zipapp.create_archive()

zipapp.create_archive(source, target=None, interpreter=None, main=None)

Create an application archive from source. The source can be any of the following:

• The name of a directory, or a pathlib.Path object referring to a directory, in which case a new application archive will be created from the content of that directory.
• The name of an existing application archive file, or a pathlib.Path object referring to such a file, in which case the file is copied to the target (modifying it to reflect the value given for the interpreter argument). The file name should include the .pyz extension, if required.
• A file object open for reading in bytes mode. The content of the file should be an application archive, and the file object is assumed to be positioned at the start of the archive.

The target argument determines where the resulting archive will be written:

• If it is the name of a file, or a pathlb.Path object, the archive will be written to that file.
• If it is an open file object, the archive will be written to that file object, which must be open for writing in bytes mode.
• If the target is omitted (or None), the source must be a directory and the target will be a file with the same name as the source, with a .pyz extension added.

The interpreter argument specifies the name of the Python interpreter with which the archive will be executed. It is written as a “shebang” line at the start of the archive. On POSIX, this will be interpreted by the OS, and on Windows it will be handled by the Python launcher. Omitting the interpreter results in no shebang line being written. If an interpreter is specified, and the target is a filename, the executable bit of the target file will be set.

The main argument specifies the name of a callable which will be used as the main program for the archive. It can only be specified if the source is a directory, and the source does not already contain a __main__.py file. The main argument should take the form “pkg.module:callable” and the archive will be run by importing “pkg.module” and executing the given callable with no arguments. It is an error to omit main if the source is a directory and does not contain a __main__.py file, as otherwise the resulting archive would not be executable.

If a file object is specified for source or target, it is the caller’s responsibility to close it after calling create_archive.

When copying an existing archive, file objects supplied only need read and readline, or write methods. When creating an archive from a directory, if the target is a file object it will be passed to the zipfile.ZipFile class, and must supply the methods needed by that class.