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python-build-standalone has exploded in popularity, with over 70M downloads all-time. But what is a "standalone" Python build? It wasn't obvious to me at first! Initially, I didn't understand what problem was being solved or why it mattered...

First, some context on the problem. Normally, when you build CPython on Linux or macOS, several system paths are hardcoded into the binary.

This is fine if you're building and installing Python on a single machine... but it's a problem if you want to pre-build Python and then distribute it to other machines, since those paths might be wrong!

In this way, CPython is not "standalone": it's tightly coupled to the system on which it was built (at least on Linux and macOS).

So, when you download Python from python.org on Linux, what you're actually downloading is an installer that builds Python from source on your machine. Similarly, when you install Python with pyenv, it too is building from source.

Building from source is desirable in some cases, but it also has its drawbacks...