This project is a python CLI that aims to make compiling portable python binaries automatable.

It's a binary python distribution (.tar.gz or .zip) that can be decompressed in any folder, and used from there without further ado (ie: no need to run an "installer" and things like that).

The idea here is to allow for automated systems to:

• Easily obtain a python binary, that can be used in sandboxes / workstations / laptops / instances...
• Have an open source tool that can compile such portable pythons reliably, without having to worry about the compilation part.
• Be able to inspect any python installation, and point out how portable it is, which shared or non-standard libraries it is using

• Focuses on just one thing: compile a portable python, and validate that it is indeed portable, produce outcome in (configurable) ./dist/ folder and that's it
• Only the last few non-EOL versions of python are supported (no historical stuff)
• As time goes on, the code of this tool will evolve so that the latest pythons keep building (but won't worry that older versions still keep building)
• C compilation is done as simply as possible: no "patching" of any sort, rely solely on the upstream make/configure scripts, typically via stuff like --enable-shared=no
• Builds are validated, an important part of the effort was to write up code that is able to inspect a python installation and detect whether it is portable or not (and why not if so).
• cpython is initially supported, but aiming to compile any python family in the future (pypy, conda, ...)
• Cross-compilation would be cool, but only if upstream supports it (ie: only if doable via stuff like ./configure --host=... - no on-the-fly patching allowed)

For this repo itself:

• Code is 100% properly packaged python, it is a CLI with one entry-point called portable-python
  • Can be ran in a debugger
  • 100% test coverage, has a --dryrun mode to help with testing / debugging / seeing what would be done quickly
  • No shell scripts (those are hard to maintain/test/debug)
  • Can be pip install-ed and reused

portable-python is a regular python CLI, it can be installed with:

pickley:

pickley install portable-python
portable-python --help

Or pipx:

pipx install portable-python

You can also run it directly (without explicit install) with pipx:

pipx run portable-python inspect /usr/bin/python3

Using pip install (a CI builder would probably do this):

/usr/bin/python3 -mvenv /tmp/pp
/tmp/pp/bin/python -mpip install portable-python
/tmp/pp/bin/portable-python --help
/tmp/pp/bin/portable-python inspect /usr/bin/python3

Invoke a build from python code:

from portable_python import BuildSetup

setup = BuildSetup("cpython:3.9.7")
setup.compile()

Invoke an inspection from python code:

from portable_python.inspector import PythonInspector

inspector = PythonInspector("/usr/bin/python3")
print(inspector.represented())
if not inspector.full_so_report.is_valid:
    print("oops, it is not portable!")

From source, contributions welcome!:

git clone https://github.com/codrsquad/portable-python.git
cd portable-python
tox -e venv
.venv/bin/portable-python --help
.venv/bin/portable-python inspect /usr/bin/python3

tox -e py39
tox -e style

Once you've installed portable-python, you can get going like so:

# Build a binary
cd some-temp-folder
portable-python build 3.9.7
ls -l dist/cpython-3.9.7-macos-arm64.tar.gz

# Unpack it somewhere
tar -C ~/.pyenv/versions/ -xf dist/cpython-3.9.7-macos-arm64.tar.gz
ls -l ~/.pyenv/versions/

# It's ready to be used
~/.pyenv/versions/3.9.7/bin/python --version

Note that you can use --dryrun mode to inspect what would be done without doing it:

$ portable-python --dryrun build 3.9.7

Would create build/cpython-3.9.7
...
Would untar build/downloads/readline-8.1.tar.gz -> build/cpython-3.9.7/build/readline
...
Would run: ./configure --prefix=/deps
Would run: /usr/bin/make
Would run: /usr/bin/make install DESTDIR=build/cpython-3.9.7
...

portable-python uses this file structure (build/ and dist/ folders configurable):

build/
    cpython-3.9.7/      # Build artifacts for corresponding version are here
        3.9.7/          # Full installation (after build completes)
        build/          # Source code of various needed/selected modules are here
        deps/           # --prefix=.../deps passed to all ./configure scripts
        logs/           # Logs for each module build are here, in order of build
    downloads/
        openssl-1.1.1k.tar.gz           # Downloaded artifacts (downloaded only once)
dist/
    cpython-3.9.7-macos-arm64.tar.gz    # Ready-to-go portable binary tarball