[Python-Dev] Single-file Python executables (was: Computed Goto dispatch for Python 2)

[Steve Dower]

Donald Stufft wrote:
> Well Python 3.4.3 binary is 4kb for me, so you'd have that + your 1KB Python script + whatever other pieces you need.

For contrast, here are the things you need on Windows to be able to get to an interactive prompt (I don't know how other platforms get this down to 4KB...):

* python.exe (or some equivalent launcher) 39KB
* python35.dll 3,788KB
* vcruntime140.dll 87KB (the rest of the CRT is about 1MB, but is not redistributable so doesn't count here)
* 26 files in Lib 343KB

This gets you to ">>>", and basically everything after that is going to fail for some reason. That's an unavoidable 4,257KB.

The rest of the stdlib adds another ~16MB once you exclude the test suite, so a fully functioning Python is not cheap. (Using compressed .pyc's in a zip file can make a big difference here though, assuming you're willing to trade CPU for HDD.)

Cheers,
Steve