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Bundling data files with PyInstaller (--onefile)


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.


Solution

  • 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)