barbul/wxpython_freezing_template

A minimal template for creating a wxPython GUI application and compiling it into an *.app (for OS X) / *.exe (for MS Windows) with py2app, py2exe, cx_freeze and PyInstaller.

wxPython Freezing Template

This is a basic template for creating Python applications that use wxPython.

The Python code of the graphical user interface in gui.py is generated by wxFormBuilder (3.5.0 beta). The editable project file is gui.fbp. Modify this file with WxFormbuilder and select File, Generate code afterwards.

Apart from creating new applications I use this template for testing parts of my code that seem problematic when trying to freeze the Python code to an executable with py2app, py2exe, PyInstaller or cx_freeze. Using Nuitka is another possibility to get an executable but requires a C++ compiler to be installed on your system. Nuitka is not added here as of now.

The actual OS X *.app and Windows *.exe are not included here. The program doesn't do anything. The whole purpose is to create it yourself. The OS X .app is about 66MB in size, its Windows counterpart ranges from 6.9MB (PyInstaller --onefile with UPX) to 22.1MB (py2exe).

Commands

Running the program through the Python interpreter on OS X

cd ~/Development/wxpython_freezing_template
/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_1/bin/python main.py

Running the program through the Python interpreter on Windows

cd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template
C:\Python27\python.exe main.py

Py2app

Links

• Py2app official page
• Py2app on PyPI

Commands

Freezing

cd ~/Development/wxpython_freezing_template
/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_1/bin/python setup_py2applet.py py2app --iconfile=icon.icns

Running the frozen main.app

cd ~/Development/wxpython_freezing_template
open ./dist/main.app

Cleaning up

cd ~/Development/wxpython_freezing_template
rm -r build
rm -r dist

Py2exe

Links

• Py2exe for Python 2.x
• Py2exe for Python 3.x (untested)
• Py2exe list of options for setup.py file
• Py2exe adding an icon to the exe

Commands

Freezing

cd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template
C:\Python27\python.exe setup_py2exe.py py2exe

Running the frozen main.exe

C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template\dist\main.exe

Cleaning up

rd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template\build /s /q
rd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template\dist /s /q

PyInstaller

Links

• PyInstaller official page
• PyInstaller Manual - Options
• PyInstaller Manual - Spec Files
• PyInstaller on GitHub (latest version untested)
• PyInstaller on PyPI

Commands

Creating a very basic specfile for freezing

cd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template
C:\Python27\python.exe C:\Python27\Scripts\pyi-makespec-script.py --windowed --icon=icon.ico --onefile --version-file=setup_pyinstaller_version.txt main.py

Freezing by using a specfile

cd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template
C:\Python27\python.exe C:\Python27\Scripts\pyinstaller-script.py --clean --upx-dir=C:\upx\ setup_pyinstaller_onedir.spec

Running the frozen main.exe

C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template\dist\main\main.exe

Optional steps for freezing to one *.exe file afterwards, directly creating one single *.exe seems to be not possible.

cd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template
xcopy dist\main\main.exe.manifest dist
xcopy dist\main\icon.ico dist
xcopy dist\main\logging_to_file.ini dist
xcopy dist\main\logging_to_terminal.ini dist
xcopy dist\main\logging_to_terminal_and_file.ini dist
rd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template\build /s /q
rd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template\dist\main /s /q
C:\Python27\python.exe  C:\Python27\Scripts\pyinstaller-script.py --clean --upx-dir=C:\upx\ setup_pyinstaller_onefile.spec

Running the frozen one file main.exe

C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template\dist\main.exe

Cleaning up

rd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template\build /s /q
rd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template\dist /s /q

cx_Freeze

Links

• cx_Freeze official page
• cx_Freeze distutils setup script
• cx_Freeze statement on single file executables

Commands

Generating a very basic distutils setup script

cd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template
C:\Python27\python.exe C:\Python27\Scripts\cxfreeze-quickstart.py

Freezing by using a setup script

cd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template
C:\Python27\python.exe setup_cx_freeze.py build

Running the frozen main.exe

C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template\build\exe.win32-2.7\main.exe

Cleaning up

rd C:\pycharm_projects\wxpython_freezing_template\build /s /q

Sources

• wxPython Freezing Template on GitHub
• eberl.se