PyInstaller Demo

First we will make a simple python command line tool, then package it up into an .exe using PyInstaller.

Environment Set Up

First, create a virtual environment (Python 3.7) as so:

python -m venv ~/Envs/pyinstaller-demo

Now activate it:

# Mac/Linux
source ~/Envs/pyinstaller-demo/bin/activate

# Windows (PowerShell)
~/Envs/pyinstaller-demo/Scripts/Activate.ps1

Part 1: Basic Utility

In util.py we have a function list_files that will simply produce a list of files in a given directory.

Part 2: Call our function

Now, in order to run our function from the command line, we need a Python script to call our function. See main.py. To run main.py:

python main.py

This works great, except that the directory is hard-coded in main.py. If we want to interact with it, we need to make a more robust command line interface.

Part 3: A Real Command Line Interface

Now, in cli.py, we are going to use argparse to create a simple command line interface that can accept the path we want as input.

To run the CLI:

python cli.py --help
python cli.py <enter a path>

Voila!

Part 4: Build an `.exe` with PyInstaller

To distribute our app to user who do not already have python installed, first we must build. Note that PyInstaller can only build an executable for the OS it is running on. To build cross-platform executables for Windows, Mac, and Linux, you will need to run it separately on each system.

pip install pyinstaller

Now build:

pyinstaller cli.py --name "myapp"

That will create a directory containing all the dependencies and an executable.

To build it as a single executable (which runs slower, but is more convenient to distribute), use the --onefile option:

pyinstaller cli.py --name "myapp" --onefile

Part 5: Building for all platforms with CI

Next we will use GitHub Actions to build our executable for Windows, Mac, and Linux every time we commit to the master branch. See the code in:

.github/workflows/pythonapp.yml

vsalvino/pyinstaller-demo