Bundling data files with PyInstaller --onefile

Question

I m trying to build a one-file EXE with PyInstaller which is to include an image and an icon  I cannot for the life of me get it to work with --onefile   If I do --onedir it works all works very well  When I use --onefile  it can t find the referenced additional files  when running the compiled EXE   It finds the DLLs and everything else fine  just not the two images   I ve looked in the temp-dir generated when running the EXE   Temp  MEI95642  for example  and the files are indeed in there  When I drop the EXE in that temp-directory it finds them  Very perplexing   This is what I ve added to the  spec file  a datas       images icon ico    D    workspace   App  src  images  icon ico     DATA      images loaderani gif   D    workspace   App  src  images  loaderani gif   DATA           I should add that I have tried not putting them in subfolders as well  didn t make a difference   Edit  Marked newer answer as correct due to PyInstaller update

User · Answer

I have been dealing with this issue for a long(well, very long) time. I've searched almost every source but things were not getting in a pattern in my head.

Finally, I think I have figured out exact steps to follow, I wanted to share.

Note that, my answer uses informations on the answers of others on this question.

How to create a standalone executable of a python project.

Assume, we have a project_folder and the file tree is as follows:

project_folder/
    main.py
    xxx.py # modules
    xxx.py # modules
    sound/ # directory containing the sound files
    img/ # directory containing the image files
    venv/ # if using a venv

First of all, let's say you have defined your paths to sound/ and img/ folders into variables sound_dir and img_dir as follows:

img_dir = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "img")
sound_dir = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "sound")

You have to change them, as follows:

img_dir = resource_path("img")
sound_dir = resource_path("sound")

Where, resource_path() is defined in the top of your script as:

def resource_path(relative_path):
    """ Get absolute path to resource, works for dev and for PyInstaller """
    base_path = getattr(sys, '_MEIPASS', os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
    return os.path.join(base_path, relative_path)

Activate virtual env if using a venv,

Install pyinstaller if you didn't yet, by: pip3 install pyinstaller.

Run: pyi-makespec --onefile main.py to create the spec file for the compile and build process.

This will change file hierarchy to:

project_folder/
    main.py
    xxx.py # modules
    xxx.py # modules
    sound/ # directory containing the sound files
    img/ # directory containing the image files
    venv/ # if using a venv
    main.spec

Open(with an edior) main.spec:

At top of it, insert:

added_files = [

("sound", "sound"),
("img", "img")

]

Then, change the line of datas=[], to datas=added_files,

For the details of the operations done on main.spec see here.

Run pyinstaller --onefile main.spec

And that is all, you can run main in project_folder/dist from anywhere, without having anything else in its folder. You can distribute only that main file. It is now, a true standalone.

User · Answer

Instead for rewriting all my path code as suggested  I changed the working directory   if getattr sys   frozen   False       os chdir sys  MEIPASS    Just add those two lines at the beginning of your code  you can leave the rest as is

User · Answer

Another solution is to make a runtime hook  which will copy or move  your data  files folders  to the directory at which the executable is stored  The hook is a simple python file that can almost do anything  just before the execution of your app  In order to set it  you should use the --runtime-hook my hook py option of pyinstaller  So  in case your data is an images folder  you should run the command  pyinstaller py --onefile -F --add-data images images --runtime-hook cp images hook py main py  The cp images hook py could be something like this  import sys import os import shutil  path   getattr sys    MEIPASS   os getcwd     full path   path  quot   images quot  try      shutil move full path   quot    images quot   except      print  quot Cannot create  images  folder  Already exists  quot    Before every execution the images folder is moved to the current directory  from the  MEIPASS folder   so the executable will always have access to it  In that way there is no need to modify your project s code  Second Solution You can take advantage of the runtime-hook mechanism and change the current directory  which is not a good practice according to some developers  but it works fine  The hook code can be found below  import sys import os  path   getattr sys    MEIPASS   os getcwd       os chdir path

