Qt for Python & cx_Freeze

cx_Freeze lets you freeze your Python application into executables. The supported platforms are Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, among others.

You can read the official documentation to clarify any further question, and remember to contribute to the project by filing issues if you find any, or contributing to their development.

Preparation

Installing cx_Freeze can be done using pip:

pip install cx_freeze

If you are using a virtual environment, remember to activate it before installing cx_Freeze into it.

After the installation, you will have the cxfreeze binary to deploy your application.

Freezing an application

There are three options to work with cx_Freeze:

1. Using the cxfreeze script.

2. Creating setup.py script to build the project.

3. Using the module classes directly (for advanced purposes).

The following sections cover the first two use cases.

Creating an example

Now, consider the following simple script, named hello.py:

import sys
import random
from PySide2.QtWidgets import (QApplication, QLabel, QPushButton,
                               QVBoxLayout, QWidget)
from PySide2.QtCore import Slot, Qt

class MyWidget(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        QWidget.__init__(self)

        self.hello = ["Hallo Welt", "你好，世界", "Hei maailma",
            "Hola Mundo", "Привет мир"]

        self.button = QPushButton("Click me!")
        self.text = QLabel("Hello World")
        self.text.setAlignment(Qt.AlignCenter)

        self.layout = QVBoxLayout()
        self.layout.addWidget(self.text)
        self.layout.addWidget(self.button)
        self.setLayout(self.layout)

        # Connecting the signal
        self.button.clicked.connect(self.magic)

    @Slot()
    def magic(self):
        self.text.setText(random.choice(self.hello))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)

    widget = MyWidget()
    widget.resize(800, 600)
    widget.show()

    sys.exit(app.exec_())

Using cxfreeze executable

Now that we have an application, try freezing it with the following command:

cxfreeze hello.py

This command creates a dist/ directory containing the executable. and a lib/ directory containing all the shared libraries.

To launch the application, go to the dist/ directory and execute the file:

cd dist/
./main

Using a setuptools script

For this process, you need an additional script called setup.py:

import sys
from cx_Freeze import setup, Executable

setup(name = "MyApp",
      version = "0.1",
      description = "My GUI App",
      executables = [Executable("hello.py")])

Now, build the project using it:

python setup.py build

This step creates a build/ directory with the following structure:

build
└── exe.linux-x86_64-3.7
    └── lib
    └── main

The first directory inside build/ depends on the platform you are using, in this case a x86_64 Linux using Python 3.7. The structure is the same as previously described, and you can simply enter the directory and execute the file:

cd build/exe.linux-x86_64-3.7
./main