Python deployment with third-party libraries

Question

I want to deploy an executable (.exe) from my python2.7 project with everything included. I have seen pyinstaller and py2exe but the problem is that my project uses a lot of third-party packages that are not supported by default. What is the best choice for such cases? Is there any other distribution packager that could be used?

Thank you

Answer 1

The executable creation packages should be able to grab 3rd party packages if they're installed. Sometimes you have to specify what to include if the library abuses Python's importing system or it's not a "pure Python" package. For example, I would sometimes have to specifically include lxml to get py2exe to pick it up properly.

The py2exe project for Python 2 hasn't been updated in quite a long time, so I would certainly recommend one of the alternatives: PyInstaller, cx_freeze or bb_freeze.

I have only seen issues with MSVCP90.dll when using non pure Python packages, such as wxPython. Normally you can add that in your setup.py to include it. If that doesn't work, then you could also add it using an installer utility like NSIS. Or you may just have to state in your README that your app depends on Microsoft's C++ redistributable and include a link to it.