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.

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Answer 1

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.