py2exe for Python 3

py2exe is a software to build standalone Windows executable programs from Python scripts. py2exe can build console executables and windows (GUI) executables. py2exe supports the Python versions* included in the official development cycle.

Development of py2exe is hosted here: https://github.com/py2exe/py2exe.

Changes

The detailed changelog is published on GitHub.

Version 0.14.0.0:

• Add support for Python 3.12 and 3.13
• Drop support for Python 3.8
• Values of bundle_files lower than 3 are not supported in Python 3.12 and newer. See issue #225 for further details
• Fixes for the matplotlib, numpy, and tkinter hooks

Version 0.13.0.2:

• reintroduce ability to specify different version info for each of the frozen binaries
• fix a bug in MemoryModule.c:PerformBaseRelocation
• fix missing initialization settings for the runtime Python interpreter
• add support for setuptools v72
• fix the matplotlib, numpy, and scipy hooks
• fix py2exe wheels build with setuptools v70.0.0

Version 0.13.0.1:

• improved the hook for pkg_resources to detect its vendored content automatically
• the matplotlib hook now does not exclude wx automatically
• adapted the hook for matplotlib to support their use of delvewheel
• adapted the hooks for numpy and pandas to support the new .libs location

Version 0.13.0.0:

• Add support for Python 3.11
• Drop support for Python 3.7
• Drop support for win32 wheels
  • win32 wheels are still built and shipped but are provided untested. Issues experienced when using these wheels will not be investigated. See https://github.com/py2exe/py2exe/discussions/157 for further information.
• Remove build_exe command line interface. Please use the py2exe.freeze API.

Version 0.12.0.2:

• Support scipy versions newer than 1.9.2.
• Fixed documentation for the py2exe.freeze API.

Version 0.12.0.1:

• Fixed an issue that prevented builds via the deprecated setup.py API.

Version 0.12.0.0:

• Introduce the new py2exe.freeze API. Documentation can be found here.
• Use of the setup.py py2exe command and of distutils is deprecated as per PEP 632. Both these interfaces will be removed in the next major release. See here for a migration guide.
• Add two hooks to fix the bundling of winrt and passlib.

Version 0.11.1.1:

• The log file for windows apps is now stored in %APPDATA% by default
• ModuleFinder now raises an explicit error if a required module is in excludes
• Restore hook functionality for pkg_resources
• The Stderr.write method used for windows apps now returns the number of written bytes

Version 0.11.1.0:

• Drop support for Python 3.6
• Include package metadata in the bundle archive (to be used by e.g. importlib.metadata)
• Fixed a bug that prevented to use the optimize option when six was in the bundle
• Fixed a bug that ignored the optimize flag for some packages

Version 0.11.0.1:

• Show again relative paths in Tracebacks that happen from the frozen application (#12 and #114)

Version 0.11.0.0:

• New module finder mf310 written as a wrapper around CPython modulefinder.ModuleFinder
• Add support for Python 3.10
• New hook for scipy
• zipextimporter can now be built as a standalone extension via its own setup script

Version 0.10.4.1:

• ModuleFinder: add support for the pkg_resources.extern.VendorImporter loader
• New hooks for pkg_resources and infi

Version 0.10.4.0:

• zipextimporter supports external modules that use multi-phase initialization (PEP 489)
• New hook for selenium
• dllfinder provides a new method to add data files in the zip archive

Version 0.10.3.1:

• New hook for pycryptodomex
• ModuleFinder: respect excludes list in import_package
• Updated hook for matplotlib >= 3.4.0

Version 0.10.3.0:

• New hook for supporting matplotlib 3.2 and higher.
• Fix for including implicit namespace packages as per PEP420.

Version 0.10.2.1:

• Patch MyLoadLibrary to support ssl with bundle_files=0.

Version 0.10.2.0:

• New module finder with support for implicit namespace packages (PEP 420).
• DLLFinder automatically excludes VC++ redist and Windows CRT DLLs from bundles.
• Several fixes for bundling software with bundle_files<=2 (only the standard library is supported, other dependencies may or may not work).
• New hooks for pycryptodome and shapely.

Version 0.10.1.0:

• Add support for Python 3.9.
• Drop support for Python 3.5.
• New hooks for urllib3 and pandas.

Version 0.10.0.2 (from versions 0.9.x):

• Introduce compatibility with Python 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8.
• Drop compatibility with Python 3.4 and earlier.
• New or updated hooks for certifi, numpy, tkinter, socket, ssl, and six.
• build_exe: the zipfile=None option has been removed.
• runtime: the Python interpreter DLL is no longer altered before being inserted in the executable bundle.
• Several bugfixes, better error messages.

Installation

pip install py2exe

Usage

Use the py2exe.freeze function as documented here.

Using a setup.py script or the builder

Using a setup.py script with py2exe is deprecated. Please adapt your scripts to use the new freeze API. This interface will be removed in the next major release.

The build_exe (or -m py2exe) CLI was removed in version 0.13.0.0.

Known issues and notes

• High-level methods or hooks to embed Qt plugins in the bundle (needed by PySide2/PyQt5) are missing.
• (*) win32 wheels are provided without testing. Users are encouraged to use the win_amd64 wheels (see #157).

Credits

Further informations about the original development of py2exe and other usage guidelines can be found in the original README.