Building ZIPPY

ZIPPY can be run from a python installation, but you can also use pyinstaller to distribute a version of ZIPPY that does not require python to be installed. With pyinstaller installed, you simply need to run:

pyinstaller build_all.spec

This has been tested with pyinstaller 3.2.1.

Pyinstaller will create directories that contain executable files named 'make_params' and 'zippy'. These can be combined in a single directory. They can then be run on the shell by, e.g., typing './zippy'.

Here are a few gotchas that have been found while building ZIPPY:

• For linux, you must build on the oldest system you expect to run on, as glibc is forwards compatible, but not backwards compatible. If you get a glibc error when running on a different system, this is why.
• pyflow uses the inspect module to modify and generate its own source code. Thus, the pyflow.py file must be included with the ZIPPY installation. This is done by default with the build_all.spec file. If you are receiving errors with the inspect package, note that it seems that pyflow.py must be found in both ./pyflow/pyflow.py and ./site-packages/pyflow/pyflow.py, where '.' is the root directory where the executables live.