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.
- Documentation:
-
https://pyinstaller.org/
- Code:
-
https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller
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, macOS, and GNU/Linux.
However, it is not a cross-compiler:
to make a Windows app you run PyInstaller in Windows; to make
a GNU/Linux app you run it in GNU/Linux, etc.
PyInstaller has been used successfully
with AIX, Solaris, FreeBSD and OpenBSD,
but is not tested against them as part of the continuous integration tests.
Main Advantages
-
Works out-of-the-box with any Python version 3.8-3.12.
-
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, PyQt5,
PySide2, PyQt6, PySide6, 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.) -
Works with code signing on macOS.
-
Bundles MS Visual C++ DLLs on Windows.
Installation
PyInstaller is available on PyPI. You can install it through pip:
pip install pyinstallerRequirements and Tested Platforms
-
- Python:
-
-
3.8-3.12. Note that Python 3.10.0 contains a bug making it unsupportable by
PyInstaller. PyInstaller will also not work with beta releases of Python
3.13.
-
-
- Windows (32bit/64bit/ARM64):
-
-
PyInstaller should work on Windows 7 or newer, but we only officially support Windows 8+.
-
Support for Python installed from the Windows store without using virtual
environments requires PyInstaller 4.4 or later.
-
-
- Linux:
-
-
GNU libc based distributions on architectures x86_64, aarch64,
i686, ppc64le, s390x. -
musl libc based distributions on architectures x86_64, aarch64.
-
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. -
Raspberry Pi users on armv5—armv7 should add piwheels as an extra
index url then pip install pyinstaller
as usual.
-
-
- macOS (x86_64 or arm64):
-
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macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or newer.
-
Supports building universal2 applications provided that your installation
of Python and all your dependencies are also compiled universal2.
-
Usage
Basic usage is very simple, just run it against your main script:
pyinstaller /path/to/yourscript.pyFor more details, see the manual.
Untested Platforms
The following platforms have been contributed and any feedback or
enhancements on these are welcome.
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- FreeBSD
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ldd
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- Solaris
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ldd
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objdump
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- AIX
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AIX 6.1 or newer. PyInstaller will not work with statically
linked Python libraries. -
ldd
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Linux on any other libc implementation/architecture combination not listed
above.
Before using any contributed platform, you need to build the PyInstaller
bootloader. This will happen automatically when you pip install pyinstaller provided that you have an appropriate C compiler (typically
either gcc or clang) and zlib’s development headers already installed.
Support
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Official debugging guide: https://pyinstaller.org/en/v6.0.0/when-things-go-wrong.html
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Assorted user contributed help topics: https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/wiki
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Web based Q&A forums: https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/discussions
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Email based Q&A forums: https://groups.google.com/g/pyinstaller
Changes in this Release
You can find a detailed list of changes in this release
in the Changelog section of the manual.
v6.0.0
22 Sep 23:31
7001def
This commit was signed with the committer’s verified signature.
v5.13.2
29 Aug 22:21
d1b6b52
This commit was signed with the committer’s verified signature.
v5.13.1
26 Aug 15:31
bc49d00
This commit was signed with the committer’s verified signature.
v5.13.0
24 Jun 23:23
58b8235
This commit was signed with the committer’s verified signature.
Please see the v5.13.0 section of the changelog for a list of the changes since v5.12.0.
Note that this is intended to be the last v5.x release. v6.0 will contain breaking changes from #7619, #7713 and #6999. If you want to avoid unexpected disruption, you may wish to pin pyinstaller (e.g. pip install "pyinstaller<6").
v5.12.0
08 Jun 11:54
d44373a
This commit was signed with the committer’s verified signature.
v5.11.0
13 May 12:02
413cce4
This commit was signed with the committer’s verified signature.
v5.10.1
14 Apr 22:23
5c9f3e6
This commit was signed with the committer’s verified signature.
v5.10.0
11 Apr 21:29
625b513
This commit was signed with the committer’s verified signature.
v5.9.0
13 Mar 20:39
7702248
This commit was signed with the committer’s verified signature.
v5.8.0
11 Feb 15:24
4222dc4
This commit was signed with the committer’s verified signature.
PyInstaller is available as a regular Python package.
The source archives for released versions are available from PyPi,
but it is easier to install the latest version using pip:
To upgrade existing PyInstaller installation to the latest version, use:
pip install --upgrade pyinstaller
To install the current development version, use:
pip install https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/tarball/develop
To install directly using pip’s built-in git checkout support, use:
pip install git+https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller
or to install specific branch (e.g., develop):
pip install git+https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller@develop
Installing from the source archive¶
The source code archive for released versions of PyInstaller are
available at PyPI and on PyInstaller Downloads page.
Note
Even though the source archive provides the setup.py script,
installation via python setup.py install has been deprecated
and should not be used anymore. Instead, run pip install . from
the unpacked source directory, as described below.
- The installation procedure is:
-
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Unpack the source archive.
-
Move into the unpacked source directory.
-
Run
pip install .from the unpacked source directory. If
installing into system-wide python installation, administrator
privilege is required.
-
The same procedure applies to installing from manual git checkout:
git clone https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller cd pyinstaller pip install .
If you intend to make changes to the source code and want them to take
effect immediately, without re-installing the package each time, you
can install it in editable mode:
For platforms other than Windows, GNU/Linux and macOS, you must first
build the bootloader for your platform: see Building the Bootloader.
After the bootloader has been built, use the pip install . command
to complete the installation.
Verifying the installation¶
On all platforms, the command pyinstaller should now exist on the
execution path. To verify this, enter the command:
The result should resemble 4.n for a released version,
and 4.n.dev0-xxxxxx for a development branch.
