astral-sh/uv · error

Cannot specify `--all-packages` when building from a file

Error message

Cannot specify `--all-packages` when building from a file

What it means

`uv build --all-packages` iterates every buildable workspace member, which requires directory sources. If the resolved source is a file (sdist archive), uv rejects the flag immediately with this error — an archive contains exactly one package, so 'all packages' is meaningless there.

Source

Thrown at crates/uv/src/commands/build_frontend.rs:392

        if !package.pyproject_toml().is_package(true) {
            let name = &package.project().name;
            let pyproject_toml = package.root().join("pyproject.toml");
            return Err(anyhow::anyhow!(
                "Package `{}` is missing a `{}`. For example, to build with `{}`, add the following to `{}`:\n```toml\n[build-system]\nrequires = [\"uv_build>={min_version},<{max_version}\"]\nbuild-backend = \"uv_build\"\n```",
                name.cyan(),
                "build-system".green(),
                "uv_build".cyan(),
                pyproject_toml.user_display().cyan()
            ));
        }

        vec![AnnotatedSource::from(Source::Directory(Cow::Borrowed(
            package.root(),
        )))]
    } else if all_packages {
        if matches!(src, Source::File(_)) {
            return Err(anyhow::anyhow!(
                "Cannot specify `--all-packages` when building from a file"
            ));
        }

        let workspace = match workspace {
            Ok(ref workspace) => workspace,
            Err(err) => {
                return Err(err)
                    .context("`--all-packages` was provided, but no workspace was found");
            }
        };

        if workspace.packages().is_empty() {
            return Err(anyhow::anyhow!("No packages found in workspace"));
        }

        let packages: Vec<_> = workspace
            .packages()

View on GitHub (pinned to f1a42680ff)

Solutions

1. Remove `--all-packages` (and any UV_BUILD_ALL_PACKAGES env/config) when the source is a file.
2. Or point the source at the workspace directory and keep --all-packages.

Example fix

# before
uv build --all-packages ./dist/mypkg-1.0.tar.gz
# after
uv build ./dist/mypkg-1.0.tar.gz      # or: uv build --all-packages .

# Shell: gate --all-packages on directory sources
FLAGS=""
[ -d "$SRC" ] && FLAGS="--all-packages"
uv build $FLAGS "$SRC"

fn supports_all_packages(src: &Source) -> bool {
    matches!(src, Source::Directory(_))
}

When it happens

Trigger: `uv build --all-packages ./dist/mypkg-1.0.tar.gz`; --all-packages set persistently in config/env (UV_BUILD_ALL_PACKAGES) while the positional source is an archive; CI templates that always pass --all-packages reused for sdist rebuilds.

Common situations: A Makefile/script with a fixed flag set used for both workspace and single-artifact builds.

Related errors

• Cannot specify `--package` when building from a file
• Package `{package}` not found in workspace
• Package `{}` is missing a `{}`. For example, to build with `
• Pass `--wheel` explicitly to build a wheel from a source dis
• Building an `--sdist` from a source distribution is not supp

AI-assisted analysis of astral-sh/uv@f1a42680ff (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/712418087ac7c433. Report an issue: GitHub.