Python 3.12.1 : From script to executable with pyinstaller.

Using scripts in or out of the environment is useful and accessible. Another version is to create an executable, but it will no longer allow the same access to the source code resource and the executable will not be very buildable.

It is debatable, especially for those who do not trust the compiled language.

Today, I use a Python packet called aaa that allows, through other options, the creation of an executable.

I installed this Python packet with the pip utility.

pip install PyInstaller

The source code I used is a simple example that displays some text.

import time 
print("Welcome catafest !")
time.sleep(100)

To convert the Python program file into a single standalone executable, I used this command:

pyinstaller --onefile --console exec_001.py
9538 INFO: PyInstaller: 6.5.0, contrib hooks: 2024.3
9539 INFO: Python: 3.12.1
9636 INFO: Platform: Windows-10-10.0.19045-SP0
9638 INFO: wrote C:\PythonProjects\executable_001\exec_001.spec
9711 INFO: Extending PYTHONPATH with paths
['C:\\PythonProjects\\executable_001']
18951 INFO: checking Analysis
18999 INFO: Building because C:\PythonProjects\executable_001\exec_001.py changed
18999 INFO: Initializing module dependency graph...
19031 INFO: Caching module graph hooks...
19392 INFO: Analyzing base_library.zip ...
26750 INFO: Loading module hook 'hook-encodings.py' from 'C:\\Python312\\Lib\\site-packages\\PyInstaller\\hooks'...
35164 INFO: Loading module hook 'hook-pickle.py' from 'C:\\Python312\\Lib\\site-packages\\PyInstaller\\hooks'...
40857 INFO: Loading module hook 'hook-heapq.py' from 'C:\\Python312\\Lib\\site-packages\\PyInstaller\\hooks'...
44873 INFO: Caching module dependency graph...
45194 INFO: Running Analysis Analysis-00.toc
45194 INFO: Looking for Python shared library...
45217 INFO: Using Python shared library: C:\Python312\python312.dll
45217 INFO: Analyzing C:\PythonProjects\executable_001\exec_001.py
45223 INFO: Processing module hooks...
45240 INFO: Performing binary vs. data reclassification (2 entries)
45243 INFO: Looking for ctypes DLLs
45259 INFO: Analyzing run-time hooks ...
45264 INFO: Including run-time hook 'C:\\Python312\\Lib\\site-packages\\PyInstaller\\hooks\\rthooks\\pyi_rth_inspect.py'
45326 INFO: Looking for dynamic libraries
45708 INFO: Extra DLL search directories (AddDllDirectory): []
45709 INFO: Extra DLL search directories (PATH): []
46487 INFO: Warnings written to C:\PythonProjects\executable_001\build\exec_001\warn-exec_001.txt
46534 INFO: Graph cross-reference written to C:\PythonProjects\executable_001\build\exec_001\xref-exec_001.html
46696 INFO: checking PYZ
46797 INFO: checking PKG
46962 INFO: Building because C:\PythonProjects\executable_001\exec_001.py changed
46962 INFO: Building PKG (CArchive) exec_001.pkg
52220 INFO: Building PKG (CArchive) exec_001.pkg completed successfully.
52222 INFO: Bootloader C:\Python312\Lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\bootloader\Windows-64bit-intel\run.exe
52222 INFO: checking EXE
52225 INFO: Building EXE because EXE-00.toc is non existent
52225 INFO: Building EXE from EXE-00.toc
52251 INFO: Copying bootloader EXE to C:\PythonProjects\executable_001\dist\exec_001.exe
52334 INFO: Copying icon to EXE
52383 INFO: Copying 0 resources to EXE
52383 INFO: Embedding manifest in EXE
52416 INFO: Appending PKG archive to EXE
52457 INFO: Fixing EXE headers
52738 INFO: Building EXE from EXE-00.toc completed successfully.

Python 3.7.4 : Create an Stand Alone Executable on Fedora distro.

In this tutorial I will show you how to create an Stand Alone Executable with Python version 3.7.4 and Fedora 30 distro.
First you need to install using the dnf tool the python3 package.
You can test it easy with this command:

[mythcat@desk dist]$ python3
Python 3.7.4 (default, Jul  9 2019, 16:32:37) 
[GCC 9.1.1 20190503 (Red Hat 9.1.1-1)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. 

I created a simple python script named test.py for testing:

import os
import sys
print("Hello!")

