GravityBee

GravityBee helps you generate standalone applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux from your Python applications.

GravityBee is targeted at Python programs that are already packaged in the standard setuptools way.

These are some benefits of a GravityBee standalone application:

You end up with one file that contains everything.
Your users do not need Python or any packages installed.
You build separate natively executable applications for each of your target platforms.

GravityBee depends on Pyppyn and PyInstaller and is subject to their limitations.

To Build A Standalone Application

Step 1 - Install

You must install the application you wish to build (e.g., yoursuperapp), as well as GravityBee.

$ pip install yoursuperapp gravitybee

The process will also work fine if you're installing from a local version of your app.

$ cd yoursuperapp
$ ls setup*
setup.cfg            setup.py
$ pip install --editable .
$ pip install gravitybee

Step 2 - Provide (or gather) information

GravityBee will assume all necessary information when run. However, you may wish to override the assumed values. You can provide values either through environment variables or command line flags. If both are provided, command line flags take precedence.

Local logging can be configured in gravitybee/logging.conf.

Options:

ENV VAR	CL Options	Desciption
GB_APP_NAME	--app-name, -a	The name that will appear as part of the final standalone application name. Default: `name` from setup.py and/or setup.cfg.
GB_PKG_NAME	--pkg-name, -n	The package name for the application you are building. Default: First value in `packages` from setup.py and/or setup.cfg, or if not found, the value from --app-name.
GB_SCRIPT	--script, -s	The path to the application file installed by `pip` when you installed your application. Depending on your configuration, this may be determined by `options.entry_points.console_scripts` from `setup.py` and/or `setup.cfg`. Default: `$VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/app_name`
GB_SRC_DIR	--src-dir, -d	The relative path of the package containing your application. Default: `.`
GB_PKG_DIR	--pkg-dir, -p	The relative or absolute path of the package containing your application. This directory must contain a `setup.py` file. Default: `.`
GB_EXTRA_DATA	--extra-data, -e	Relative to package directory, any extra directories or files that need to be included, that wouldn't normally be included as Python code. Can be used multiple times. Default: None
GB_WORK_DIR	--work-dir, -w	Directory for use by GravityBee to build application. Cannot be an existing directory as it will be deleted if the clean voption is used. Default: `.gravitybee/build/<uuid>`
GB_ONEDIR	--onedir	Instead of packaging into one file, package in one directory. This option is not compatible with producing a SHA hash since a hash is produced on a single file. This option may be useful for debugging runtimes errors in built applications. Default: Not
GB_CLEAN	--clean, -c	Flag indicating whether to clean up the work directory after the build. Default: Not
GB_NAME_FORMAT	--name-format, -f	Format to be used in naming the standalone application. Can include {an}, {v}, {os}, {m} for app name, version, os, and machine type respectively. On Windows, `.exe` will be added automatidally. Default: `{an}-{v}-standalone-{os}-{m}`
GB_SHA_FORMAT	--sha-format	Format to be used in naming the SHA hash file. Can include {an}, {v}, {os}, {m} for app name, version, os, and machine type respectively. Default: `{an}-{v}-sha256-{os}-{m}.json`
GB_LABEL_FORMAT	--label-format	Format to be used in labeling the standalone application in `gravitybee-files.json`. Can include {An}, {an}, {v}, {os}, {m}, and {ft} for capitalized application name, lowercase app name, version, OS, machine, and file type ("Standalone Executable" or "Standalone Executable SHA256 Hash") respectively. On Windows, `.exe` will be added automatically. Default: `{An} {v} {ft} for {os} [GravityBee Build]`
GB_NO_FILE	--no-file	Flag indicating to not write the output files (see below). If the `--sha` option is used to write a hash to a file, that file will still be written regardless. Default: Will write files
GB_SHA	--sha	Option of where to put SHA256 hash for generated file. Valid options are `file` (create a separate file with hash), or `info` (only include the hash in the file info output). Default: `info`
GB_STAGING_DIR	--staging-dir	Option to indicate where GravityBee should stage build artifacts (standalone executable and hash file). Two subdirectories can be created, one based on version and the other called "latest." Default: `.gravitybee/dist`
GB_WITH_LATEST	--with-latest	Flag to indicate if GravityBee should create a "latest" directory in the staging area with a copy of the artifacts. Default: Not
GB_INCLUDE_SETUP_EXTRAS	--include-setup-extras	Includes any 'extras' modules listed in setup.py/cfg standalone application. (Such as packages marked 'build', 'docs', 'check', etc.) Default: False
GB_EXTRA_MODULES	--extra-modules	Any extra modules to be included with the standalone executable. Default: None
GB_EXTRA_PKGS	--extra-pkgs	Any extra packages to be included with the standalone executable. Default: None
VIRTUAL_ENV		If using conda env set VIRTUAL_ENV to conda env directory

If you are using environment variables, you could set them up like this.

$ export GB_APP_NAME=coolapp
$ export GB_PKG_NAME=coolapp
$ export GB_SCRIPT=/usr/var/python/etc/coolapp

Step 3 - Generate

Creating the standalone application is easy now.

$ gravitybee

If you are not using environment variables, you can combine steps 2 and 3.

$ gravitybee --app-name coolapp --script /usr/var/python/etc/coolapp --pkg-dir coolapp

Output Files

If the --no-file flag is not used, GravityBee will create output files. These include:

gravitybee-files.json: A JSON file that contains information about the standalone application generated by GravityBee including filename, path, mime-type, and label as a list of dicts.
gravitybee-info.json: A JSON file that contains information extracted about the application including app_name, app_version, console_script, script_path, pkg_dir, src_dir, name_format, clean, work_dir, gen_file, gen_file_w_path, and extra_data.
gravitybee-environs.sh: A shell file that can be sourced on POSIX platforms to create environment variables with GravityBee information. Each is prefixed with GB_ENV_.
gravitybee-environs.bat: A batch file that can be used to create environment variables with GravityBee information on Windows. Each environ is prefixed with GB_ENV_.

The Test Example

Here is the file/package structure of the included test application.

gbtestapp
|-- setup.py
|-- setup.cfg
>-- src
|   >-- gbtestapp
|       |-- __init__.py
|       |-- cli.py
|       >-- gbextradata
|           |-- __init__.py
|           |-- data_file.txt

You would build the application as follows. Since the application package is under the src directory, you need to let GravityBee know. Also, since we need to include the data_file.txt file, we'll use the --extradata option to include the containing directory (gbextradata).

$ cd gbtestapp
$ gravitybee --src-dir src --extra-data gbextradata --clean

From Python Example

Using GravityBee from a Python script is also possible. Using the sample test app, here's some example code.

import gravitybee

args = gravitybee.Arguments(
    src_dir="src",
    extra_data=["gbextradata"],
    pkg_dir=os.path.join("tests", "gbtestapp"),
    clean=True
)

pg = gravitybee.PackageGenerator(args)
pg.generate()

# show path (and name) of standalone app
print("The standalone app: ", pg.gen_file_w_path)