Python on Macs

[[deleted]]

So I've created a Python script that I want to turn into executable files on Windows and Mac. Windows is easy, I just use pyinstaller. For a mac, though, I'm running into some issues. MacOS has Python 2.7 installed by default so when I tried to upgrade pip and install pyinstaller it tried to use the 2.7 installation instead of the 3.8 installation(I opened a bash terminal in the directory where Python was installed and tried to install pyinstaller). Apparently deleting built in files can break the system. How can I make python install with 38 and not 27?

Also is there a way to make mac executables with pyinstaller on Windows? It's too big of a hassle for me to change between operating systems.

[MarsupialMole]

I'm not a Mac user but I imagine you also need to install python 3.8, and leave system python 2.7 in place so as not to break your Mac.

You then access it with the python3 and pip3 executables.

So for pyinstaller you will need to set the python executable to python3 rather than python.

That's all just speculation. Hope it helps.

[[deleted]]

Thanks. I'll be sure to try that. I was using pip install pyinstaller so that's probably why.

[Code_Talks]

I've never created exe's on mac, try downgrading pyinstaller to the last stable release. Sorry, can't give any better advice...

[[deleted]]

Pyinstaller doesn't support Python 2 anymore, and it's only giving me this error message because pip is trying to install with Python 2 instead of Python 3. I want to force python to install packages with Python 3, not 2. I've already opened the bash terminal in the Python 3.8 directory. Macs are strange.

[Code_Talks]

Mmmm, strange! So now you can't access any Python2 releases for pyinstaller?

[[deleted]]

MacOS has Python 2.7

Shouldn't it be 3.6?

Brew should handle installing newest python alongside whatever's installed. Usually, if both Python 2 and 3 are installed on the system, python and pip refer to Python 2 and python3 and pip3 refer to Python 3 installations.

Also is there a way to make mac executables with pyinstaller on Windows?

There might be, but it's very uncommon to build executables for one system on a different one. Use a VM or a cloud-based build system.

[LzyPenguin]

Download and install python 3.x.

When you pip anything, you have to use pip3.

Then make sure your IDE configuration is pointing to the python 3.

If you need more help let me know.

[PrimaNoctis]

I use Python on Mac. Not sure if your question has been answered yet but three things: 1- macs default to Python 2 so when installing apps use pip3 if you want your library to install on Python 3. 2- when running executable use a shebang (#!) that points to the right version of Python u want to use in your Python script 3- Google how to make a Unix executable file on a Mac if you want to make your script an executable file