You need to install the pyinstaller python module.
Let's see this step with the output:

[mythcat@desk ~]$ pip3 install pyinstaller --user

Now you can use this python module to create Stand Alone Executable.

[mythcat@desk ~]$ pip3 install pyinstaller --user
Requirement already satisfied: pyinstaller in ./.local/lib/python3.7/site-packages (3.5)
Requirement already satisfied: setuptools in /usr/lib/python3.7/site-packages (from pyinstaller) (40.8.0)
Requirement already satisfied: altgraph in ./.local/lib/python3.7/site-packages (from pyinstaller) (0.16.1)
[mythcat@desk ~]$ pyinstaller --onefile test.py
561 INFO: PyInstaller: 3.5
561 INFO: Python: 3.7.4
571 INFO: Platform: Linux-5.2.9-200.fc30.x86_64-x86_64-with-fedora-30-Thirty
573 INFO: wrote /home/mythcat/test.spec
596 INFO: UPX is not available.
598 INFO: Extending PYTHONPATH with paths
['/home/mythcat', '/home/mythcat']
598 INFO: checking Analysis
624 INFO: Building because /home/mythcat/test.py changed
624 INFO: Initializing module dependency graph...
640 INFO: Initializing module graph hooks...
678 INFO: Analyzing base_library.zip ...
5247 INFO: running Analysis Analysis-00.toc
5352 INFO: Caching module hooks...
5376 INFO: Analyzing /home/mythcat/test.py
5396 INFO: Loading module hooks...
5397 INFO: Loading module hook "hook-xml.py"...
5775 INFO: Loading module hook "hook-pydoc.py"...
5800 INFO: Loading module hook "hook-encodings.py"...
5892 INFO: Looking for ctypes DLLs
5893 INFO: Analyzing run-time hooks ...
5901 INFO: Looking for dynamic libraries
6507 INFO: Looking for eggs
6507 INFO: Using Python library /lib64/libpython3.7m.so.1.0
6514 INFO: Warnings written to /home/mythcat/build/test/warn-test.txt
6547 INFO: Graph cross-reference written to /home/mythcat/build/test/xref-test.html
6604 INFO: checking PYZ
6607 INFO: Building because toc changed
6607 INFO: Building PYZ (ZlibArchive) /home/mythcat/build/test/PYZ-00.pyz
7030 INFO: Building PYZ (ZlibArchive) /home/mythcat/build/test/PYZ-00.pyz completed successfully.
7034 INFO: checking PKG
7035 INFO: Building because toc changed
7035 INFO: Building PKG (CArchive) PKG-00.pkg
10033 INFO: Building PKG (CArchive) PKG-00.pkg completed successfully.
10036 INFO: Bootloader 
/home/mythcat/.local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/PyInstaller/bootloader/Linux-64bit/run
10036 INFO: checking EXE
10123 INFO: Building because toc changed
10124 INFO: Building EXE from EXE-00.toc
10163 INFO: Appending archive to ELF section in EXE /home/mythcat/dist/test
10337 INFO: Building EXE from EXE-00.toc completed successfully.

This command will create some folders: dist, build, ...
The dist folder will have the Stand Alone Executable named test:

[mythcat@desk ~]$ cd dist/
[mythcat@desk dist]$ ls
test
[mythcat@desk dist]$ ./test
Hello!

Make one executable from a python script.

The official website of this tool tells us:
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. PyInstaller supports Python 2.7 and Python 3.3+, and correctly bundles the major Python packages such as numpy, PyQt, Django, wxPython, and others.

PyInstaller is tested against Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. However, it is not a cross-compiler: to make a Windows app you run PyInstaller in Windows; to make a Linux app you run it in Linux, etc. PyInstaller has been used successfully with AIX, Solaris, and FreeBSD, but is not tested against them.
The manual of this tool can see it here.

