QUqubidt·Dec 13, 2023
How does this compare to shiv? https://github.com/linkedin/shiv
In Show HN: PyApp – runtime installer for Python applicationslinkedin
shiv
Python2018–2025
linkedin / shiv
shiv
shiv is a command line utility for building fully self contained Python zipapps as outlined in PEP 441, but with all their dependencies included.
8Distinct people
11Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
2KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
shiv is a command line utility for building fully self contained Python zipapps as outlined in PEP 441, but with all their dependencies included.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- david-oconnor/pyflow · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 4:00:59 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year11 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2018-04-30 16:37:04 UTC to 2025-03-28 09:14:04 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
3 sourcesPython has zipapps (https://peps.python.org/pep-0441/),
which are standardized and similar to JARs.
You can build a zipapp that includes your application's dependencies using a tool like shiv or PEX,
only with binary extensions the artifacts are still per-platform: https://github.com/linkedin/shiv#gotchas.
I recommend users to install my Python programs with pipx (https://github.com/pypa/pipx).
I think it is the best option when the audience is at all technical.
pipx makes such a big difference for managing Python applications.
It avoids the version conflicts of `pip install --user` and the pain of manually creating per-application venvs.
In general, it provides a reasonable user experience.
Because of this user-friendliness,
I can recommend pipx as the primary installation method and expect people to succeed at installing the program wit
Read the rest
h it.
(I don't see issues about pipx installation in the trackers of projects that recommend it.)
My programs have binary dependencies but no GUI.
Try out shiv[1], it will package up your source and depndencies into a single file, though you still require the Python interpreter to run it on the target
[1] https://github.com/linkedin/shiv
In Pydantic V2 rewritten in Rust is 5-50x faster than Pydantic V1