distman is a file distribution manager for safe, versioned software rollouts to filesystem locations.

It is designed for production pipelines where deterministic deployments, environment-aware paths, quick version switching, and rollback matter more than building and installing packages.

It also fits revision-controlled configuration repositories well. distman can publish independently owned configuration into filesystem locations such as /studio/prod/env or /studio/project/foo/env, while a runtime tool can decide which deployed directories participate later.

deploy/
└── bin/
    ├── tool -> versions/tool.2.a1b2c3d
    └── versions/
        ├── tool.1.91c8a77
        └── tool.2.a1b2c3d

Why distman

Deploy safely

• Copy files and directories into immutable numbered versions
• Switch the active deployment with a symlink
• Preview changes before touching the destination
• Refuse uncommitted source changes unless explicitly forced

Configure once

• Describe deployments in a repository-level dist.json
• Resolve destination paths from environment variables
• Select targets by name or wildcard
• Expand source globs into matching destinations
• Publish configuration repositories independently of application code

Deploy directly

• Dist one-off files or directories with --source and --dest
• Use the same versioned destination layout without a dist.json
• Match ad hoc deployments by content by default
• Override configured target destinations when a target or source is selected

Prepare and cache

• Run Python functions or shell commands before distribution
• Replace tokens, change modes, byte-compile Python, and minify assets
• Mirror active deployments to a fast local cache
• Avoid unnecessary remote checks with a configurable TTL

Install

pip install -U distman

Quickstart

Deploy a file or directory directly:

dist --source path/to/tool --dest /deploy/bin/tool --dryrun
dist --source path/to/tool --dest /deploy/bin/tool --yes

For repeatable project deployments, create dist.json at the root of a Git repository:

{
  "author": "pipeline@example.com",
  "targets": {
    "tools": {
      "source": "tools",
      "destination": "{DEPLOY_ROOT}/tools"
    }
  }
}

Preview and then deploy:

dist --dryrun
dist --yes

The same operation is available through the suite command:

distman dist --dryrun

Learn More

• Getting Started: first deployment and version layout
• Distribution Configuration: dist.json, paths, targets, and configuration deployment patterns
• CLI Reference: distribution and cache commands
• Transform Pipelines: preprocessing files before deployment
• Local Caching: keeping a local mirror of active versions