The syntax of the pyinstaller command is:
pyinstaller [options] script [script ...] | specfile
In the most simple case,
set the current directory to the location of your program myscript.py
and execute:
pyinstaller myscript.py
|PyInstaller| analyzes :file:`myscript.py` and:
- Writes :file:`myscript.spec` in the same folder as the script.
- Creates a folder :file:`build` in the same folder as the script if it does not exist.
- Writes some log files and working files in the
buildfolder. - Creates a folder :file:`dist` in the same folder as the script if it does not exist.
- Writes the :file:`myscript` executable folder in the :file:`dist` folder.
In the :file:`dist` folder you find the bundled app you distribute to your users.
Normally you name one script on the command line. If you name more, all are analyzed and included in the output. However, the first script named supplies the name for the spec file and for the executable folder or file. Its code is the first to execute at run-time.
For certain uses you may edit the contents of myscript.spec
(described under :ref:`Using Spec Files`).
After you do this, you name the spec file to |PyInstaller| instead of the script:
pyinstaller myscript.spec
The :file:`myscript.spec` file contains most of the information provided by the options that were specified when :command:`pyinstaller` (or :command:`pyi-makespec`) was run with the script file as the argument. You typically do not need to specify any options when running :command:`pyinstaller` with the spec file. Only :ref:`a few command-line options <Using Spec Files>` have an effect when building from a spec file.
You may give a path to the script or spec file, for example
pyinstalleroptions...~/myproject/source/myscript.py
or, on Windows,
pyinstaller "C:\Documents and Settings\project\myscript.spec"
Because of its numerous options, a full pyinstaller command
can become very long.
You will run the same command again and again as you develop
your script.
You can put the command in a shell script or batch file,
using line continuations to make it readable.
For example, in GNU/Linux:
pyinstaller --noconfirm --log-level=WARN \
--onefile --nowindow \
--add-data="README:." \
--add-data="image1.png:img" \
--add-binary="libfoo.so:lib" \
--hidden-import=secret1 \
--hidden-import=secret2 \
--upx-dir=/usr/local/share/ \
myscript.spec
Or in Windows, use the little-known BAT file line continuation:
pyinstaller --noconfirm --log-level=WARN ^
--onefile --nowindow ^
--add-data="README;." ^
--add-data="image1.png;img" ^
--add-binary="libfoo.so;lib" ^
--hidden-import=secret1 ^
--hidden-import=secret2 ^
--icon=..\MLNMFLCN.ICO ^
myscript.spec
Running |PyInstaller| from Python code
If you want to run |PyInstaller| from within Python code use the run
function of the __main__ module and pass all command line arguments in as
a list, e.g.
import PyInstaller.__main__
PyInstaller.__main__.run([
'--name=%s' % package_name,
'--onefile',
'--windowed',
'--add-binary=%s' % os.path.join('resource', 'path', '*.png'),
'--add-data=%s' % os.path.join('resource', 'path', '*.txt'),
'--icon=%s' % os.path.join('resource', 'path', 'icon.ico'),
os.path.join('my_package', '__main__.py'),
])Running |PyInstaller| with Python optimizations
Note
When using this feature, you should be aware of how the Python bytecode
optimization mechanism works. When using -O, __debug__ is set
to False and assert statements are removed from the bytecode.
The -OO flag additionally removes docstrings.
Using this feature affects not only your main script, but all modules included by |PyInstaller|. If your code (or any module imported by your script) relies on these features, your program may break or have unexpected behavior.
|PyInstaller| can be run with Python optimization flags (-O or -OO)
by executing it as a Python module, rather than using the pyinstaller
command:
# run with basic optimizations python -O -m PyInstaller myscript.py # also discard docstrings python -OO -m PyInstaller myscript.py
Or, by explicitly setting the PYTHONOPTIMIZE environment variable
to a non-zero value:
# Unix PYTHONOPTIMIZE=1 pyinstaller myscript.py # Windows set PYTHONOPTIMIZE=1 && pyinstaller myscript.py
You can use any |PyInstaller| options that are otherwise available with
the pyinstaller command. For example:
python -O -m PyInstaller --onefile myscript.py
Alternatively, you can also use the path to pyinstaller:
python -O /path/to/pyinstaller myscript.py
UPX_ is a free utility available for most operating systems. UPX compresses executable files and libraries, making them smaller, sometimes much smaller. UPX is available for most operating systems and can compress a large number of executable file formats. See the UPX_ home page for downloads, and for the list of supported executable formats.
