How to Install PyInstaller

PyInstaller is available as a regular Python package. The source archives for released versions are available from PyPI, but it is easier to install the latest version using pip:

pip install pyinstaller

Note

PyInstaller is split into two packages pyinstaller and pyinstaller-hooks-contrib. These should be kept approximately (roughly within a year of each other) in sync. To that end, if you choose to pin your pyinstaller version, please also pin pyinstaller-hooks-contrib. If you upgrade pyinstaller, you will also need to upgrade pyinstaller-hooks-contrib.

To upgrade existing PyInstaller installation to the latest version, use:

pip install --upgrade pyinstaller

To install the current development version, use:

pip install https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/tarball/develop

To install directly using pip’s built-in git checkout support, use:

pip install git+https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller

or to install specific branch (e.g., develop):

pip install git+https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller@develop

Installing from the source archive

The source code archive for released versions of PyInstaller are available at PyPI and on PyInstaller Downloads page.

Note

Even though the source archive provides the setup.py script, installation via python setup.py install has been deprecated and should not be used anymore. Instead, run pip install . from the unpacked source directory, as described below.

The installation procedure is:

  1. Unpack the source archive.

  2. Move into the unpacked source directory.

  3. Run pip install . from the unpacked source directory. If installing into system-wide python installation, administrator privilege is required.

The same procedure applies to installing from manual git checkout:

git clone https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller
cd pyinstaller
pip install .

If you intend to make changes to the source code and want them to take effect immediately, without re-installing the package each time, you can install it in editable mode:

pip install -e .

For platforms other than Windows, GNU/Linux and macOS, you must first build the bootloader for your platform: see Building the Bootloader. After the bootloader has been built, use the pip install . command to complete the installation.

Troubleshooting missing PyInstaller command

In a properly setup Python environment, the command pyinstaller should now exist on the execution path and the command below should display PyInstaller’s version.

pyinstaller --version

If the command is not found, make sure that the PATH (the executable search path) environment variable includes the directory that the pyinstaller executable was installed into.

  • On Windows, this location is either of the paths returned by:

    import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_path("scripts"))
import site; print(site.USER_BASE + "\\Scripts")

  • On UNIX, this location is either of the paths returned by:

    import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_path("scripts"))
import site; print(site.USER_BASE + "/bin")

To display the current path in Windows the command is echo %PATH% and on other systems, echo $PATH.

Note

If you cannot use the pyinstaller command due to the scripts directory not being in PATH, you can instead invoke the PyInstaller module, by running python -m PyInstaller (pay attention to the module name, which is case sensitive). This form of invocation is also useful when you have PyInstaller installed in multiple python environments, and you cannot be sure from which installation the pyinstaller command will be ran.

Installed commands

The complete installation places these commands on the execution path:

  • pyinstaller is the main command to build a bundled application. See Using PyInstaller.

  • pyi-makespec is used to create a spec file. See Using Spec Files.

  • pyi-archive_viewer is used to inspect a bundled application. See Inspecting Archives.

  • pyi-bindepend is used to display dependencies of an executable. See Inspecting Executables.

  • pyi-grab_version is used to extract a version resource from a Windows executable. See Capturing Windows Version Data.

  • pyi-set_version can be used to apply previously-extracted version resource to an existing Windows executable.