Introduction

The following will explain how to freeze a Python/wxPython application using the py2exe tool.

What Objects are Involved

You will need a working development environment including

* Python

* wxPython

* py2exe

* Gui2Exe - by Andrea Gavana

Process Overview

A small sample wxPython "Hello world" application will be used to demonstrate the process. I created the tiny application using Boa Constructor but you could use any other IDE you use for your wxPython development. The creation of the setup.py file I did using Gui2Exe, but again one could create this by hand.

Special Concerns

Python 2.5x

Python 2.6x

The setup.py

Save the following code in your working folder as a file called 'setup.py'.

Note that the I use "bundle=3" and use a "lib/library.zip" to reduce the number of files, I found that "bundle=2 or 1" do not always work. To deliver a single file to your end-users check out the InnoSetup page.

To "freeze" the application you run from the command line in your working folder the following command.

\python26\python setup.py py2exe

Toggle line numbers
   1 # ======================================================#
   2 # File automagically generated by GUI2Exe version 0.3
   3 # Andrea Gavana, 01 April 2007
   4 # ======================================================#
   5 
   6 # Let's start with some default (for me) imports...
   7 
   8 from distutils.core import setup
   9 import py2exe
  10 import glob
  11 import os
  12 import zlib
  13 import shutil
  14 
  15 # Remove the build folder
  16 shutil.rmtree("build", ignore_errors=True)
  17 
  18 # do the save for dist folder
  19 shutil.rmtree("dist", ignore_errors=True)
  20 
  21 class Target(object):
  22     """ A simple class that holds information on our executable file. """
  23     def __init__(self, **kw):
  24         """ Default class constructor. Update as you need. """
  25         self.__dict__.update(kw)
  26         
  27 
  28 # Ok, let's explain why I am doing that.
  29 # Often, data_files, excludes and dll_excludes (but also resources)
  30 # can be very long list of things, and this will clutter too much
  31 # the setup call at the end of this file. So, I put all the big lists
  32 # here and I wrap them using the textwrap module.
  33 
  34 data_files = []
  35 
  36 includes = []
  37 excludes = ['_gtkagg', '_tkagg', 'bsddb', 'curses', 'email', 'pywin.debugger',
  38             'pywin.debugger.dbgcon', 'pywin.dialogs', 'tcl',
  39             'Tkconstants', 'Tkinter']
  40 packages = []
  41 dll_excludes = ['libgdk-win32-2.0-0.dll', 'libgobject-2.0-0.dll', 'tcl84.dll',
  42                 'tk84.dll']
  43 icon_resources = []
  44 bitmap_resources = []
  45 other_resources = []
  46 
  47 
  48 # This is a place where the user custom code may go. You can do almost
  49 # whatever you want, even modify the data_files, includes and friends
  50 # here as long as they have the same variable name that the setup call
  51 # below is expecting.
  52 
  53 baseFolder, progFolder = os.path.split(os.getcwd())
  54 
  55 #
  56 # The following will copy the MSVC run time dll's
  57 # (msvcm90.dll, msvcp90.dll and msvcr90.dll) and
  58 # the Microsoft.VC90.CRT.manifest which I keep in the
  59 # "Py26MSdlls" folder to the dist folder
  60 #
  61 # depending on wx widgets you use, you might need to add
  62 # gdiplus.dll to the above collection
  63 
  64 py26MSdll = glob.glob(r"c:\dev\Py26MSdlls\*.*")
  65 
  66 # following works from Windows XP +
  67 # if you need to deploy to older MS Win versions then I found that on Win2K
  68 # it will also work if the files are put into the application folder without
  69 # using a sub-folder.
  70 data_files += [("Microsoft.VC90.CRT", py26MSdll),
  71                ("lib\Microsoft.VC90.CRT", py26MSdll),
  72               ]
  73 
  74 
  75 # Ok, now we are going to build our target class.
  76 # I chose this building strategy as it works perfectly for me :-D
  77 
  78 
  79 GUI2Exe_Target_1 = Target(
  80     # what to build
  81     script = "simplewx.py",
  82     icon_resources = icon_resources,
  83     bitmap_resources = bitmap_resources,
  84     other_resources = other_resources,
  85     dest_base = "simplewx",    
  86     version = "0.1",
  87     company_name = "No Company",
  88     copyright = "No Copyrights",
  89     name = "Py2Exe Sample File"
  90     )
  91 
  92 
  93 
  94 # That's serious now: we have all (or almost all) the options py2exe
  95 # supports. I put them all even if some of them are usually defaulted
  96 # and not used. Some of them I didn't even know about.
  97 
  98 setup(
  99 
 100     data_files = data_files,
 101 
 102     options = {"py2exe": {"compressed": 2, 
 103                           "optimize": 2,
 104                           "includes": includes,
 105                           "excludes": excludes,
 106                           "packages": packages,
 107                           "dll_excludes": dll_excludes,
 108                           "bundle_files": 3,
 109                           "dist_dir": "dist",
 110                           "xref": False,
 111                           "skip_archive": False,
 112                           "ascii": False,
 113                           "custom_boot_script": '',
 114                          }
 115               },
 116 
 117     zipfile = "lib\library.zip",
 118     console = [],
 119     windows = [GUI2Exe_Target_1]
 120     )
 121 
 122 # This is a place where any post-compile code may go.
 123 # You can add as much code as you want, which can be used, for example,
 124 # to clean up your folders or to do some particular post-compilation
 125 # actions.
 126 
 127 # And we are done. That's a setup script :-D

