Create an executable file out of .py script

Question

I have a python script I need to be able to run on a computer not having Python installed on it.

I do have found a compile.py example on this link: Can I somehow "compile" a python script to work on PC without Python installed?

When running it as "python compile.py python_script.py" in command prompt, it seems to work, but py2exe seems to compile everything in Python; language-packages etc. This in turn makes the output directories very, very large, when all I really want is an .exe-file. It also takes a very long time to compile.

The script I am using just imports pandas, datetime and a few other packages.

Is the compiler supposed to take that much time and space? Is there another, easier way than explained in the link above?

Thanks

• deets: Well, that's just the way things work. py2exe should make sure to only include the used modules, but there's a limit to this. Basically you ship a whole python interpreter, including you own source. And you can't have this within a single executable either. If you want that, use a language like C++.

Answer 1

I would recommend using pyinstaller. There's an option for an .exe only. In terms of size, it'll be just as large, but will only be the single exe.

• gussilago: pyinstaller doesn't seem to work. It complains about me not having pywin32 installed, when I do have it installed! (via Anaconda). Have no clue how to go about this... Error: PyInstaller for Python 2.6+ on Windows needs pywin32. Please install from sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32
• PointXIV: Is your default python path set to anaconda? I've had similar problems before because of multiple installations of python (one normal, one anaconda, etc).