Generate .NET Assemblies from Iron Python

The other day I was talking to a fellow programmer and the question of compiling Iron Python code into .NET assemblies came up. So what if you have an Iron Python script that you want to run and then have the ipy interpreter output an assembly that you can run on other machines. How do you do that?

There are several ways to approach the problem. One way is to use an IDE, but IDE support for Iron Python is still a bit lacking. One IDE that provides Iron Python great support is SharpDevelop create a Iron Python project, write your code as you normally would and then build your project. The compile assemblies can then be found in the build output folders for that project.

The other way to do this is through a tool that ships with IronPython called Pyc or the Python Command-Line Compiler. If you installed the latest version 2.6 of IronPython, then pyc.py will be available at C:\Program Files (x86)\IronPython 2.6\Tools\Scripts or wherever you installed IronPython on your system. If you have earlier versions of IronPython then pyc.py will be available as a separate download in the samples package.

With pyc.py you can create console or Windows assemblies from your python scripts. Basic usage looks like this:

ipy pyc.py /out:myprogram.exe /main:mainfile.py /target:exe program.py support.py

The above will generate an assembly called myprogram.exe (/out) which is a console application (/target) and will execute the code in mainfile.py first (/main) and will also include code from program.py and support.py in the assembly.