, no take-backs 🔥
  • --use-pep517 — use PEP 517 for building source distributions (use --no-use-pep517 to force legacy behaviour). glow-up mode vs legacy mode ✨
  • --check-build-dependencies — check the build dependencies when PEP517 is used 🦋
  • -c, --constraint <file> — constrain versions using the given constraints file. this option can be used multiple times 👑
  • -e, --editable <path/url> — install a project in editable mode (i.e. setuptools "develop mode") from a local project path or a VCS url 🧚
  • -r, --requirement <file> — install from the given requirements file. this option can be used multiple times 💜
  • --src <dir> — directory to check out editable projects into. the default in a virtualenv is <venv path>/src. the default for global installs is <current dir>/src 🎀
  • --ignore-requires-python — ignore the Requires-Python information 🙈
  • --no-deps — don't install package dependencies. you're on your own bestie 😭
  • --progress-bar <progress_bar> — specify whether the progress bar should be used [on, off] (default: on). the little bar is main character energy, personally I keep it 🌈
  • --no-verify — don't verify if built wheel is valid 💀
  • --config-settings <settings> — configuration settings to be passed to the PEP 517 build backend. settings take the form KEY=VALUE. use multiple --config-settings options to pass multiple keys to the backend 🫶
  • --build-option <options> — extra arguments to be supplied to setup.py bdist_wheel 🔥
  • --global-option <options> — extra global options to be supplied to the setup.py call before the install or bdist_wheel command 🌸
  • --pre — include pre-release and development versions. by default, pip only finds stable versions. live a little ✨
  • --require-hashes — require a hash to check each requirement against, for repeatable installs. this option is implied when any package in a requirements file has a --hash option 🔒
  • --no-clean — don't clean up build directories 🧹❌
fr fr, do not skip the tiny ones — --no-clean and --no-verify are exactly the kind of flags that sneak up on you 💀

🦋 AUTHOR 🦋

pip developers 🌟

The pip developers 🫶

and that's the whole page, bestie! this one's from pip 22.3, dated Jun 25, 2025 — so if you're quoting it in the group chat, that's your receipt 💖✨🎀

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