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

[Paul Moore]

On 28 May 2015 at 20:47, Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:
> I think it's to have a single tool to do it for any platform, not to have
> the technical nuts and bolts be the same necessarily. I think it's also to
> figure out if there is anything the interpreter and/or stdlib can do to
> facilitate this.

Precisely. At the moment, the story seems to be "if you're on Windows,
use py2exe, if you're on OSX use py2app, or on Unix, ..., or..."

What would be a compelling story is "to build your app into a single
file executable, do "python -m build <myapp>". The machinery behind
the build can be as different as necessary - but being able to use the
same command on every platform is the goal.

zipapp is a start down that direction, but there's a *lot* more to be
done before we have a story good enough to address the growing trend
towards wanting a strong single-file deployment solution.

Paul