Can Cython compile to an EXE?

Question

I know what Cythons purpose is. It's to write compilable C extensions in a Python-like language in order to produce speedups in your code. What I would like to know (and can't seem to find using my google-fu) is if Cython can somehow compile into an executable format since it already seems to break python code down into C.

I already use Py2Exe, which is just a packager, but am interested in using this to compile down to something that is a little harder to unpack (Anything packed using Py2EXE can basically just be extracted using 7zip which I do not want)

It seems if this is not possible my next alternative would just be to compile all my code and load it as a module and then package that using py2exe at least getting most of my code into compiled form, right?

Answer 1

Here's the wiki page on embedding cython

Assuming you installed python to C:\Python31 and you want to use Microsoft Compiler.

smalltest1.py - is the file you want to compile.

test.exe - name of the executable.

You need to set the environmental variables for cl.

C:\Python31\python.exe C:\Python31\Scripts\cython.py smalltest1.py --embed  cl.exe  /nologo /Ox /MD /W3 /GS- /DNDEBUG -Ic:\Python31\include -Ic:\Python31\PC /Tcsmalltest1.c /link /OUT:"test.exe" /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE /MACHINE:X86 /LIBPATH:c:\Python31\libs /LIBPATH:c:\Python31\PCbuild 

Answer 2

In principal it appears to be possible to do something like what you want, according to the Embedding Pyrex HOWTO. (Pyrex is effectively a previous generation of Cython.)

Hmm... that name suggests a better search than I first tried: "embedding cython" leads to this page which sounds like what you want.