C:\Python27>cd Scripts

C:\Python27\Scripts>pip install pyinstaller
Collecting pyinstaller
  Downloading PyInstaller-3.2.1.tar.bz2 (2.4MB)
    100% |################################| 2.4MB 453kB/s
....
Collecting pypiwin32 (from pyinstaller)
  Downloading pypiwin32-219-cp27-none-win32.whl (6.7MB)
    100% |################################| 6.7MB 175kB/s
...
Successfully installed pyinstaller-3.2.1 pypiwin32-219

Also, this will install the PyWin32 python module.
Let's make one test python script and then to make it executable.
I used this python script to test it:

from tkinter import Tk, Label, Button

class MyFirstGUI:
    def __init__(self, master):
        self.master = master
        master.title("A simple GUI")

        self.label = Label(master, text="This is our first GUI!")
        self.label.pack()

        self.greet_button = Button(master, text="Greet", command=self.greet)
        self.greet_button.pack()

        self.close_button = Button(master, text="Close", command=master.quit)
        self.close_button.pack()

    def greet(self):
        print("Greetings!")

root = Tk()
my_gui = MyFirstGUI(root)
root.mainloop()

The output of the command of pyinstaller:

C:\Python27\Scripts>pyinstaller.exe   --onefile --windowed ..\tk_app.py
92 INFO: PyInstaller: 3.2.1
92 INFO: Python: 2.7.13
93 INFO: Platform: Windows-10-10.0.14393
93 INFO: wrote C:\Python27\Scripts\tk_app.spec
95 INFO: UPX is not available.
96 INFO: Extending PYTHONPATH with paths
['C:\\Python27', 'C:\\Python27\\Scripts']
96 INFO: checking Analysis
135 INFO: checking PYZ
151 INFO: checking PKG
151 INFO: Building because toc changed
151 INFO: Building PKG (CArchive) out00-PKG.pkg
213 INFO: Redirecting Microsoft.VC90.CRT version (9, 0, 21022, 8) -> (9, 0, 30729, 9247)
2120 INFO: Building PKG (CArchive) out00-PKG.pkg completed successfully.
2251 INFO: Bootloader c:\python27\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\bootloader\Windows-32bit\runw.exe
2251 INFO: checking EXE
2251 INFO: Rebuilding out00-EXE.toc because tk_app.exe missing
2251 INFO: Building EXE from out00-EXE.toc
2267 INFO: Appending archive to EXE C:\Python27\Scripts\dist\tk_app.exe
2267 INFO: Building EXE from out00-EXE.toc completed successfully.

Then I run the executable output:

C:\Python27\Scripts>C:\Python27\Scripts\dist\tk_app.exe

C:\Python27\Scripts>

...and working well.

The output file come with this icon:

Also, you can make changes by using your icons or set the type of this file, according to VS_FIXEDFILEINFO structure.
You need to have the icon file and/or version.txt file for VS_FIXEDFILEINFO structure.
Let's see the version.txt file:

# UTF-8
#
# For more details about fixed file info 'ffi' see:
# http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms646997.aspx
VSVersionInfo(
  ffi=FixedFileInfo(
    # filevers and prodvers should be always a tuple with four items: (1, 2, 3, 4)
    # Set not needed items to zero 0.
    filevers=(2017, 1, 1, 1),
    prodvers=(1, 1, 1, 1),
    # Contains a bitmask that specifies the valid bits 'flags'
    mask=0x3f,
    # Contains a bitmask that specifies the Boolean attributes of the file.
    flags=0x0,
    # The operating system for which this file was designed.
    # 0x4 - NT and there is no need to change it.
    OS=0x4,
    # The general type of file.
    # 0x1 - the file is an application.
    fileType=0x1,
    # The function of the file.
    # 0x0 - the function is not defined for this fileType
    subtype=0x0,
    # Creation date and time stamp.
    date=(0, 0)
    ),
  kids=[
    StringFileInfo(
      [
      StringTable(
        u'040904b0',
        [StringStruct(u'CompanyName', u'python-catalin'),
        StringStruct(u'ProductName', u'test'),
        StringStruct(u'ProductVersion', u'1, 1, 1, 1'),
        StringStruct(u'InternalName', u'tk_app'),
        StringStruct(u'OriginalFilename', u'tk_app.exe'),
        StringStruct(u'FileVersion', u'2017, 1, 1, 1'),
        StringStruct(u'FileDescription', u'test tk'),
        StringStruct(u'LegalCopyright', u'Copyright 2017 free-tutorials.org.'),
        StringStruct(u'LegalTrademarks', u'tk_app is a registered trademark of catafest.'),])
      ]),
    VarFileInfo([VarStruct(u'Translation', [0x409, 1200])])
  ]
)

Now you can use this command for tk_app.py and version.txt files from the C:\Python27 folder:

 pyinstaller.exe --onefile --windowed --version-file=..\version.txt ..\tk_app.py

Let's see this info into the executable file:

If you want to change the icon then you need to add the --icon=tk_app.ico, where tk_app.ico is the new icon of the executable.