To pack a charm directory, in the charm’s root directory, run the command below:
charmcraft pack
This will fetch any dependencies (from PyPI, based on requirements.txt), compile any modules, check that all the key files are in place, and produce a compressed archive with the extension .charm. As you can verify, this archive is just a zip file with metadata and the operator code itself.
Expand to view a sample session for a charm called `microsample-vm`
# Pack the charm:
~/microsample-vm$ charmcraft pack
Created 'microsample-vm_ubuntu-22.04-amd64.charm'.
Charms packed:
microsample-vm_ubuntu-22.04-amd64.charm
# (Optional) Verify that this has created a .charm file in your charm's root directory:
~/microsample-vm$ ls
CONTRIBUTING.md charmcraft.yaml requirements.txt tox.ini
LICENSE microsample-vm_ubuntu-22.04-amd64.charm src
README.md pyproject.toml tests
# (Optional) Verify that the .charm file is simply a zip file that contains
# everything you've packed plus any dependencies:
/microsample-vm$ unzip -l microsample-vm_ubuntu-22.04-amd64.charm | { head; tail;}
Archive: microsample-vm_ubuntu-22.04-amd64.charm
Length Date Time Name
--------- ---------- ----- ----
815 2023-12-05 12:12 README.md
11337 2023-12-05 12:12 LICENSE
250 2023-12-05 12:31 manifest.yaml
102 2023-12-05 12:31 dispatch
106 2023-12-01 14:59 config.yaml
717 2023-12-05 12:31 metadata.yaml
921 2023-12-05 12:26 src/charm.py
817 2023-12-01 14:44 venv/setuptools/command/__pycache__/upload.cpython-310.pyc
65175 2023-12-01 14:44 venv/setuptools/command/__pycache__/easy_install.cpython-310.pyc
4540 2023-12-01 14:44 venv/setuptools/command/__pycache__/py36compat.cpython-310.pyc
1593 2023-12-01 14:44 venv/setuptools/command/__pycache__/bdist_rpm.cpython-310.pyc
6959 2023-12-01 14:44 venv/setuptools/command/__pycache__/sdist.cpython-310.pyc
2511 2023-12-01 14:44 venv/setuptools/command/__pycache__/rotate.cpython-310.pyc
2407 2023-12-01 14:44 venv/setuptools/extern/__init__.py
2939 2023-12-01 14:44 venv/setuptools/extern/__pycache__/__init__.cpython-310.pyc
--------- -------
20274163 1538 files
The command has a number of flags that allow you to specify a different charm directory to pack, whether to force pack if there are linting errors, etc.
See more:
charmcraft pack
If you’ve declared any resources : This will not pack the resources. This means that, when you upload your charm to Charmhub (if you do), you will have to upload the resources separately.
See more: Publish a charm on Charmhub > Upload the charm and its resources
When the charm is packed, a series of analysis and lintings will happen, you may receive warnings and even errors to help improving the quality of the charm.
See more: Charmcraft analyzers and linters
although that output is a little dated, the filename likely includes the base with later versions…