What is a frozen Python module?

31
votes

The Python help of the module imp is talking about a frozen module. What is it?

http://docs.python.org/library/imp.html#imp.PY_FROZEN

3
pythonmoduleimp
You realize that it points to an explanation right there in that doc? Were you looking for a detailed answer about what the Freeze process is? - jdi
Yeah, you're right I was looking for the freeze process. I read the part. I will reformat it or create a new question. - Dave Halter
No problem. I just posted an answer to that then. - jdi
write it here: stackoverflow.com/questions/9916647/… I will close this question. - Dave Halter
import __hello__ - gerrit

3 Answers

26
votes

This link explains what the Python Freeze utility is in detail: http://wiki.python.org/moin/Freeze

In a nutshell, it creates a portable version of a python script that carries its own built in interpreter (basically like a binary executable), so that you can run it on machines without python.

7
votes

http://docs.python.org/library/imp.html#imp.PY_FROZEN links to http://docs.python.org/library/imp.html#imp.init_frozen which explains it:

Frozen modules are modules written in Python whose compiled byte-code object is incorporated into a custom-built Python interpreter by Python’s freeze utility. See Tools/freeze/ for now.

4
votes

The answer is in the same place:

(Frozen modules are modules written in Python whose compiled byte-code object is incorporated into a custom-built Python interpreter by Python’s freeze utility. See Tools/freeze/ for now.)