Python packages are specific programs bundled as a collection of one or more modules. Developers packed them to perform some specific functionality. Python modules are Python files having a '.py' extension. Packages hold such Python programs in bundles for development or scientific purpose. In this article, you will learn about the Python-dev package, and how to install it.
What is Python-dev Package?
It is a popular development package that contains the header files developers require to build Python extensions. Python-dev comprises the header documents for fabricating Python augmentations. lxml is an extension for Python C-API compiled explicitly when developers perform the 'pip install lxml'. The lxml sources have more or less functionality like #include <Python.h> for your code.
Usually, on Linux systems, the binary libraries & header files of Python packages are separate. Therefore, developers can install Python which makes every code works fine. But in case, when developers want to build extensions to make augmentations for a program or to contribute as a community member, they have to install the corresponding dev package.
What is the use of the python-dev package?
The python-dev package includes everything a developer needs for compiling python extension modules. Note that the lxml package for python 3 (mentioned at ) already exists in Debian systems. But in other systems, you need to install the python-dev package because it contains the header files for the Python C language API. lxml leverages this API so that Python developers can include Python C extensions to obtain high-performance Python code.
How to install python-dev package?
To install python-dev tools or package, you have to open your terminal and type the command:
$ python3 -m pip install python-dev-tools --user --upgrade