PyInstaller Overview

PyInstaller bundles a Python application and all its dependencies into a single package. The user can run the packaged app without installing a Python interpreter or any modules.

PyInstaller reads a Python script written by you. It analyzes your code to discover every other module and library your script needs in order to execute. Then it collects copies of all those files -- including the active Python interpreter! -- and puts them with your script in a single folder, or optionally in a single executable file.

PyInstaller is tested against Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. However, it is not a cross-compiler: to make a Windows app you run PyInstaller in Windows; to make a Linux app you run it in Linux, etc. PyInstaller has been used successfully with AIX, Solaris, and FreeBSD, but is not tested against them.

Main Advantages

• Works out-of-the-box with any Python version 2.7 / 3.3-3.5.
• Fully multi-platform, and uses the OS support to load the dynamic libraries, thus ensuring full compatibility.
• Correctly bundles the major Python packages such as numpy, PyQt4, PyQt5, PySide, Django, wxPython, matplotlib and others out-of-the-box.
• Compatible with many 3rd-party packages out-of-the-box. (All the required tricks to make external packages work are already integrated.)
• Libraries like PyQt5, PyQt4, PySide, wxPython, matplotlib or Django are fully supported, without having to handle plugins or external data files manually.
• Working code signing on OS X.
• Bundles MS Visual C++ DLLs on Windows.

Installation

PyInstaller is available on PyPI. You can install it through pip:

pip install pyinstaller

Requirements and Tested Platforms

• Python:

• 2.7 or 3.3+
• PyCrypto 2.4+ (only if using bytecode encryption)

• Windows (32bit/64bit):

• Windows XP or newer.

• Linux (32bit/64bit)

• ldd: Console application to print the shared libraries required by each program or shared library. This typically can be found in the distribution-package glibc or libc-bin.
• objdump: Console application to display information from object files. This typically can be found in the distribution-package binutils.
• objcopy: Console application to copy and translate object files. This typically can be found in the distribution-package binutils, too.

• Mac OS X (64bit):

• Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or newer.

Usage

Basic usage is very simple, just run it against your main script:

pyinstaller /path/to/yourscript.py

For more details, see the manual.

Untested Platforms

The following platforms have been contributed and any feedback or enhancements on these are welcome.

• FreeBSD

• ldd

• Solaris

• ldd
• objdump

• AIX

• AIX 6.1 or newer. PyInstaller will not work with statically linked Python libraries.
• ldd

• PowerPC Linux (Debian)

Before using any contributed platform, you need to build the PyInstaller bootloader, as we do not ship binary packages. Download PyInstaller source, and build the bootloader:

cd bootloader
python ./waf distclean all

Then install PyInstaller:

python setup.py install

or simply use it directly from the source (pyinstaller.py).