Deploying python executables- PyInstaller, cx-freeze, etc.

Question

I'm looking to find a way to bundle a python app into stand-alone executables so my windows and mac using friends can use it without installing ugly dependencies. Looking online I've found a few utilities to help do this, including py2exe for windows and py2app for mac, as well as PyInstaller, cx-freeze, and bbfreeze. What have ya'll used and what would you recommend?

Answer 1

I've been building a python app with PyQt and PyQwt for the past few weeks and have had the same problem. I found py2app completely impossible to use, I kept running into so many problems constantly that I gave up. A few days later found PyInstaller which is fantastic. It understands both PyQt and PyQwt out of the box - and does a very nice job in wrapping everything into an app bundle. Haven't tried building a Windows executable with it yet though.

I found a good article at arstechnica on how to use py2exe and py2app although it's a bit old (you can probably skip the python 2.5 stuff) http://arstechnica.com/open-source/guides/2009/03/how-to-deploying-pyqt-applications-on-windows-and-mac-os-x.ars/

I would highly recommend using PyInstaller. There are a couple of tricks though you need to do for OS X since the support is currently only preminary http://diotavelli.net/PyQtWiki/PyInstallerOnMacOSX

Answer 2

I use py2exe to create a windows executable. The documentation is somewhat messy, but once I pulled together a working setup.py to use as a template I haven't had any problems altering it to generate any given exe. I've usually been able to find helpful information though Google searches, like when I needed to bundle in pngs for the UI to use.