[Distutils] Distributing Python-programs to Ubuntu users

[Floris Bruynooghe]

On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 10:23:58AM +0200, Olof Bjarnason wrote:
> I'm new at the mailing list. I write small games in Python/PyGame. I
> want to find a way to make a downloadable package/installer/script
> to put on my webpage, especially for Ubuntu users.
> 
> I've skimmed a couple of tutorials on how to generate .deb-files, but,
> wow, it's a whole new skill set to do that!
> 
> Does anyone have any hint on a more economic way of creating
> single-file distribution packages for Python+PyGame projects? Maybe
> some GUI-tool that automates the .deb file creation process, but
> targetting Python specifically and not C++.

If your code (including dependencies) only uses pure-python you could
use the executable zipfile feature of Python 2.6 to simply ship an
executable that only needs Python.

$ cat > __main__.py
print('hi there')
^D
$ zip test.zip __main__.py
adding: __main__.py (stored 0%)
$ cat > hashbang.txt
#!/usr/bin/env python3.0
^D
$ cat hashbang.txt test.zip > my_exec
$ chmod +x my_exec
$ ./my_exec
hi there
$

Obviously you'd have to put all your the packages and modules you
depend on inside the zipfile.

This sort of sounds like what you are looking for.  It's not a
replacement for a properly shipped/distributed application but does a
good job if you just want to give your friends a small game to play.


Regards
Floris

PS: My search-foo must be low today as I couldn't find any official
documentation on this.  Any pointers?

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