[Python-Dev] What's the story on Py_FrozenMain? (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Sat Nov 16 18:57:20 CET 2013

This is very old DNA. The persistent user request was a way to bundle up a Python program as a single executable file that could be sent to a friend or colleague and run without first having to install Python. If you Google for python freeze you'll still see old references to it.

IIRC I did the original version -- it would scan your main program and try to follow all your imports to get a list of modules (yours and stdlib) that would be needed, and it would then byte-compile all of these and produce a huge C file. You would then compile and link that C file with the rest of the Python executable. All extensions would have to be statically linked.

I think this was also used as the basis of a similar tool that worked for Windows.

Nowadays installers are much more accessible and easier to use, and Python isn't so new and unknown any more, so there's not much demand left.

--Guido

On Sat, Nov 16, 2013 at 9:48 AM, Eric Snow <ericsnowcurrently at gmail.com>wrote:

While looking at something unrelated, I happened to peek at Python/frozenmain.c and found PyFrozenMain(). I kind of get the idea of it, but am curious what motivated the addition and who might be using it. The function is not documented and doesn't have much explanation. I'm guessing that not many are familiar with it (e.g. http://bugs.python.org/issue15893).

FWIW the function was added quite a while ago (and hasn't been touched a whole lot since): changeset: 1270:14369a5e61679364deeae9a9a0deedbd593a72e0 branch: legacy-trunk user: Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> date: Thu Apr 01 20:59:32 1993 +0000 summary: Support for frozen scripts; added -i option. -eric

Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev at python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/guido%40python.org

-- --Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/attachments/20131116/d6c1d1fb/attachment.html>

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list