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Description:

portablepython 1.9.3

Portable python binaries

Portable-Python is a CLI (and a python library) for compiling python binaries
from source than can be decompressed in any folder, and used from there without
further ado (ie: no need to run an “installer”).

Motivation
The idea here is to allow for automated systems to:

Easily obtain a python binary, that can be used in sandboxes / workstations / laptops / instances…
Inspect any python installation, and point out how portable it is, which
shared or non-standard libraries it is using

Installation
portable-python is a regular python CLI, it can be installed with:
pickley:
pickley install portable-python
portable-python --help
portable-python inspect /usr/bin/python3
Or pipx:
pipx install portable-python
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

Supported operating systems
Portable python binaries can be built for Linux and MacOS (Intel/M1/M2).
Currently Windows is NOT supported, contributions are welcome.
Python binaries can be produced as “portable” (statically linked, can run from any folder
where the binary is unpacked in), or with a --prefix (build targeted to live in a
pre-determined folder, like /apps/pythonM.m)

Operating system
Portable
–prefix

Linux
✅
✅

Macos
✅
✅

Windows
❌
❌

Building a portable cpython
Once portable-python is installed:
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 ~/tmp/versions/ -xf dist/cpython-3.9.7-macos-arm64.tar.gz
ls -l ~/tmp/versions/
It’s ready to be used:
~/tmp/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

INFO selected: xz openssl gdbm (3 modules) xz:5.2.5 openssl:1.1.1k gdbm:1.18.1
INFO Platform: macos-x86_64
...
--------------
-- xz:5.2.5 --
--------------
Would download https://tukaani.org/xz/xz-5.2.5.tar.gz
Would untar build/sources/xz-5.2.5.tar.gz -> build/components/xz
INFO env PATH=build/deps/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
INFO env MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.14
Would run: ./configure --prefix=build/deps --enable-shared=no --enable-static=yes ...
...
-------------------
-- cpython:3.9.7 --
-------------------
Would download https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.9.7/Python-3.9.7.tar.xz
Would untar build/sources/Python-3.9.7.tar.xz -> build/components/cpython
...
Would run: ./configure --prefix=/ppp-marker/3.9.7 --enable-optimizations ...
Would run: /usr/bin/make
Would run: /usr/bin/make install DESTDIR=build
...
Would tar build/3.9.7 -> dist/cpython-3.9.7-macos-x86_64.tar.gz

Library
Portable Python can be used as a python library to invoke builds, or inspect an installation.
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())
problem = inspector.full_so_report.get_problem(portable=True)
if problem:
print("oops, it is not portable!: %s" % problem)
From source, contributions welcome!:
git clone https://github.com/codrsquad/portable-python.git
cd portable-python
python3 -mvenv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt -r tests/requirements.txt
.venv/bin/pip install -e .
.venv/bin/portable-python --help
.venv/bin/portable-python inspect /usr/bin/python3

tox -e py311
tox -e style

Build folder structure
portable-python uses this file structure (build/ and dist/ folders configurable):
build/
ppp-marker/3.9.7/ # Full installation (after build completes)
components/ # Builds of statically compiled extension modules are here
deps/ # --prefix=.../deps passed to all component ./configure scripts
sources/
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

Guiding principles

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
No patches: C compilation is done as simply as possible without modifying the upstream source code.
Rely solely on the 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).
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)

For this repo itself:

Code is pure 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