Add support for sdist when building python package

[reyammer]

uv build currently fails when trying to build sdist.

@ia0 opened PyO3/maturin#2202, we got a reply.

@ia0: is there any way to make it happen with symlinks?

Wondering whether we should just drop sdist for now, release a new -rc for the python module without, and address this later?

[ia0]

I see 2 workarounds:

• Just exclude the README.md file. The package is functional but without a readme.
• Delete the rust/cli/README.md file before doing any sdist thing. See Enable maturin sdist with a hack #698 for an example.

[reyammer]

#698 looks good for the automation. For manually building the package, I guess one can just do the same, delete the readme, and do uv build? we could even wrap this in a small "build package" script (those meant to be used manually for testing) as a way to document this until we solve this in a better way?

One I aspect I don't get: in PyO3/maturin#2202 they mention that the problem is about the python dir being outside the rust dir, not specifically related to the readme? (in which case, would symlinks do the trick?) or maybe that's an orthogonal problem?

[ia0]

One I aspect I don't get: in PyO3/maturin#2202 they mention that the problem is about the python dir being outside the rust dir, not specifically related to the readme? (in which case, would symlinks do the trick?) or maybe that's an orthogonal problem?

This is a different problem and we are not affected by it anymore. We use maturin from the python directory. We are only affected by PyO3/maturin#2154 (as indicated by the TODOs in the code).

For manually building the package, I guess one can just do the same, delete the readme, and do uv build?

Yes, this should work fine as long as the readme has no modification with respect to the index (otherwise they would be lost by the deletion).

[reyammer]

Sounds good! I'll give it a try and close this issue after testing. Thanks!

[reyammer]

Wrote a POC to build the python package, see #702. There is still an issue with it, but the sdist problem is gone, so I'm closing this. Let's keep discussing in #702 for the remaining problem, there may be a quick fix.