I've noticed that an executable I created with PyInstaller on Ubuntu won't run on RHEL, throwing an error about not being able to load the Python shared library (libpython3.10.so). I managed to fix it by building the executable directly on RHEL. Since the executable contains bytecode rather than machine code, I'm confused as to why I need to create separate builds for different Linux distributions. Am I missing something important in the build process?
1 Answer
When it comes to running Python executables built on one OS on another, it's usually a no-go. The CPython interpreter is built specifically for the OS it's installed on, so it doesn't transfer easily. A common workaround is to install Python on the target systems first, then deploy your package. Alternatively, consider using containers; they can help with compatibility issues across different OS environments.
I actually have a Python app that needs to run on both Ubuntu and RHEL, and packaging it as an executable is trickier than I thought.