User · Answer

Using the excellent answer from Max and This post about adding extra data files like images or sound  amp  my own research testing  I ve figured out what I believe is the easiest way to add such files   If you would like to see a live example  my repository is here on GitHub   Note  this is for compiling using the --onefile or -F command with pyinstaller   My environment is as follows    Python 3 3 7 Tkinter 8 6  check version  Pyinstaller 3 6     Solving the problem in 2 steps  To solve the issue we need to specifically tell Pyinstaller that we have extra files that need to be  bundled  with the application   We also need to be using a  relative  path  so the application can run properly when it s running as a Python Script or a Frozen EXE   With that being said we need a function that allows us to have relative paths  Using the function that Max Posted we can easily solve the relative pathing   def img resource path relative path           Get absolute path to resource  works for dev and for PyInstaller         try            PyInstaller creates a temp folder and stores path in  MEIPASS         base path   sys  MEIPASS     except Exception          base path   os path abspath           return os path join base path  relative path    We would use the above function like this so the application icon shows up when the app is running as either a Script OR Frozen EXE   icon path   img resource path  app img app icon ico   root wm iconbitmap icon path     The next step is that we need to instruct Pyinstaller on where to find the extra files when it s compiling so that when the application is run  they get created in the temp directory   We can solve this issue two ways as shown in the documentation  but I personally prefer managing my own  spec file so that s how we re going to do it   First  you must already have a  spec file  In my case  I was able to create what I needed by running pyinstaller with extra args  you can find extra args here  Because of this  my spec file may look a little different than yours but I m posting all of it for reference after I explain the important bits   added files is essentially a List containing Tuple s  in my case I m only wanting to add a SINGLE image  but you can add multiple ico s  png s or jpg s using   app img   ico    app img   You may also create another tuple like soadded files                 to have multiple imports  The first part of the tuple defines what file or what type of file s you would like to add as well as where to find them  Think of this as CTRL C  The second part of the tuple tells Pyinstaller  to make the path  app img   and place the files in that directory RELATIVE to whatever temp directory gets created when you run the  exe  Think of this as CTRL V  Under a   Analysis  main     I ve set datas added files  originally it used to be datas    but we want out the list of imports to be  well  imported so we pass in our custom imports   You don t need to do this unless you want a specific icon for the EXE  at the bottom of the spec file I m telling Pyinstaller to set my application icon for the exe with the option icon  app  img  app icon ico    added files           app img app icon ico   app img      a   Analysis   main py                 pathex   D   Github Repos  Processes-Killer  Process Killer                 binaries                  datas added files               hiddenimports                  hookspath                  runtime hooks                  excludes                  win no prefer redirects False               win private assemblies False               cipher block cipher               noarchive False  pyz   PYZ a pure  a zipped data               cipher block cipher  exe   EXE pyz            a scripts            a binaries            a zipfiles            a datas                          name  Process Killer             debug False            bootloader ignore signals False            strip False            upx True            upx exclude               runtime tmpdir None            console True   uac admin True  icon  app  img  app icon ico       Compiling to EXE  I m very lazy  I don t like typing things more than I have to  I ve created a  bat file that I can just click  You don t have to do this  this code will run in a command prompt shell just fine without it   Since the  spec file contains all of our compiling settings  amp  args  aka options  we just have to give that  spec file to Pyinstaller   pyinstaller exe  Process Killer spec

User · Answer

Perhaps i missed a step or did something wrong but the methods which are above  didn t bundle data files with PyInstaller into one exe file  Let me share the steps what i have done    step Write one of the above methods into your py file with importing sys and os modules  I tried both of them  The last one is   def resource path relative path       Get absolute path to resource  works for dev and for PyInstaller         base path   getattr sys    MEIPASS   os path dirname os path abspath   file          return os path join base path  relative path   step  Write  pyi-makespec file py  to the console  to create a file spec file  step  Open  file spec with Notepad   to add the data files like below   a   Analysis   C   Users  TCK  Desktop  Projeler  Converter-GUI py                 pathex   C   Users  TCK  Desktop  Projeler                 binaries                  datas                  hiddenimports                  hookspath                  runtime hooks                  excludes                  win no prefer redirects False               win private assemblies False               cipher block cipher   Add the file like the below example a datas       Converter-GUI ico    C   Users  TCK  Desktop  Projeler  Converter-GUI ico    DATA    pyz   PYZ a pure  a zipped data       cipher block cipher  exe   EXE pyz            a scripts            exclude binaries True            name  Converter-GUI             debug False            strip False            upx True             Turn the console option False if you don t want to see the console while executing the program            console False             Add an icon to the program            icon  C   Users  TCK  Desktop  Projeler  Converter-GUI ico    coll   COLLECT exe                 a binaries                 a zipfiles                 a datas                 strip False                 upx True                 name  Converter-GUI    step  I followed the above steps  then saved the spec file  At last opened the console and write  pyinstaller file spec  in my case  file Converter-GUI     Conclusion  There s still more than one file in the dist folder   Note  I m using Python 3 5   EDIT  Finally it works with Jonathan Reinhart s method    step  Add the below codes to your python file with importing sys and os   def resource path relative path       Get absolute path to resource  works for dev and for PyInstaller         base path   getattr sys    MEIPASS   os path dirname os path abspath   file          return os path join base path  relative path   step  Call the above function with adding the path of your file   image path   resource path  Converter-GUI ico    step  Write the above variable that call the function to where your codes need the path  In my case it s       self window iconbitmap image path   step  Open the console in the same directory of your python file  write the codes like below       pyinstaller --onefile your file py  step  Open the  spec file of the python file and append the a datas array and add the icon to the exe class  which was given above before the edit in 3 rd step  step  Save and exit the path file  Go to your folder which include the spec and py file  Open again the console window and type the below command       pyinstaller your file spec    After the 6  step your one file is ready to use

