Create Python Executables

When you want to share your software with a non-developer, or you want to run a comprehensive python project without having to bother with the setup, executables are quite useful. And it only takes about 5 minutes to get it done.

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Basic Setup

Let’s again start with our favorite barebones setup:

Pyinstaller

Install pyinstaller globally, or as a dev dependency within your virtualenv:

sudo -H pip install pyinstaller
# or
pipenv install -d pyinstaller

Add the following command to your Makefile:

installable: dev
	pyinstaller -D -F -n demo.exe -c src/demo/main.py --icon=res/icon.ico

Create an icon by converting your favorite image into a .ico file using icoconvert, then place it in a folder called /res. And finally run:

make installable

The -D and -F flag are passed to create one directory, and a one-file bundle respectively.

Your executable should be placed in the dist folder.

Errors

Pyenv users may be required to build their python installation with the --enable-shared flag:

...
INFO: Python library not in binary dependencies. Doing additional searching...
Traceback (most recent call last):
	...

Simply run:

# Get numerical portion of python version
PYTHON_VERSION=$(python --version | cut -c8-)

# Uninstall and install python using pyenv
pyenv uninstall $PYTHON_VERSION
env PYTHON_CONFIGURE_OPTS="--enable-shared" pyenv install $PYTHON_VERSION

https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv/wiki#how-to-build-cpython-with---enable-shared

If you face any other errors, feel free to leave a comment below 👇, and we’ll sort it out.