PyPy and PyInstaller

Question

Is it possible to build a single-binary or single-directory package with PyInstaller that uses pypy as interpreter?

Any special tricks to do that?

Some alternative to PyInstaller?

If not, what are the fundamental technical reasons?

Notes why/how pyinstaller doesn't doesn't with pypy out of the box:

• distutils.sysconfig.get_config_h_filename missing, fixed in pytinstaller trunk
• (distutils.|)sysconfig.(_|)get_makefile_filename missing, actually optional
• tries to link against libpython2.7.so.1, pypy in single executable, not a shared object

Answer 1

I have tried this out and it failed, on many occasions, because PyPy is only able to work with a few subset of what CPython uses. PyInstaller is a full blown CPython application, so there are not able to communicate.

PyInstaller's mechanism is sensitive to how CPython works, so PyPy can introduce some issues. This is what you'll get when trying to run PyInstaller in a PyPy virtual environment:

OSError: Python library not found: Python, .Python, libpython3.5.dylib, libpython3.5m.dylib  This would mean your Python installation doesn't come with proper library files.  This usually happens by missing development package, or unsuitable build parameters of Python installation.  * On Debian/Ubuntu, you would need to install Python development packages   * apt-get install python3-dev   * apt-get install python-dev * If you're building Python by yourself, please rebuild your Python with   `--enable-shared` (or, `--enable-framework` on Darwin) 

If you need improved speed and hiding your code away from people, you can try out Cython. I use both Cython and PyInstaller a lot, and I love their cross platform nature.

When you are through with both, you can then use PyInstaller & CPython to package your app.