Using PyInstaller for distributing python program

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pyinstaller_for_distribution

Skill - PyInstaller

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Skills Required

Please make sure to have all the skills mentioned above to understand and execute the code mentioned below. Go through the above skills if necessary for reference or revision

In this post, we will learn how to distribute our python program as `.exe` file

Sometimes the computer in which the python code has to run

  • may not have python installed in it
  • may not have internet to install python
  • may not have additional package dependencies
  • may have conflicting versions of python libraries

All the above issues in python code deployment can be solved by distributing our python code along with python and its dependencies as an independent folder with .exe file to run the code.

This can be done using the pyinstaller package

To install it, run the command pip install pyinstaller in command prompt.

Packaging our code with pyinstaller command

  • Go to the folder in which our desired python script is located
  • Right click and select ‘open command window here’
  • Here index.py is the python code entry point. Hence, in command prompt type pyinstaller index.py and press Enter.
    pyinstaller_command
  • pyinstaller now creates a packaged folder of our python script inside the dist folder. Since our python file is index.py, you should see a folder named index with a file index.exe inside it.
    pyinstaller_folders
  • Now the index folder can be deployed in any windows machine

–onefile flag to create just a single exe file

running the command pyinstaller index.py --onefile will just create a single .exe file instead of a folder

One drawback of using pyinstaller is that all the packages and python itself is packaged inside the deployment folder. This increases the size of deployment.

Video

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References

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