Create a binary file from your python program
In my previous article, I explained how to convert your bash script to a binary executable. In this article we will be exploring creation of standalone binary executable from Python program
If you want to distribute a Python program to others, you may not want to give them access to your source code. One way to do this is by converting your Python script to an standalone executable binary file. In this article, we’ll show you how to use PyInstaller to convert a Python script to an executable binary file.
Prerequisites
We will be using PyInstaller for the compilation of the python script that we want to create as binary. Install PyInstaller via pip using the command below:
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pip install pyinstaller
Note: It is assumed that you have pip installed in your environment
Create the script
First, create the Python script that you want to convert to an executable binary file. Save this file with a .py extension.
For this example, let’s create a simple Python script that prints “Hello, World!” to the console. Save this script as hello.py:
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#!/usr/bin/python3
print("#######################################################")
print(" __ __ __ __ ")
print(" / /_/ /_ ___ ____ ____ ____ / /_ ___ _____/ /_")
print(" / __/ __ \/ _ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \/ _ \/ ___/ __/")
print("/ /_/ / / / __/ / / / /_/ / /_/ / /_/ / __/ / / /_ ")
print("\__/_/ /_/\___/_/ /_/\____/\____/_.___/\___/_/ \__/ ")
print("#######################################################\n\n")
print("Hello World!!!")
print("This script will be converted to binary file")
Convert the script
Navigate to the directory where your Python script is located and run the following command in your terminal:
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pyinstaller --onefile <your-script-name>.py
In this example the command will be
pyinstaller --onefile hello.py
The –onefile switch tells PyInstaller to package the script and all its dependencies into a single executable file.
There are other switches available to use according to you preferance. Refer to references for more.
Locate the Binary File
After running the command, PyInstaller will create two directories in the same directory where your Python script is located: dist and build. The binary file will be located in the dist directory.
This can now be executed as a binary, for example see the screenshot below:
Congratulations! You have successfully created a binary file from your Python script. You can share the binary with other user.