If the command is not found, make sure the execution path includes
the proper directory:
-
Windows:
C:\PythonXY\Scriptswhere XY stands for the
major and minor Python version number,
for exampleC:\Python38\Scriptsfor Python 3.8) -
GNU/Linux:
/usr/bin/ -
macOS (using the default Apple-supplied Python)
/usr/bin -
macOS (using Python installed by homebrew)
/usr/local/bin -
macOS (using Python installed by macports)
/opt/local/bin
To display the current path in Windows the command is echo %path%
and in other systems, echo $PATH.
Note
If you cannot use the pyinstaller command due to the scripts
directory not being in PATH, you can instead invoke the
PyInstaller module, by running python -m PyInstaller
(pay attention to the module name, which is case sensitive).
This form of invocation is also useful when you have PyInstaller
installed in multiple python environments, and you cannot be sure
from which installation the pyinstaller command will be ran.
Installed commands¶
The complete installation places these commands on the execution path:
-
pyinstalleris the main command to build a bundled application.
See Using PyInstaller. -
pyi-makespecis used to create a spec file. See Using Spec Files. -
pyi-archive_vieweris used to inspect a bundled application.
See Inspecting Archives. -
pyi-bindependis used to display dependencies of an executable.
See Inspecting Executables. -
pyi-grab_versionis used to extract a version resource from a Windows
executable. See Capturing Windows Version Data. -
pyi-set_versioncan be used to apply previously-extracted version
resource to an existing Windows executable.
With the help of this development users can convert Python scripts to executable files. Moreover, it is possible to package modules and dependencies into folders.
Developer:
Open-source software
Windows version:
Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11
PyInstaller is a Windows utility that is oriented toward Python programmers. It provides instruments for interacting with scripts and modules.
Setup
You can use pip to integrate PyInstaller into the system. Specific commands for the terminal interface are available in the official online documentation. All associated files and libraries will be downloaded automatically during the installation process.
Main functionality
This software offers users tools for combining Python scripts and modules into self contained executables. It is possible to perform all operations via the command line interface. No additional configuration is needed. There are instruments for embedding custom dependencies into the project and freezing individual scripts.
After performing the conversion a new folder called DIST will be automatically created in the same location as your script. The directory contains an executable file that is ready to be distributed. Additionally, you can insert multiple modules into the finished package to enhance its capabilities.
It is worth mentioning that PyInstaller is a cross platform application and can be run on Windows, Mac OS and Linux computers.
Features
- free to download and use;
- lets you convert Python scripts and modules to executable files;
- it is possible to perform all operations via the command line interface;
- users can embed custom dependencies into the package;
- compatible with all modern versions of Windows.
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PyInstaller is a program that converts (packages) Python programs into stand-alone executables, under Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, AIX and Solaris. Its main advantages over similar tools are that PyInstaller works with any version of Python since 2.3, it builds smaller executables thanks to transparent compression, it is fully multi-platform, and uses the OS support to load the dynamic libraries, thus ensuring full compatibility.
The main goal of PyInstaller is to be compatible with 3rd-party packages out-of-the-box. This means that, with PyInstaller, all the required tricks to make external packages work are already integrated within PyInstaller itself so that there is no user intervention required. You’ll never be required to look for tricks in wikis and apply custom modification to your files or your setup scripts. As an example, libraries like PyQt, Django or matplotlib are fully supported, without having to handle plugins or external data files manually.
License
GNU General Public License version 2.0 (GPLv2)
Accolader focuses on employee awards, not rewards. Peer recognition for a job well done is more meaningful than a small monetary reward. Accolader surfaces these achievements in a fun, easy to use lightweight tool that is easy to integrate and free to use.
User Ratings
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features
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User Reviews
- All
- ★★★★★
- ★★★★
- ★★★
- ★★
- ★
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Easy to use and very useful
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I have used PyInstaller a lot and it really saved the day for me. I have been able to compile (cross platform) and bundle many applications with it and it also works well with Cython.
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I like this. It simply does what it promises !
My python (+PySide Qt) was packaged and working standalone in a matter of minutes.
A suggestion could be to go one step further and make an installer of it with NSIS f.i. -
At Renesas Electronics we used Pyinstaller with our LibUSB package. Very helpful, and works very well.
I wrote this quick-guide to use it. That is what was lacking.
— Carl Stenquist
Short ref how to use Pyinstaller:
Put your-program.py in
C:\Python27\pyinstaller-ver-x.y
Run:
>C:\Python27\pyinstaller-ver-x.y>python pyinstaller.py Renesas_libusb_host_gui.py
Answer ‘y’ to overwrite if asked. It will do the following for you, so you should not need to do these steps yourself:
C:\Python27\pyinstaller-ver-x.y>python Makespec.py —onefile -d Renesas_libusb_host_gui.py
C:\Python27\pyinstaller-ver-x.y>python Build.py Renesas_libusb_host_gui\Renesas_libusb_host_gui.spec
If successfiul, the executable will be in
C:\Python27\pyinstaller-ver-x.y\Renesas_libusb_host_gui\dist\Renesas_libusb_host_gui
OBSERVE! Any files used by the executable must also be placed inside the ‘dist’ directory. Also, after each rerun of Pyinstaller the ‘dist’ directory is completely rewritten, so you must re-add in our case Renesas_logo.gif to the dist folder. -
I always know that I can fall back on this tool to get the job done.Thanks for a great product!
1 user found this review helpful.
Read more reviews >
Additional Project Details
Operating Systems
Solaris, Linux, IBM AIX, BSD, Mac, Windows
Intended Audience
Information Technology, Developers
User Interface
Console/Terminal, Command-line
Programming Language
Python, C
Related Categories
Python Build Tools ,
Python Compilers ,
Python Interpreters ,
C Build Tools ,
C Compilers ,
C Interpreters