cx_Freeze

This is an alternative to the Python native py2exe technique.

What is new in this release:

• Added support for Python 3.4.
• Added hooks for PyQt4, PyQt5 and PySide to handle their plugins.
• Added support for creating a shortcut/alias to the Applications directory within distributed DMG files for OS X.
• Improve missing modules output.
• Avoid polluting the extension module namespace when using the bootstrap module to load the extension.
• Added support for using setuptools and pip if such tools are available.
• Added first tests; nose and mock are required to run them.
• Remove --bundle-iconfile in favor of --iconfile as a more generic method of including the icon for bdist_mac.
• Documentation improved and FAQ added.

What is new in version 4.2.3:

• Added support for Python 3.2.
• Added hook for datetime module which implicitly imports the time module.
• Fixed hook for tkinter in Python 3.x.
• Always include the zlib module since the zipimport module requires it, even when compression is not taking place.
• Added sample for a tkinter application.

What is new in version 4.2.2:

• Added support for namespace packages which are loaded implicitly upon startup by injection into sys.modules.
• Added support for a Zope sample which makes use of namespace packages.
• Use the Microsoft compiler on Windows for Python 2.6 and up as some strange behaviors were identified with Python 2.7 when compiled using mingw32.
• Eliminate warning about -mwindows when using the Microsoft compiler for building the Win32GUI base executable.
• Added support for creating version resources on Windows.
• Ensure that modules that are not truly required for bootstrapping are not included in the frozen modules compiled in to the executable; otherwise, some packages and modules (such as the logging package) cannot be found at runtime. This problem only seems to be present in Python 2.7.1 but it is a good improvement for earlier releases of Python as well.
• Added support for setting the description for Windows services.
• Added hook for using the widget plugins which are part of the PyQt4.uic package.
• Added additional hooks to remove spurious errors about missing modules and to force inclusion of implicitly imported modules (twitter module and additional submodules of the PyQt4 package).
• Fixed support for installing frozen executables under Python 3.x onWindows.
• Removed optional import of setuptools which is not a complete drop-in replacement for distutils and if found, replaces distutils with itself, resulting in some distutils features not being available; for those who require or prefer the use of setuptools, import it in your setup.py.

What is new in version 4.2.1:

• Added support for specifying bin_path_includes and bin_path_excludes in setup scripts.
• Added support for compiling Windows services with the Microsoft compiler and building for 64-bit Windows.
• When installing Windows services, use the full path for both the executable and the configuration file if specified.
• Eliminate duplicate files for each possible version of Python when building MSI packages for Python 2.7.
• Fix declaration of namespace packages.
• Fix check for cx_Logging import library directory.
• Added hooks for the python-Xlib package.
• Added hooks to ignore the _scproxy module when not on the Mac platform and the win32gui and pyHook modules on platforms other than Windows.
• When copying files, copy the stat() information as well as was done in earlier versions of cx_Freeze.
• Added documentation for the shortcutName and shortcutDir parameters for creating an executable.

What is new in version 4.1:

• Added support for Python 3.x.
• Added support for services on Windows.
• Added command line option --silent (-s) as requested by Todd Templeton. This option turns off all normal output including the report of the modules that are included.
• Added command line option.
• Ensure that Py_Finalize() is called even when exceptions take place so that any finalization (such as __del__ calls) are made prior to the executable terminating.
• Ensured that empty directories are created as needed in the target.
• The encodings package and any other modules required to bootstrap the Python runtime are now automatically included in the frozen executable.
• Ensured that if a target name is specified, that the module name in the zip file is also changed. Thanks to Clemens Hermann for the initial patch.
• Enabled support for compiling on 64-bit Windows.
• If an import error occurs during the load phase, treat that as a bad module as well. Thanks to Tony Meyer for pointing this out.
• The include files list is copied, not simply referenced so that further uses of the list do not inadvertently cause side effects.