a file inside a script

[Skaperen]

i would like for a script i am designing to be able to output some file contents to an actual file even where that file does not yet exist, so there is no opportunity to read the contents at run time. the contents will need to be integrated into the script. the contents will be large enough that it is inconvenient to insert this contents through manual editing of the script. the contents will exist as a file on the development system, but doing a manual insert is not practical.

do any systems or schemes exist to allow the developer to "compile" this by taking script code and the contents file and producing (by running a specific command that is part of this system or scheme) the final script that can be run on other systems that have Python but not the original contents file?

the contents may be binary and/or large such that compression and/or encoding should be used.