What do I use on linux to make a python program executable
I just installed a linux system (Kubuntu) and was wondering if there is a program to make python programs executable for linux.
No, it isn’t a dupe. That question is related to distributing python software avoiding library availability and compatibility issues.
9 Answers 9
Just put this in the first line of your script :
Make the file executable with
I’m confused. How does the «#!/usr/bin/env python» work when the hash is supposed to make it a commented line? I tried running the script without the hash line, but it didn’t work. So obviously the line is required, but how does it work if it’s a comment?
If you’re sending scripts to a fellow programmer, this is fine. But this is not a suitable way to distribute Python programs to end users. What if the user doesn’t have Python installed? What if they do, but it’s a different version than you wrote the program in? Overall this will only work for a tiny percentage of users, especially on Windows.
@MathManiac If you proceed as you’re implying, about 15% of users will be unable to run your application. This will be a crippling support burden, not to mention a fantastically hostile user experience, which will generate a torrent of hateful «application X sucks» posts. I stand by my assertion that this is not a suitable way to distribute applications to end-users.
@Nav That’s called a Shebang. It’s commented out because it shouldn’t be interpreted by python. It gives information to the operating system. More specifically it says what program should be used to execute the script.
If you want to obtain a stand-alone binary application in Python try to use a tool like py2exe or PyInstaller.
You can use PyInstaller. It generates a build dist so you can execute it as a single «binary» file.
Python 3 has the native option of create a build dist also:
Putting these lines at the starting of the code will tell your operating systems to look up the binary program needed for the execution of the python script i.e it is the python interpreter.
So it depends on your operating system where it keeps the python interpreter. As I have Ubuntu as operating system it keeps the python interpreter in /usr/bin/python so I have to write this line at the starting of my python script;
After completing and saving your code
- Start your command terminal
- Make sure the script lies in your present working directory
- Type chmod +x script_name.py
- Now you can start the script by clicking the script. An alert box will appear; press «Run» or «Run in Terminal» in the alert box; or, at the terminal prompt, type ./script_name.py
If one want to make executable hello.py
first find the path where python is in your os with : which python
it usually resides under «/usr/bin/python» folder.
at the very first line of hello.py one should add : #!/usr/bin/python
then through linux command chmod
one should just make it executable like : chmod +x hello.py
- put #! /usr/bin/env python3 at top of script
- chmod u+x file.py
- Change .py to .command in file name
This essentially turns the file into a bash executable. When you double-click it, it should run. This works in Unix-based systems.
These steps works irrespective of whether you have single standalone python script or if you have multiple dependent script called by your main file.
On MacOS systems, the source file path requires the full path, not relative to where you are specifying it.
as I find it a bit ambiguous, as to what exactly you refer to with a »Program», I present here an answer, how to make a »package»-program executable from the command line in Linux, as this was not answered in this question before.
Essentially you have to follow the official instructions, but in essence, you have to do the following steps:
1.) Refactor your program into the structure presented here (you essentially have the choice between two structures)
2.) Assuming you chose the »flat layout» and your project name is awesome (i.e. assuming your source files lie in program/awesome ), you create two files, setup.py and setup.cfg file, at your program level (i.e. program ), with the contents below:
from setuptools import setup setup() [metadata] name = awesome version = 0.0.1 description = My awesome program is 'awesomer' than yours author =Awesome Name email = awesome@program.earth [options] packages = find: install_requires = [options.entry_points] console_scripts = awesome = awesome:main 3.) In your program/awesome folder you create a __init__.py file, with a main function, where you can then start your »real» program. I.e. put into your __init__.py file at least the following code to see an effect:
def main(): print("MY AWESOME PROGRAM WORKS!") 4.) Install it using e.g. python setup.py install
5.) Execute it from the command line using awesome , e.g. $> awesome
Hope this helps anyone — Thinklex
How transform a python program .py in an executable program in Ubuntu? [duplicate]
I have a simple python program and I want an executable version (for Ubuntu Linux) of this program to avoid running it in the terminal with python myprogram.py . How can I do that ?
5 Answers 5
There is no need to. You can mark the file as executable using
Make sure it has a shebang line in the first line:
And your linux should be able to understand that this file must be interpreted with python. It can then be ‘executed’ as
As various others have already pointed out you can add the shebang to the top of your file
#!/usr/bin/python or #!/usr/bin/env python
and add execution permissions chmod +x program.py
allowing you to run your module with ./program.py
Another option is to install it the pythonic way with setuptools. Create yourself a setup.py and put this in it:
from setuptools import setup setup( name = 'Program', version = '0.1', description = 'An example of an installable program', author = 'ghickman', url = '', license = 'MIT', packages = ['program'], entry_points = , ) This assumes you’ve got a package called program and within that, a file called program.py with a method called main(). To install this way run setup.py like this
This will install it to your platforms site-packages directory and create a console script called prog. You can then run prog from your terminal.
You can try using a module like cxfreeze
At the top op your python program add:
I know the easiest, exact and the best solution. I had the same problem like you but now, I can run my Python/Tkinter(GUI) program with its icon.
As we create .bat files on Windows, we can also create equivalent the .bat files easily in Linux too. Thanks to this file, that, we can start our programs without terminal even if it needs to get command on terminal to start (like Python programs) with double click to its icon (really .png icon 🙂 ) or we can write commands to facilitate our works. So, how is this going to happen ?
For example, if we want to run our .py program, we just need to write this command to terminal :
So if we create a file that can automatically run this command, problem would be solved. In addition to that, you can have your own icon and even you don’t have to open terminal !
How do I make a python script executable?
See also: python — setup.py and adding file to /bin/ — Stack Overflow for detailed instruction on the setuptools console_scripts method.
5 Answers 5
- Add a shebang line to the top of the script: #!/usr/bin/env python
- Mark the script as executable: chmod +x myscript.py
- Add the dir containing it to your PATH variable. (If you want it to stick, you’ll have to do this in .bashrc or .bash_profile in your home dir.) export PATH=/path/to/script:$PATH
It is: /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/Development/adt-bundle/sdk/platform-tools:/Development/adt-bundle/sdk/tools
The best way, which is cross-platform, is to create setup.py , define an entry point in it and install with pip .
Say you have the following contents of myscript.py :
Then you add setup.py with the following:
from setuptools import setup setup( name='myscript', version='0.0.1', entry_points= < 'console_scripts': [ 'myscript=myscript:run' ] >) Entry point format is terminal_command_name=python_script_name:main_method_name
Finally install with the following command.
pip install -e /path/to/script/folder -e stands for editable, meaning you’ll be able to work on the script and invoke the latest version without need to reinstall
After that you can run myscript from any directory.
@NikitaProkaiev In myscript update , update is a command line argument to the script — the same as if you ran python myscript.py update . It would have no effect unless you wrote code in your script to handle command line arguments. You could define another entry in console_scripts like myscript_update=myscript:update to call, in this case, a function called update .
I usually do in the script:
$: chmod 755 yourfile.py $: ./yourfile.py 
Another related solution which some people may be interested in. One can also directly embed the contents of myscript.py into your .bashrc file on Linux (should also work for MacOS I think)
For example, I have the following function defined in my .bashrc for dumping Python pickles to the terminal, note that the $ is the first argument following the function name:
depickle() < python ', 'rb') while True: try: print(pickle.load(f)) except EOFError: break EOPYTHON > With this in place (and after reloading .bashrc), I can now run depickle a.pickle from any terminal or directory on my computer.