Converting a python script into a standalone application

[David Bolen]

sandeep182 at hotmail.com (Sandeep Gupta) writes:

> I've been referred to: http://www.mcmillan-inc.com/install1.html
> 
> Which application would people recommend for creating a standalone
> executable?

I've been using the McMillan installer for a long time now very
successfully, although there are others (such as py2exe) that are also
available.

You don't mention platform, but assuming your use of "executable"
implies a Windows platform, if by standalone executable, if you mean a
single .exe to run the application, you can create that with
installer, but it'll still automatically unpack any needed extension
dll/pyd files when it starts and remove them when it ends.

If instead you mean a single .exe that can be used to install your
application (like a normal Windows installer), then you can use normal
installation packages to take the results created by installer and
package them up.  I'm a fan of Inno Setup
(http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php) but there are others around
(such as NSIS).

BTW, if instead you were referring to a Unix (or MacOSX) platform then
installer may be the only system to support them the way you want (and
installer not necessarily on all Unix variants - Linux is probably the
most tested).

If you're talking about a Mac classic setup, I believe there is in
fact some support for packaging up Python stuff for Mac installations,
but other than vaguely remembering reading about it on a MacPython
specific web page, don't know anything further.

> Are there any licensing issues I need to consider wrt including a
> "Python runtime" with my distribution?

There shouldn't be - the Python license permits this even for
commercial situations.  You should double check however, that if your
application involves any extension modules that are not part of the
basic Python distribution that they may have their own more
restrictive licenses.

-- David