A compressed executable program is wrapped in UPX startup code that dynamically decompresses the program when the program is launched. After it has been decompressed, the program runs normally. In the case of a |PyInstaller| one-file executable that has been UPX-compressed, the full execution sequence is:
- The compressed program start up in the UPX decompressor code.
- After decompression, the program executes the |PyInstaller| |bootloader|, which creates a temporary environment for Python.
- The Python interpreter executes your script.
|PyInstaller| looks for UPX on the execution path
or the path specified with the --upx-dir option.
If UPX exists, |PyInstaller| applies it to the final executable,
unless the --noupx option was given.
UPX has been used with |PyInstaller| output often, usually with no problems.
To encrypt the Python bytecode modules stored in the bundle,
pass the --key=key-string argument on
the command line.
For this to work, you must have the tinyaes_ module installed. The key-string is a string of 16 characters which is used to encrypt each file of Python byte-code before it is stored in the archive inside the executable file.
In rare cases, when you bundle to a single executable
(see :ref:`Bundling to One File` and :ref:`how the one-file program works`),
you may want to control the location of the temporary directory at compile
time. This can be done using the --runtime-tmpdir option. If this option is
given, the bootloader will ignore any temp-folder location defined by the
run-time OS. Please use this option only if you know what you are doing.
If you distribute your application for only one combination of OS and Python, just install |PyInstaller| like any other package and use it in your normal development setup.
When you need to bundle your application within one OS but for different versions of Python and support libraries -- for example, a Python 3.6 version and a Python 3.7 version; or a supported version that uses Qt4 and a development version that uses Qt5 -- we recommend you use venv_. With venv you can maintain different combinations of Python and installed packages, and switch from one combination to another easily. These are called virtual nvironments or venvs in short.
- Use venv to create as many different development environments as you need, each with its unique combination of Python and installed packages.
- Install |PyInstaller| in each virtual environment.
- Use |PyInstaller| to build your application in each virtual environment.
Note that when using venv, the path to the |PyInstaller| commands is:
- Windows: ENV_ROOT\Scripts
- Others: ENV_ROOT/bin
Under Windows, the pip-Win_ package makes it especially easy to set up different environments and switch between them. Under GNU/Linux and Mac OS, you switch environments at the command line.
See PEP 405 and the official Python Tutorial on Virtual Environments and Packages for more information about Python virtual environments.
If you need to distribute your application for more than one OS, for example both Windows and Mac OS X, you must install |PyInstaller| on each platform and bundle your app separately on each.
You can do this from a single machine using virtualization. The free virtualBox_ or the paid VMWare_ and Parallels_ allow you to run another complete operating system as a "guest". You set up a virtual machine for each "guest" OS. In it you install Python, the support packages your application needs, and PyInstaller.
A File Sync & Share system like NextCloud_ is useful with virtual machines. Install the synchronization client in each virtual machine, all linked to your synchronization account. Keep a single copy of your script(s) in a synchronized folder. Then on any virtual machine you can run |PyInstaller| thus:
cd ~/NextCloud/project_folder/src # GNU/Linux, Mac -- Windows similar
rm *.pyc # get rid of modules compiled by another Python
pyinstaller --workpath=path-to-local-temp-folder \
--distpath=path-to-local-dist-folder \
...other options as required... \
./myscript.py
|PyInstaller| reads scripts from the common synchronized folder, but writes its work files and the bundled app in folders that are local to the virtual machine.
If you share the same home directory on multiple platforms, for example GNU/Linux and OS X, you will need to set the PYINSTALLER_CONFIG_DIR environment variable to different values on each platform otherwise PyInstaller may cache files for one platform and use them on the other platform, as by default it uses a subdirectory of your home directory as its cache location.
It is said to be possible to cross-develop for Windows under GNU/Linux using the free Wine_ environment. Further details are needed, see `How to Contribute`_.
A Windows app may require a Version resource file. A Version resource contains a group of data structures, some containing binary integers and some containing strings, that describe the properties of the executable. For details see the Microsoft `Version Information Structures`_ page.
Version resources are complex and
some elements are optional, others required.
