auditwheel

What it is and what it does

auditwheel is a command-line tool for making Python wheels containing compiled binary extensions compatible across many Linux distributions. It works by inspecting wheels to identify external shared library dependencies and versioned symbols that fall outside manylinux policy compliance, then bundling those libraries into the wheel itself and adjusting runtime paths so they are found at load time. This achieves the effect of static linking without requiring changes to the original build system.

The tool operates in two main modes: `auditwheel show` audits a wheel to report which external libraries it depends on and what compliance issues exist, while `auditwheel repair` performs the actual bundling and relabeling. It is designed for package maintainers building wheels in controlled environments (typically manylinux Docker images) to ensure their binary packages work on a wide range of Linux systems.

Use it for:

• Repair a compiled extension wheel to meet manylinux1, manylinux2010, manylinux2014, or manylinux_x_y platform tag requirements.
• Audit a wheel before distribution to identify external library dependencies and ABI compatibility issues.
• Bundle third-party shared libraries into a wheel for portable binary distribution across Linux systems.
• Convert a Linux wheel to an Android wheel by relabeling and adjusting dependencies per PEP 738.
• Verify that a wheel's external dependencies conform to a specific manylinux policy before uploading to PyPI.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Audits and repairs Linux and Android wheel packages to ensure compatibility with manylinux and musllinux platform tags by bundling external shared libraries and adjusting runtime paths.

Yes, if you build and distribute Python wheels with compiled extensions on Linux. auditwheel is the standard tool for ensuring those wheels work across many Linux distributions without requiring users to have matching system libraries. Install it in your build pipeline or development environment. Not needed if you only use pure-Python wheels or pre-built wheels from others.

Install

auditwheel on PyPI

pip install auditwheel

uv add auditwheel

poetry add auditwheel

Installing auditwheel

Before you install

Low friction installation with only two runtime dependencies (packaging and pyelftools). Active maintenance with a recent release; requires Python 3.10+ and the external system tool patchelf 0.14+.

License in practice

MIT license (permissive) places no significant restrictions on use, modification, or distribution of code that depends on auditwheel.

Quickstart

pip install auditwheel
auditwheel show mypackage-1.0-linux_x86_64.whl
auditwheel repair mypackage-1.0-linux_x86_64.whl

Requires Linux OS with ELF-based linkage, Python 3.10+, and patchelf 0.14+ installed on the system.

Verify before relying

• Whether the tool works correctly with all supported Python versions or if there are known compatibility gaps.
• Performance characteristics when repairing wheels with many external dependencies.
• Whether dynamic library loading via ctypes/cffi/dlopen is reliably detected or if the documented limitation is absolute.

Package facts

Evidence: auditwheel-6.8.0-py3-none-any.whl

Tags

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