Packaging and deployment of standalone Python applications?

[marco.nawijn at colosso.nl]

On Monday, September 14, 2015 at 8:58:51 AM UTC+2, Kristian Rink wrote:
> Folks;
> 
> coming from a server-sided Java background, I'm recently exploring frameworks such as cherrypy or webpy for building RESTful services, which is quite a breeze and a pretty pleasant experience; however one thing so far bugs me: Using Java tooling and libraries such as DropWizard, it is pretty straightforward to build an "all-inclusive" application containing (a) all code of my own, (b) all required dependencies, (c) all other resources and, if required, even (d) a Java virtual machine in one large .zip file which can easily be copied to a clean Linux VM, unzipped and started there.
> 
> Are there ways of doing so using Python, too? I'd like to set up a project structure / working environment that includes all Python 3rd party libraries, my own code and maybe even a "standard" Python runtime for 64bit Linux systems (to not depend too much on what version a certain Linux distribution actually ships) and focus on doing deployment to various machines at best by simply copying these packages around. 
> 
> Any pointers, ideas, inspirations on that greatly appreciated - even in total different ways if what I am about to do is completely off anyone would do it in a Python environment. ;)
> 
> TIA and all the best,
> Kristian

If your business-cases allows it, I would seriously consider using
Docker. I makes it pretty straightforward to move your deployments
around from your development machine, to a test setup, to a cloud
provider (e.g. AWS) etc.

Lack or incomplete support on Windows systems is a little bit a 
deal breaker, but this situation is improving quickly.

Marco