When you view the version tab of a Properties dialog,
there's no simple relationship between
the data displayed and the structure of the resource.
For this reason |PyInstaller| includes the pyi-grab_version command.
It is invoked with the full path name of any Windows executable
that has a Version resource:
pyi-grab_version executable_with_version_resource
The command writes text that represents
a Version resource in readable form to standard output.
You can copy it from the console window or redirect it to a file.
Then you can edit the version information to adapt it to your program.
Using pyi-grab_version you can find an executable that displays the kind of
information you want, copy its resource data, and modify it to suit your package.
The version text file is encoded UTF-8 and may contain non-ASCII characters. (Unicode characters are allowed in Version resource string fields.) Be sure to edit and save the text file in UTF-8 unless you are certain it contains only ASCII string values.
Your edited version text file can be given with the --version-file=
option to pyinstaller or pyi-makespec.
The text data is converted to a Version resource and
installed in the bundled app.
In a Version resource there are two 64-bit binary values,
FileVersion and ProductVersion.
In the version text file these are given as four-element tuples,
for example:
filevers=(2, 0, 4, 0), prodvers=(2, 0, 4, 0),
The elements of each tuple represent 16-bit values
from most-significant to least-significant.
For example the value (2, 0, 4, 0) resolves to
0002000000040000 in hex.
You can also install a Version resource from a text file after
the bundled app has been created, using the pyi-set_version command:
pyi-set_version version_text_file executable_file
The pyi-set_version utility reads a version text file as written
by pyi-grab_version, converts it to a Version resource,
and installs that resource in the executable_file specified.
For advanced uses, examine a version text file as written by pyi-grab_version.
You find it is Python code that creates a VSVersionInfo object.
The class definition for VSVersionInfo is found in
utils/win32/versioninfo.py in the |PyInstaller| distribution folder.
You can write a program that imports versioninfo.
In that program you can eval
the contents of a version info text file to produce a
VSVersionInfo object.
You can use the .toRaw() method of that object to
produce a Version resource in binary form.
Or you can apply the unicode() function to the object
to reproduce the version text file.
Under Mac OS X, |PyInstaller| always builds a UNIX executable in
:file:`dist`.
If you specify --onedir, the output is a folder named :file:`myscript`
containing supporting files and an executable named :file:`myscript`.
If you specify --onefile, the output is a single UNIX executable
named :file:`myscript`.
Either executable can be started from a Terminal command line.
Standard input and output work as normal through that Terminal window.
If you specify --windowed with either option, the dist folder
also contains an OS X application named :file:`myscript.app`.
As you probably know, an application is a special type of folder. The one built by |PyInstaller| contains a folder always named :file:`Contents` which contains:
- A folder :file:`Frameworks` which is empty.
- A folder :file:`Resources` that contains an icon file.
- A file :file:`Info.plist` that describes the app.
- A folder :file:`MacOS` that contains the the executable and supporting files, just as in the
--onedirfolder.
Use the icon= argument to specify a custom icon for the application.
It will be copied into the :file:`Resources` folder.
(If you do not specify an icon file, |PyInstaller| supplies a
file :file:`icon-windowed.icns` with the |PyInstaller| logo.)
Use the osx-bundle-identifier= argument to add a bundle identifier.
This becomes the CFBundleIdentifier used in code-signing
(see the `PyInstaller code signing recipe`_
and for more detail, the `Apple code signing overview`_ technical note).
You can add other items to the :file:`Info.plist` by editing the spec file; see :ref:`Spec File Options for a Mac OS X Bundle` below.
Under GNU/Linux, |PyInstaller| does not bundle libc
(the C standard library, usually glibc, the Gnu version) with the app.
Instead, the app expects to link dynamically to the libc from the
local OS where it runs.
The interface between any app and libc is forward compatible to
newer releases, but it is not backward compatible to older releases.
For this reason, if you bundle your app on the current version of GNU/Linux, it may fail to execute (typically with a runtime dynamic link error) if it is executed on an older version of GNU/Linux.
The solution is to always build your app on the oldest version of
GNU/Linux you mean to support.
It should continue to work with the libc found on newer versions.
The GNU/Linux standard libraries such as glibc are distributed in 64-bit
and 32-bit versions, and these are not compatible.
