How can I make a Python script standalone executable to run without ANY dependency

Question

I m building a Python application and don t want to force my clients to install Python and modules  So  is there a way to compile a Python script to be a standalone executable

User · Answer

py2exe will make the EXE file you want  but you need to have the same version of MSVCR90 dll on the machine you re going to use your new EXE file  See Tutorial for more information

User · Answer

I also recommend  PyInstaller for better backward compatibility such as Python  2 3 - 2 7  For py2exe  you have to have Python  2 6

User · Answer

You may like py2exe  You ll also find information in there for doing it on Linux

User · Answer

I m told that PyRun is also an option  It currently supports Linux  FreeBSD and Mac OS X

User · Answer

Using PyInstaller  I found a better method using shortcut to the  exe rather than making --onefile  Anyway  there are probably some data files around and if you re running a site-based app then your program depends on HTML  JavaScript  and CSS files too  There isn t any point in moving all these files somewhere    Instead what if we move the working path up  Make a shortcut to the EXE file  move it at top and set the target and start-in paths as specified  to have relative paths going to dist folder  Target   windir  system32 cmd exe  c start dist web wrapper web wrapper exe Start in   quot  windir  system32 cmd exe  c start dist web wrapper  quot   We can rename the shortcut to anything  so renaming to  quot GTFS-Manager quot   Now when I double-click the shortcut  it s as if I python-ran the file  I found this approach better than the --onefile  one as   In onefile s case  there s a problem with a  dll missing for the Windows  7 OS which needs some prior installation  etc  Yawn  With the usual build with multiple files  no such issues  All the files that my Python script uses  it s deploying a tornado web server and needs a whole freakin  website worth of files to be there   don t need to be moved anywhere  I simply create the shortcut at top  I can actually use this exact same folder on Ubuntu  run python3 myfile py  and Windows  double-click the shortcut   I don t need to bother with the overly complicated hacking of  spec file to include data files  etc   Oh  remember to delete off the build folder after building  It will save on size

User · Answer

Yes  it is possible to compile Python scripts into standalone executables  PyInstaller can be used to convert Python programs into stand-alone executables  under Windows  Linux  Mac OS X  FreeBSD  Solaris  and AIX  It is one of the recommended converters  py2exe converts Python scripts into only executable on the Windows platform  Cython is a static compiler for both the Python programming language and the extended Cython programming language

User · Answer

You might wish to investigate Nuitka  It takes Python source code and converts it in to C   API calls  Then it compiles into an executable binary  ELF on Linux   It has been around for a few years now and supports a wide range of Python versions  You will probably also get a performance improvement if you use it  It is recommended

User · Answer

For Python 3 2 scripts  the only choice is cx Freeze  Build it from sources  otherwise it won t work  For Python  2 x I suggest PyInstaller as it can package a Python program in a single executable  unlike cx Freeze which outputs also libraries

User · Answer

Use py2exe     use the below set up files  from distutils core import setup import py2exe  from distutils filelist import findall import matplotlib  setup      console     PlotMemInfo py         options              py2exe                  packages     matplotlib                 dll excludes     libgdk-win32-2 0-0 dll                                 libgobject-2 0-0 dll                libgdk pixbuf-2 0-0 dll                        data files   matplotlib get py2exe datafiles

User · Answer

You can find the list of distribution utilities listed at Distribution Utilities  I use bbfreeze and it has been working very well  yet to have Python  3 support though

User · Answer

You can use PyInstaller to package Python programs as standalone executables  It works on Windows  Linux  and Mac      PyInstaller Quickstart      Install PyInstaller from PyPI   pip install pyinstaller       Go to your program   s directory and run   pyinstaller yourprogram py       This will generate the bundle in a subdirectory called dist       For a more detailed walkthrough  see the manual

User · Answer

Use Cython to convert to C  compile  and link with GCC  Another could be  make the core functions in C  the ones you want to make hard to reverse   compile them and use Boost Python to import the compiled code  plus you get a much faster code execution   Then use any tool mentioned to distribute

User · Answer

pyinstaller yourfile py -F --onefile  This creates a standalone EXE file on Windows  Important note 1  The EXE file will be generated in a folder named  dist   Important note 2  Do not forget --onefile flag You can install PyInstaller using pip install PyInstaller   NOTE  In rare cases there are hidden dependencies   so if you run the EXE file and get missing library error  win32timezone in the example below  then use something like this  pyinstaller --hiddenimport win32timezone -F  quot Backup Program py quot

User · Answer

Not exactly a packaging of the Python code  but there is now also Grumpy from Google  which transpiles the code to Go  It doesn t support the Python C API  so it may not work for all projects

User · Answer

And a third option is cx Freeze  which is cross-platform

User · Answer

Since it seems to be missing from the current list of answers  I think it is worth mentioning that the standard library includes a zipapp module that can be used for this purpose  Its basic usage is just compressing a bunch of Python files into a zip file with extension  pyz than can be directly executed as python myapp pyz  but you can also make a self-contained package from a requirements txt file    python -m pip install -r requirements txt --target myapp   python -m zipapp -p  quot interpreter quot  myapp  Where interpreter can be something like  usr bin env python  see Specifying the Interpreter   Usually  the generated  pyz    pyzw file should be executable  in Unix because it gets marked as such and in Windows because Python installation usually registers those extensions  However  it is relatively easy to make a Windows executable that should work as long as the user has python3 dll in the path  If you don t want to require the end user to install Python  you can distribute the application along with the embeddable Python package

User · Answer

I like PyInstaller - especially the  quot windowed quot  variant  pyinstaller --onefile --windowed myscript py  It will create one single   exe file in a distination folder

User · Answer

I would like to compile some useful information about creating standalone files on Windows using Python 2 7  I have used py2exe and it works  but I had some problems   It has shown some problems for creating single files in Windows 64 bits  Using bundle files   1 with py2exe is not working   It is necessary to create a setup py file for it to work  http   www py2exe org index cgi Tutorial Step2   I have had problems with dependencies that you have to solve by importing packages in the setup file   I was not able to make it work together with PyQt    This last reason made me try PyInstaller http   www pyinstaller org   In my opinion  it is much better because   It is easier to use   I suggest creating a  bat file with the following lines for example  pyinstaller exe must be in in the Windows path   pyinstaller exe --onefile MyCode py   You can create a single file  among other options  https   pyinstaller readthedocs io en stable usage html options    I had only one problem using PyInstaller and multiprocessing package that was solved by using this recipe  https   github com pyinstaller pyinstaller wiki Recipe-Multiprocessing    So  I think that  at least for python 2 7  a better and simpler option is PyInstaller

User · Answer

You can use py2exe as already answered and use Cython to convert your key  py files in  pyc  C compiled files  like  dll in Windows and  so on Linux  It is much harder to revert than common  pyo and  pyc files  and also gain in performance

[python] How can I make a Python script standalone executable to run without ANY dependency?

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