installation.rst

How to Install |PyInstaller|

|PyInstaller| is a normal Python package. You can download the archive from PyPi_, but it is easier to install using pip_ where is is available, for example:

pip install pyinstaller

or upgrade to a newer version:

pip install --upgrade pyinstaller

Installing in Windows

For Windows, PyWin32_ or the more recent pypiwin32_, is a prerequisite. The latter is installed automatically when you install |PyInstaller| using pip_ or `easy_install`_. If necessary, follow the pypiwin32_ link to install it manually.

It is particularly easy to use pip-Win_ to install |PyInstaller| along with the correct version of PyWin32_. pip-Win_ also provides virtualenv_, which makes it simple to maintain multiple different Python interpreters and install packages such as |PyInstaller| in each of them. (For more on the uses of virtualenv, see :ref:`Supporting Multiple Platforms` below.)

When pip-Win is working, enter this command in its Command field and click Run:

venv -c -i pyi-env-name

This creates a new virtual environment rooted at C:\Python\pyi-env-name and makes it the current environment. A new command shell window opens in which you can run commands within this environment. Enter the command

pip install PyInstaller

Once it is installed, to use |PyInstaller|,

• Start pip-Win
• In the Command field enter venv pyi-env-name
• Click Run

Then you have a command shell window in which commands such as pyinstaller execute in that Python environment.

Installing in Mac OS X

|PyInstaller| works with the default Python 2.7 provided with current Mac OS X installations. However, if you plan to use a later version of Python, or if you use any of the major packages such as PyQt, Numpy, Matplotlib, Scipy, and the like, we strongly recommend that you install these using either `MacPorts`_ or `Homebrew`_.

|PyInstaller| users report fewer problems when they use a package manager than when they attempt to install major packages individually.

Installing from the archive

If pip is not available, download the compressed archive from PyPI_. If you are asked to test a problem using the latest development code, download the compressed archive from the develop branch of `PyInstaller Downloads`_ page.

Expand the archive. Inside is a script named setup.py. Execute python setup.py install with administrator privilege to install or upgrade |PyInstaller|.

For platforms other than Windows, Linux and Mac OS, you must first build a |bootloader| program for your platform: see :ref:`Building the Bootloader`. After the |bootloader| has been created, use python setup.py install with administrator privileges to complete the installation.

Verifying the installation

On all platforms, the command pyinstaller should now exist on the execution path. To verify this, enter the command

pyinstaller --version

The result should resemble 3.n for a released version, and 3.n.dev0-xxxxxx for a development branch.

If the command is not found, make sure the execution path includes the proper directory:

• Windows: C:\PythonXY\Scripts where XY stands for the major and minor Python version number, for example C:\Python34\Scripts for Python 3.4)
• Linux: /usr/bin/
• OS X (using the default Apple-supplied Python) /usr/bin
• OS X (using Python installed by homebrew) /usr/local/bin
• OS X (using Python installed by macports) /opt/local/bin

To display the current path in Windows the command is echo %path% and in other systems, echo $PATH.

Installed commands

The complete installation places these commands on the execution path:

• pyinstaller is the main command to build a bundled application. See :ref:`Using PyInstaller`.
• pyi-makespec is used to create a spec file. See :ref:`Using Spec Files`.
• pyi-archive_viewer is used to inspect a bundled application. See :ref:`Inspecting Archives`.
• pyi-bindepend is used to display dependencies of an executable. See :ref:`Inspecting Executables`.
• pyi-grab_version is used to extract a version resource from a Windows executable. See :ref:`Capturing Windows Version Data`.

If you do not perform a complete installation (installing via pip or executing setup.py), these commands will not be installed as commands. However, you can still execute all the functions documented below by running Python scripts found in the distribution folder. The equivalent of the pyinstaller command is pyinstaller-folder/pyinstaller.py. The other commands are found in pyinstaller-folder /cliutils/ with meaningful names (makespec.py, etc.)