Qt for Python & PyInstaller

PyInstaller allows you to freeze your python application into a stand-alone executable. The supported platforms are Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, and others.

One of the main goals of PyInstaller is to be compatible with 3rd-party Python modules, e.g.: PySide2.

You can read the official documentation to clarify any further question, and remember to contribute to the project by filing issues if you find any, or contributing to their development.

Preparation

Installing PyInstaller can be done via pip:

pip install pyinstaller

If you are using a virtual environment, remember to activate it before installing PyInstaller into it.

After the installation, the pyinstaller binary will be located in the bin/ directory of your virtual environment, or where your Python executable is located.

If that directory is not in your PATH, you need to include the whole path when executing pyinstaller.

Warning

If you already have PySide2 or Shiboken2 installed in your system, PyInstaller will pick them instead of your virtual environment ones.

Freezing an application

PyInstaller has many options that you can use. To learn more about them you can just run pyinstaller -h.

Two main features are the option to package the whole project (including the shared libraries) into one executable file (–onefile), and to prepare a directory that will contain an executable next to all the used libraries.

Additionally, for Windows you can enable opening a console during the execution with the option -c (or equivalent –console or –nowindowed). Further, you can specify to not open such console window on macOS and Windows with the option -w (or equivalent –windowed or –noconsole).

Creating an example

Now, consider the following simple script, named hello.py:

import sys
import random
from PySide2.QtWidgets import (QApplication, QLabel, QPushButton,
                               QVBoxLayout, QWidget)
from PySide2.QtCore import Slot, Qt

class MyWidget(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        QWidget.__init__(self)

        self.hello = ["Hallo Welt", "你好，世界", "Hei maailma",
            "Hola Mundo", "Привет мир"]

        self.button = QPushButton("Click me!")
        self.text = QLabel("Hello World")
        self.text.setAlignment(Qt.AlignCenter)

        self.layout = QVBoxLayout()
        self.layout.addWidget(self.text)
        self.layout.addWidget(self.button)
        self.setLayout(self.layout)

        # Connecting the signal
        self.button.clicked.connect(self.magic)

    @Slot()
    def magic(self):
        self.text.setText(random.choice(self.hello))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)

    widget = MyWidget()
    widget.resize(800, 600)
    widget.show()

    sys.exit(app.exec_())

Since it has a UI, we will use the –windowed option.

The command line to proceed will look like this:

pyinstaller --name="MyApplication" --windowed hello.py

This process will create a dist/ and build/ directory. The executable and all the shared libraries required by your application will be placed inside dist/MyApplication.

To execute the frozen application you can go inside dist/MyApplication and execute the program:

cd dist/MyApplication/
./MyApplication

Note

The directory inside dist/ and the executable will have the same name.

If you prefer to have everything bundled into one executable, i.e.: no shared libraries next to the executable, you can use the option –onefile:

pyinstaller --name="MyApplication" --windowed --onefile hello.py

This process will take a bit longer, but in the end you will discover an executable inside the dist/ directory that you can execute:

cd dist/
./MyApplication