Introduction

Pyinstaller packages pythin applications and its dependencies into a stand-lone executables.

Pyinstaller can be used across platforms. However, the bundled executable can only be used under the environment it be created. i.e. If you want to create .exe file you need to run pyinstaller under Windows environment.

Installation

Pyinstaller can be installed through pip:

pip install pyinstaller

Requirements:

• Python:

  • 2.7 or 3.5-3.7

• Windows:

  • Windows XP or newer

• Mac OS:

  • Mac OS X 10.7(Lion) or newer

Getting Started

Go to your program's directory and run:

pyinstaller pythonScriptName.py

By default, a folder with all dependencies and executables will be created in a subdirectory called dist.

Bundling to a single executable

pyinstaller -F pythonScriptName.py

or

pyinstaller --onefile pythonScriptName.py

Startup time of the single executable is longer than the folder.

Questions

Relative path issue

When file is executed under environment without python or other environments instead of the local machine, the icon is usually not displayed correctly. It is because the file path the executable use has changed.

Solutions:

• Using absolute file path

• Freeze file path

  import os
  import sys
  
  config_name = 'myapp.cfg'
  
  def app_path():
  #return the base application path
  if getattr(sys, 'frozen', False):
      return os.path.dirname(sys.executable)
  elif __file__:
      return os.path.dirname(__file__)
  
  config_path = os.path.join(application_path, config_name)

  app_path() return the execute path of the application.

Size of executable is too large

• Use from ... import ... instead of import

  The whole package will be bundled if using import. Bundled the APIs that you only need.

• Pipenv

  When using Anaconda, as Anaconda has lots of built-in libraries, it will bundle many unnecessary modules. To get rid of them, we can use a clean environment and here I choose pipenv.

  Pipenv is a tool to create and manages a virtualenv for the projects.

  Install pipenv

  pip install pipenv

  Go to the directory of our project to create a virtual environment.

  pipenv install

  Activate the project's virtualenv

  pipenv shell

  Install the necessary dependencies

  pip install pyinstaller
  ...

  Bundle under this virtual environment

  pyinstaller pythonScriptName.py

  To delete the virtual environment, go to the project's directory and run pipenv --rm