.. _PyInstaller Requirements:

Requirements
============

.. Keep this list in sync with the README.txt

Windows
~~~~~~~~

PyInstaller runs in Windows 8 and newer. It can create graphical windowed apps
(apps that do not need a command window).

macOS
~~~~~~

PyInstaller runs on macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or newer.
It can build graphical windowed apps (apps that do not use a terminal window).
PyInstaller builds apps that are compatible with the macOS release in
which you run it, and following releases.
It can build ``x86_64``, ``arm64`` or hybrid *universal2* binaries on macOS
machines of either architecture. See :ref:`macOS multi-arch support` for
details.

GNU/Linux
~~~~~~~~~~

PyInstaller requires the ``ldd`` terminal application to discover
the shared libraries required by each program or shared library.
It is typically found in the distribution-package ``glibc`` or ``libc-bin``.

It also requires the ``objdump`` terminal application to extract
information from object files
and the ``objcopy`` terminal application to append data to the
bootloader.
These are typically found in the distribution-package ``binutils``.

AIX, Solaris, FreeBSD and OpenBSD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Users have reported success running PyInstaller on these platforms,
but it is not tested on them.
The ``ldd`` and ``objdump`` commands are needed.

Each bundled app contains a copy of a *bootloader*,
a program that sets up the application and starts it
(see :ref:`The Bootstrap Process in Detail`).

When you install PyInstaller using pip_, the setup will attempt
to build a bootloader for this platform.
If that succeeds, the installation continues and PyInstaller is ready to use.

If the pip_ setup fails to build a bootloader,
or if you do not use pip_ to install,
you must compile a bootloader manually.
The process is described under :ref:`Building the Bootloader`.


.. include:: _common_definitions.txt

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