Python Standalone Builds

This project produces self-contained, highly-portable Python distributions. These Python distributions contain a fully-usable, full-featured Python installation: most extension modules from the Python standard library are present and their library dependencies are either distributed with the distribution or are statically linked.

The Python distributions are built in a manner to minimize run-time dependencies. This includes limiting the CPU instructions that can be used and limiting the set of shared libraries required at run-time. The goal is for the produced distribution to work on any system for the targeted architecture.

Some distributions ship with their build artifacts (object files, libraries, etc) along with rich metadata describing the distribution and how it was assembled. The build artifacts can be recombined by downstream repackagers to derive a custom Python distribution, possibly without certain features like SQLite and OpenSSL. This is useful for embedding Python in a larger binary. See the PyOxidizer sister project for such a downstream repackager.

Contents:

• Running Distributions
  • Obtaining Distributions
  • Extracting Distributions
  • Runtime Requirements
  • Licensing
  • Reconsuming Build Artifacts
• Building
  • Linux
  • macOS
  • Windows
  • Using sccache to Speed up Builds
• Behavior Quirks
  • Backscape Key Doesn’t work in Python REPL
  • Tcl/tk Support Files
  • No tix on macOS
  • No pip.exe on Windows
  • Windows Static Distributions are Extremely Brittle
  • Linking Static Library on macOS
  • Use of libedit on Linux
  • Static Linking of musl libc Prevents Extension Module Library Loading
  • Static Linking of libX11 / Incompatibility with PyQt on Linux
• Technical Notes
  • How It Works
  • Setup.local Hackery
  • Dependency Notes
  • Upgrading CPython
• Distribution Archives
  • Full Archive
  • Install Only Archive
• Project Status
  • Target Notes
  • Test Failures
  • Test Skips

Indices and tables

• Index

• Search Page