This is a simple example of how to compile a Cython file to a standalone executable in Windows, using Cython's --embed feature.

There are very few good examples of how to do this with the most recent Visual Studio toolchain, so I thought I'd make this example for all who need it.

It ought to be possible to use this as a base for a way to create simple redistributable Python applications that have no more than they need to run.

This demo requires:

• Python 3.8 or better (I haven't tested on anything less than that)
• Visual Studio Build Tools 2019, or Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition (which includes the build tools)
• Cython (The 3.0 pre-release versions work fine; they're recommended anyway)

You can install the Python requirements from requirements.txt.

Run make.py to trigger the build process, which will build the file main.pyx. The resulting executable, along with the Python .DLL and a minimal standard library, will be in a subdirectory named dist.

make.py takes the following command-line flags:

• -i:<filename>: Select which file to compile. The default is main.pyx.
• -w: Build a windowed-only version of the application (no console output).
• -r: Run the built .exe immediately after completing the build process.
• -l:<libpath>: Append the lib at <libpath> (in Python's standard library) to the standard library zipfile bundle. E.g., -l:smtplib.py will add smtplib.py. (Note that any dependencies are not automatically resolved.)
• -lc:<libpath>: Copy the lib at <libpath> (in your environment's site-packages folder) into the distribution folder. (Note that any dependencies are not automatically resolved.)
• -c:<directory>: Copy the contents of <directory> into the distribution folder. You can use this command multiple times to copy multiple directories.
• -cc:<directory>: Copy the contents of <directory> into the distribution folder. If this folder contains .py files they will be compiled as .pyc and replaced.
• -cz:<directory>: Copy the contents of <directory> into the distribution folder, but compress them into a zip file named app. If this folder contains .py files they will be compiled as .pyc and replaced.
• -embed: Use the embeddable version of Python as the distribution directory. If the embedddable version of Python is not found, the script will attempt to download it from Python.org.
• -v: Verbose mode. Display the commands sent to the build process.
• -vv: Extra verbose mode. Echo results of build commands to the console.
• -noclean: By default the script cleans build artifacts (e.g., the generated C file) from the directory. Use this option to leave the build artifacts in place after the script runs. (Note that any existing artifacts will be overwritten with each build.)
• -novlink: By default the executable will be linked to VCRUNTIME140.DLL, which will be included with the executable. This option disables that linking and does not bundle the .DLL.
• -nobundle: Enables the linking, but doesn't bundle VCRUNTIME140.DLL. Some systems may have it installed as-is. But it's generally best to bundle the .DLL for maximum compatibility.

In time I may expand this example with more switches and options to better control how the standard library and other bundled components (e.g., SQLite3) are handled.

You can also use compile.bat to see a minimal example of how this works.

This code is distributed under the MIT license.