User · Answer

For those of whom are still looking for a more recent answer  here you go  In the documentation  there s a section on accessing added data files  Here is the short and sweet of it   You ll want to import pkgutil and locate which folder you added the datafile to  i e  the second string in the tuple which was added to the spec file  datas      quot path to mypackage data file txt quot    quot path to mypackage quot     Knowing where you added the data file can then be used for reading it in as binary data  and decoding it as you wish  Take this example  File structure  mypackage         init   py    This is a MUST in order for the package to be registered       data file txt    The data file you ve added  data file txt Hello world   main py import pkgutil  file   pkgutil get data  quot mypackage quot    quot data file txt quot   contents   file decode  quot utf-8 quot   print contents     Hello world    References   pkgutil - Builtin library   init   py and packages

User · Answer

All of the other answers use the current working directory in the case where the application is not PyInstalled  i e  sys  MEIPASS is not set   That is wrong  as it prevents you from running your application from a directory other than the one where your script is   A better solution   import sys import os  def resource path relative path           Get absolute path to resource  works for dev and for PyInstaller         base path   getattr sys    MEIPASS   os path dirname os path abspath   file          return os path join base path  relative path

User · Answer

pyinstaller unpacks your data into a temporary folder  and stores this directory path in the  MEIPASS2 environment variable  To get the  MEIPASS2 dir in packed-mode and use the local directory in unpacked  development  mode  I use this   def resource path relative       return os path join          os environ get                MEIPASS2               os path abspath                         relative         Output     in development  gt  gt  gt  resource path  app icon ico     home shish src my app app icon ico     in production  gt  gt  gt  resource path  app icon ico     tmp  MEI34121 app icon ico

User · Answer

Newer versions of PyInstaller do not set the env variable anymore  so Shish s excellent answer will not work  Now the path gets set as sys  MEIPASS   def resource path relative path           Get absolute path to resource  works for dev and for PyInstaller         try            PyInstaller creates a temp folder and stores path in  MEIPASS         base path   sys  MEIPASS     except Exception          base path   os path abspath           return os path join base path  relative path

User · Answer

The most common complaint question I ve seen wrt PyInstaller is  my code can t find a data file which I definitely included in the bundle  where is it    and it isn t easy to see what where your code is searching because the extracted code is in a temp location and is removed when it exits  Add this bit of code to see what s included in your onefile and where it is  using  Jonathon Reinhart s resource path    for root  dirs  files in os walk resource path           print root      for file in files          print       file

User · Answer

I found the existing answers confusing  and took a long time to work out where the problem is  Here s a compilation of everything I found   When I run my app  I get an error Failed to execute script foo  if foo py is the main file   To troubleshoot this  don t run PyInstaller with --noconsole  or edit main spec to change console False    console True   With this  run the executable from a command-line  and you ll see the failure   The first thing to check is that it s packaging up your extra files correctly  You should add tuples like   x    x   if you want the folder x to be included   After it crashes  don t click OK  If you re on Windows  you can use Search Everything  Look for one of your files  eg  sword png   You should find the temporary path where it unpacked the files  eg  C  Users ashes999 AppData Local Temp  MEI157682 images sword png   You can browse this directory and make sure it included everything  If you can t find it this way  look for something like main exe manifest  Windows  or python35 dll  if you re using Python 3 5    If the installer includes everything  the next likely problem is file I O  your Python code is looking in the executable s directory  instead of the temp directory  for files   To fix that  any of the answers on this question work  Personally  I found a mixture of them all to work  change directory conditionally first thing in your main entry-point file  and everything else works as-is    if hasattr sys    MEIPASS        os chdir sys  MEIPASS

User · Answer

Slight modification to the accepted answer   def resource path relative path           Get absolute path to resource  works for dev and for PyInstaller         if hasattr sys    MEIPASS            return os path join sys  MEIPASS  relative path       return os path join os path abspath       relative path

User · Answer

i use this based on max solution def getPath filename       import os     import sys     from os import chdir     from os path import join     from os path import dirname     from os import environ          if hasattr sys    MEIPASS              PyInstaller  gt   1 6         chdir sys  MEIPASS          filename   join sys  MEIPASS  filename      elif   MEIPASS2  in environ            PyInstaller  lt  1 6  tested on 1 5 only          chdir environ   MEIPASS2            filename   join environ   MEIPASS2    filename      else          chdir dirname sys argv 0            filename   join dirname sys argv 0    filename               return filename

User · Answer

If you are still trying to put files relative to your executable instead of in the temp directory  you need to copy it yourself   This is how I ended up getting it done   https   stackoverflow com a 59415662 999943  You add a step in the spec file that does a filesystem copy to the DISTPATH variable   Hope that helps

[python] Bundling data files with PyInstaller (--onefile)

How to create a standalone executable of a python project.

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