As a result you cannot bundle your app on a 32-bit system and run it
on a 64-bit installation, nor vice-versa.
You must make a unique version of the app for each word-length supported.
For Python >= 3.5 targeting Windows < 10, the developer needs to take special care to include the Visual C++ run-time .dlls: Python 3.5 uses Visual Studio 2015 run-time, which has been renamed into “Universal CRT“ and has become part of Windows 10. For Windows Vista through Windows 8.1 there are Windows Update packages, which may or may not be installed in the target-system. So you have the following options:
Build on Windows 7 which has been reported to work.
Include one of the VCRedist packages (the redistributable package files) into your application's installer. This is Microsoft's recommended way, see “Distributing Software that uses the Universal CRT“ in the above-mentioned link, numbers 2 and 3.
Install the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows 10 and expand the .spec-file to include the required DLLs, see “Distributing Software that uses the Universal CRT“ in the above-mentioned link, number 6.
If you think, |PyInstaller| should do this by itself, please :ref:`help improving <how-to-contribute>` |PyInstaller|.
In Mac OS X, components from one version of the OS are usually compatible with later versions, but they may not work with earlier versions.
The only way to be certain your app supports an older version of Mac OS X is to run PyInstaller in the oldest version of the OS you need to support.
For example, to be sure of compatibility with "Snow Leopard" (10.6) and later versions, you should execute PyInstaller in that environment. You would create a copy of Mac OS X 10.6, typically in a virtual machine. In it, install the desired level of Python (the default Python in Snow Leopard was 2.6, which PyInstaller no longer supports), and install |PyInstaller|, your source, and all its dependencies. Then build your app in that environment. It should be compatible with later versions of Mac OS X.
Note
This section still refers to Python 2.7 provided by Apple. It might not be valid for Python 3 installed from `MacPorts`_ or `Homebrew`_.
Please contribute to keep this section up-to-date.
Older versions of Mac OS X supported both 32-bit and 64-bit executables. PyInstaller builds an app using the the word-length of the Python used to execute it. That will typically be a 64-bit version of Python, resulting in a 64-bit executable. To create a 32-bit executable, run PyInstaller under a 32-bit Python.
Python as installed in OS X will usually be executable in either 64- or 32-bit mode.
To verify this, apply the file command to the Python executable:
$ file /usr/local/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/python3: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures /usr/local/bin/python3 (for architecture i386): Mach-O executable i386 /usr/local/bin/python3 (for architecture x86_64): Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
The OS chooses which architecture to run, and typically defaults to 64-bit.
You can force the use of either architecture by name using the arch command:
$ /usr/local/bin/python3 Python 3.4.2 (v3.4.2:ab2c023a9432, Oct 5 2014, 20:42:22) [GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)] on darwin Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import sys; sys.maxsize 9223372036854775807 $ arch -i386 /usr/local/bin/python3 Python 3.4.2 (v3.4.2:ab2c023a9432, Oct 5 2014, 20:42:22) [GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)] on darwin Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import sys; sys.maxsize 2147483647
Apple's default /usr/bin/python may circumvent the arch
specification and run 64-bit regardless.
(That is not the case if you apply arch to a specific version
such as /usr/bin/python2.7.)
To make sure of running 32-bit in all cases, set the following environment variable:
VERSIONER_PYTHON_PREFER_32_BIT=yes arch -i386 /usr/bin/python pyinstaller --clean -F -w myscript.py
Note
Support for OpenDocument events is broken in |PyInstaller| 3.0 owing to code changes needed in the bootloader to support current versions of Mac OS X. Do not attempt to use this feature until it has been fixed. If this feature is important to you, follow and comment on the status of `PyInstaller Issue #1309`_.
When a user double-clicks a document of a type your application supports, or when a user drags a document icon and drops it on your application's icon, Mac OS X launches your application and provides the name(s) of the opened document(s) in the form of an OpenDocument AppleEvent. This AppleEvent is received by the |bootloader| before your code has started executing.
The |bootloader| gets the names of opened documents from
the OpenDocument event and encodes them into the argv
string before starting your code.
Thus your code can query sys.argv to get the names
of documents that should be opened at startup.
OpenDocument is the only AppleEvent the |bootloader| handles. If you want to handle other events, or events that are delivered after the program has launched, you must set up the appropriate handlers.