The MS manifest

Following is the content of the Microsoft manifest file, note that the content of "version" and "publicKeyToken" are specific to the version of the dll files. Installing Python 2.6 on Windows 7rc1 with the option "for this user only" this manifest file is created in the Python26 folder. Note the Py26 installer does not offer the "for this user only" option on Vista.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!-- Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved. -->
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
    <noInheritable/>
    <assemblyIdentity
        type="win32"
        name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT"
        version="9.0.21022.8"
        processorArchitecture="x86"
        publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b"
    />
    <file name="msvcr90.dll" /> <file name="msvcp90.dll" /> <file name="msvcm90.dll" />
</assembly>

Sample wxPython application

Save the following code in your working folder as a file called 'simplewx.py'.

Toggle line numbers
   1 #Boa:Frame:Frame1
   2 
   3 import wx
   4 
   5 def create(parent):
   6     return Frame1(parent)
   7 
   8 [wxID_FRAME1, wxID_FRAME1BUTTON1, wxID_FRAME1BUTTON2, wxID_FRAME1PANEL1, 
   9  wxID_FRAME1STATICTEXT1, 
  10 ] = [wx.NewId() for _init_ctrls in range(5)]
  11 
  12 class Frame1(wx.Frame):
  13     def _init_coll_bsPanel_Items(self, parent):
  14         # generated method, don't edit
  15 
  16         parent.AddWindow(self.staticText1, 0, border=10,
  17               flag=wx.ALIGN_CENTER_VERTICAL | wx.ALIGN_CENTER_HORIZONTAL | wx.ALL | wx.EXPAND)
  18         parent.AddSizer(self.fgsButtons, 1, border=2, flag=wx.ALL | wx.EXPAND)
  19 
  20     def _init_coll_fgsButtons_Items(self, parent):
  21         # generated method, don't edit
  22 
  23         parent.AddWindow(self.button1, 1, border=2, flag=wx.ALL | wx.EXPAND)
  24         parent.AddWindow(self.button2, 1, border=2, flag=wx.ALL | wx.EXPAND)
  25 
  26     def _init_coll_bsFrame_Items(self, parent):
  27         # generated method, don't edit
  28 
  29         parent.AddWindow(self.panel1, 1, border=2,
  30               flag=wx.EXPAND | wx.ALL | wx.ALIGN_CENTER_VERTICAL | wx.ALIGN_CENTER_HORIZONTAL)
  31 
  32     def _init_coll_fgsButtons_Growables(self, parent):
  33         # generated method, don't edit
  34 
  35         parent.AddGrowableCol(0)
  36         parent.AddGrowableCol(1)
  37 
  38     def _init_sizers(self):
  39         # generated method, don't edit
  40         self.bsPanel = wx.BoxSizer(orient=wx.VERTICAL)
  41 
  42         self.bsFrame = wx.BoxSizer(orient=wx.VERTICAL)
  43 
  44         self.fgsButtons = wx.FlexGridSizer(cols=2, hgap=0, rows=0, vgap=0)
  45 
  46         self._init_coll_bsPanel_Items(self.bsPanel)
  47         self._init_coll_bsFrame_Items(self.bsFrame)
  48         self._init_coll_fgsButtons_Items(self.fgsButtons)
  49         self._init_coll_fgsButtons_Growables(self.fgsButtons)
  50 
  51         self.SetSizer(self.bsFrame)
  52         self.panel1.SetSizer(self.bsPanel)
  53 
  54     def _init_ctrls(self, prnt):
  55         # generated method, don't edit
  56         wx.Frame.__init__(self, id=wxID_FRAME1, name='', parent=prnt,
  57               pos=wx.Point(642, 279), size=wx.Size(236, 106),
  58               style=wx.DEFAULT_FRAME_STYLE, title='Frame1')
  59         self.SetClientSize(wx.Size(220, 70))
  60 
  61         self.panel1 = wx.Panel(id=wxID_FRAME1PANEL1, name='panel1', parent=self,
  62               pos=wx.Point(2, 2), size=wx.Size(216, 66),
  63               style=wx.TAB_TRAVERSAL)
  64 
  65         self.staticText1 = wx.StaticText(id=wxID_FRAME1STATICTEXT1,
  66               label=u'Hello world!', name='staticText1', parent=self.panel1,
  67               pos=wx.Point(10, 10), size=wx.Size(196, 13),
  68               style=wx.ALIGN_CENTRE)
  69 
  70         self.button1 = wx.Button(id=wxID_FRAME1BUTTON1, label='button1',
  71               name='button1', parent=self.panel1, pos=wx.Point(4, 37),
  72               size=wx.Size(100, 23), style=0)
  73 
  74         self.button2 = wx.Button(id=wxID_FRAME1BUTTON2, label='button2',
  75               name='button2', parent=self.panel1, pos=wx.Point(116, 37),
  76               size=wx.Size(100, 23), style=0)
  77 
  78         self._init_sizers()
  79 
  80     def __init__(self, parent):
  81         self._init_ctrls(parent)
  82         
  83 
  84 if __name__ == '__main__':
  85     app = wx.PySimpleApp()
  86     frame = create(None)
  87     frame.Show()
  88 
  89     app.MainLoop()

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