The Python runtime is the software stack responsible for installing your web service's code and its dependencies and running your App Engine service.
The Python runtime for App Engine in the standard environment is
declared in the app.yaml
file:
runtime: pythonVERSION
Where VERSION is the Python MAJOR
and MINOR
version numbers. For
example, to use the latest Python version, Python 3.12, specify
312
.
For other supported Python versions, and the corresponding Ubuntu version for your Python version, see the Runtime support schedule.
Python 3 versions
The Python runtime uses the latest stable release of the
version that is specified in your app.yaml
file.
App Engine automatically updates to new patch versions,
but it does not automatically update the minor version.
For example, your application might be deployed at Python 3.7.0 and later automatically updated to Python 3.7.1, but it will not be automatically updated to the next minor version Python 3.8.0.
Try it for yourself
If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how App Engine performs in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.
Try App Engine freeApp Engine runs Python apps in a container secured by gVisor on an up-to-date Ubuntu Linux distribution.
Dependencies
During deployment, App Engine uses the Python package manager
pip
to install dependencies
defined in the requirements.txt
metadata file located in your project's root directory. You do not need to
upload dependencies as App Engine performs a fresh install.
Dependency specification using the Pipfile
/Pipfile.lock
standard is
currently not supported and your project must not have these files present.
Application startup
The runtime starts your app by running the command you specify in the
entrypoint
field
in your app.yaml
file. If you have configured a Gunicorn web server
entrypoint in the app.yaml
file, you must also add gunicorn
to your
requirements.txt
file.
The entrypoint should start a web server that listens
on the port specified by the PORT
environment variable. For example:
entrypoint: gunicorn -b :$PORT main:app
The web framework that your app uses is responsible for routing requests to the appropriate handlers in your app.
If your app meets the following requirements, App Engine will start
your app with the gunicorn
web server if you don't
specify the entrypoint
field:
The root of your app directory contains a
main.py
file with a WSGI-compatible object calledapp
.Your app does not contain
Pipfile
orPipfile.lock
files.
If you do not specify an entrypoint for the Python 3 runtime, App Engine configures and starts the default Gunicorn web server.
Entrypoint best practices
Ensure the Python module required to run the specified entrypoint in
app.yaml
is present in therequirements.txt
file. Addgunicorn
to therequirements.txt
file only if agunicorn
endpoint is explicitly specified in theapp.yaml
file.For the best performance, the entrypoint should be lightweight because it runs whenever a new instance of your application is created.
You can use the entrypoint field to tune the performance of your app. For example, if you use
gunicorn
as your web server, you can use the--workers
flag in the entrypoint field to configure the number of workers serving your app.The number of workers you specify should match the instance class of your App Engine app:
Instance class Workers F1 2 F2 4 F4 8 F4_1G 8 B1 2 B2 4 B4 8 B4_1G 8 B8 8 This guidance serves as a starting point for selecting the number of workers. You may need to use a different number of workers depending on your app's performance characteristics. The example below shows an App Engine deployment that uses two
gunicorn
workers for serving apps:entrypoint: gunicorn -b :$PORT -w 2 main:app
We recommend that you configure your web server to listen and respond to HTTP requests on the port specified by your
$PORT
environment variable. Using the default port8080
prevents App Engine from using its NGINX layer to compress HTTP responses. Note that if you use port8080
, warnings about port8080
and NGINX will show in your app's log files.
Other web frameworks
In addition to Django and Flask, you can use other web frameworks with
App Engine, such as
uwsgi
and
Tornado
. The following example shows
how to use uwsgi
with App Engine:
Environment variables
The following environment variables are set by the runtime:
Environment variable | Description |
---|---|
GAE_APPLICATION
|
The ID of your App Engine application. This ID is prefixed with 'region code~' such as 'e~' for applications deployed in Europe. |
GAE_DEPLOYMENT_ID |
The ID of the current deployment. |
GAE_ENV |
The App Engine environment. Set to standard . |
GAE_INSTANCE |
The ID of the instance on which your service is currently running. |
GAE_MEMORY_MB |
The amount of memory available to the application process, in MB. |
GAE_RUNTIME |
The runtime specified in your app.yaml file. |
GAE_SERVICE |
The service name specified in your app.yaml file. If no service name is specified, it is set to default . |
GAE_VERSION |
The current version label of your service. |
GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT |
The Google Cloud project ID associated with your application. |
PORT |
The port that receives HTTP requests. |
NODE_ENV (Only available in the Node.js runtime) |
Set to production when your service is deployed. |
You can
define additional environment variables in your app.yaml
file,
but the above values cannot be overridden, except for NODE_ENV
.
HTTPS and forwarding proxies
App Engine terminates HTTPS connections at the load balancer and
forwards requests to your application. Some applications need to determine
the original request IP and protocol. The user's IP address is available in
the standard X-Forwarded-For
header. Applications that require this
information should configure their web framework to trust the proxy.
Filesystem
The runtime includes a full filesystem. The filesystem is read-only except for
the location /tmp
, which is a virtual disk storing data in your
App Engine instance's RAM.
Metadata server
Each instance of your application can use the App Engine metadata server to query information about the instance and your project.
You can access the metadata server through the following endpoints:
http://metadata
http://metadata.google.internal
Requests sent to the metadata server must include the request header
Metadata-Flavor: Google
. This header indicates that the request was sent with
the intention of retrieving metadata values.
The following table lists the endpoints where you can make HTTP requests for specific metadata:
Metadata endpoint | Description |
---|---|
/computeMetadata/v1/project/numeric-project-id |
The project number assigned to your project. |
/computeMetadata/v1/project/project-id |
The project ID assigned to your project. |
/computeMetadata/v1/instance/region |
The region the instance is running in. |
/computeMetadata/v1/instance/service-accounts/default/aliases |
|
/computeMetadata/v1/instance/service-accounts/default/email |
The default service account email assigned to your project. |
/computeMetadata/v1/instance/service-accounts/default/ |
Lists all the default service accounts for your project. |
/computeMetadata/v1/instance/service-accounts/default/scopes |
Lists all the supported scopes for the default service accounts. |
/computeMetadata/v1/instance/service-accounts/default/token |
Returns the auth token that can be used to authenticate your application to other Google Cloud APIs. |
For example, to retrieve your project ID, send a request to
http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/project/project-id
.