PyEmpaq

A simple but powerful Python packer to run any project with any virtualenv dependencies anywhwere.

With PyEmpaq you can convert any Python project (see limitations below) in a single .pyz file with everything packed inside.

That single file is everything that needs to be distributed. When the final user executes it, the original project will be expanded, its dependencies installed in a virtualenv, and then it will be executed. Note that no special permissions or privileges are required, as everything happens in the user environment.

Both the packaging and the execution are fully multiplatorm. This means that you can pack a project in Linux, Windows, Mac or whatever, and it will run ok in Linux, Windows, Mac or whatever.

You can try yourself some packed with PyEmpaq examples, very easy, just download any of these files and run it with Python:

• in a terminal: a very small pure terminal example (this, of course, needs to be run in a terminal)
• a game: a simple game using the Python Arcade library (actually, it's the example #6 from their tutorial)
• desktop app: a full-fledged desktop application using PyQt5 (this Encuentro app)

How does this work?

There are two phases: packing and execution.

The packing is run by the project developer, once, before distribution. It's a simple step where the developer runs PyEmpaq indicating all needed info, and PyEmpaq will produce a single <projectname>.pyz file. That's all, and that only file is what is needed for distribution.

In this packing phase, PyEmpaq builds the indicated packed file, putting inside:

• the payload project, with all the indicated modules and binary files (currently everything, but this will be improved in the future)

• an unpacker script from PyEmpaq, which will be run during the execution phase

• a little more needed infrastructure details for the .pyz to run correctly

After packing, the developer will distribute the packed file, final users will download/receive/get it, and execute it.

To execute it, all that needs to be done is to run it using Python, which can be done from the command line (e.g. python3 supergame.pyz) or by doing double click from the file explorer in those systems that relate the .pyz extension to Python (e.g. Windows).

In this execution phase, the unpacker script put by PyEmpaq inside the packed file will be run, doing the following steps:

• will check if has needed setup from a previous run; if yes, it will just run the payload project with almost no extra work; otherwise...

• will create a directory in the user data dir, and expand the .pyz file there

• will create a virtualenv in that new directory, and install all the payload's project dependencies

• will run the payload's project inside that virtualenv

The verification that the unpacker does to see if has a reusable setup from the past is based on the .pyz timestamp; if it changed (a new file was distributed), a new setup will be created and used.

Command line options

Note: in the future we will migrate to a more expresive pyempaq.yaml config for the project, which will declare this variables and others, and will not use command line arguments to specify them.

These are the current options:

• basedir: the root of the project's directory tree
• entrypoint: what to execute to start the project
• --requirement: (optional, can be specified multiple times) the requirements file with the project's dependencies

The configuration file

(We don't have one YET, currently all options are indicated through command line, but will migrate to having a config file soon.)

Limitations:

There are some limitations, though:

• Only Python >= 3.6 is supported

• Only Linux, Windows and Mac is supported

• Only pip-installable dependencies are supported.

• Only dependencies that are pure Python or provide wheels are supported.

If you have any ideas on how to overcome any of these limitations, let's talk!

A simple try for the example source project

The project comes with a small example project. Just a couple of dir/files under examples/srcproject:

• a src and media, with stuff to be imported and accessed

• a requirements.txt which declares a simple dependency

• a ep.py file which is the project's entrypoint; all it does is to inform i started, import the internal module, access the media files, and use the declared dependency, reporting every step.

This explores most of the needs of any project. You can try this example, and will be ready to actually try any other project you want.

So, let's pack the example source project:

python3 -m pyempaq examples/srcproject/ examples/srcproject/ep.py --requirement=examples/srcproject/requirements.txt

That command executed the PyEmpaq project specifying:

• the base directory of the project to pack (all its subtree will be packed)

• the entry point to execute the project

• one or more requirement files specifying the project's dependencies

Note: in the future we will migrate to a more expresive pyempaq.yaml config for the project, which will declare this variables and others, and will not use command line arguments to specify them.

After running that command, you will see a projectname.pyz file (note: the project's name is hardcoded so far, this will change in the future). That is the whole project encoded in a single file.

At this point you may move that projectname.pyz to another directory, or to another machine, even that other machine having another operating system.

Then, try it:

python3 projectname.pyz

You should see the project's reportings that we mentioned above (note: these lines will be surrounded by debug ones that will be hidden by default in the future):

Hello world
Code access ok .../pyempaq/projectname-20210722013526/orig/src/foo.py
Media access ok
Module requests imported .../pyempaq/projectname-20210722013526/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/requests/__init__.py

This shows that what you've run actually started, accessed the internal modules and other files, and imported correctly a custom-installed dependency.