Obscuring Python source from end users

[norman.ives at gmail.com]

Hello list

Python 3.4 applies.

I have a project that involves distributing Python code to users in an organisation. Users do not interact directly with the Python code; they only know this project as an Excel add-in.

Now, internal audit takes exception in some cases if users are able to see the source code.

So I'm wondering if anyone has clever suggestions in this regard...

My current plan is to modify the bdist_wheel setuptools extension so that it can produce distributions with only the .pyc files, laid out so that they will be importable in the normal way. This will be sufficient to satisfy internal audit, and will not negatively impact our users.

However there are obvious downsides, including the overhead of maintaining separate wheels for different architectures and (in the future) Python versions. Not to mention that this plan seems to go against the grain of how Python wants to use byte code files...

Is there a better solution?