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

Eric Snow ericsnowcurrently at gmail.com
Sat Nov 16 19:07:04 CET 2013

On Sat, Nov 16, 2013 at 10:55 AM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal at egenix.com> wrote:

It's used as main()-function for frozen Python interpreters.

See eGenix PyRun as an example and the freeze tool in Tools/freeze/ for the implementation that uses this API: http://www.egenix.com/products/python/PyRun/

On Sat, Nov 16, 2013 at 10:57 AM, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:

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.

Thanks for the explanations. It's interesting stuff. :)

-eric

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