I've been working on getting a python executable working for OSX El Capitan, and i successfully get the executable built using both Pyinstaller and cx_Freeze, the issue comes when i actually run the executable on another mac. The error i get is about not being able to find the .db file referenced in my main script, so i looked at documentation for both programs and came across sys.MEIPASS (Pyinstaller) and sys.executable (cx_Freeze) to include data files in the --onefile app. This is the code i used in my main script:
def find_data_file(filename):
if getattr(sys, 'frozen', False):
# The application is frozen
datadir = os.path.dirname(sys._MEIPASS) #in cx_Freeze this is sys.executable
else:
# The application is not frozen
# Change this bit to match where you store your data files:
datadir = ospath.abspath(os.pardir)
return os.path.join(datadir, filename)
#This is how im using the "find_data_file" function in my code.
dbpath = find_data_file('PubData.db')
conn = lite.connect(dbpath)
ive changed it a bit in the else statement to match the layout of my project directories, and it works perfectly fine when running an unfrozen application. However when i try to run using the built executable it gives me an error about not being able to find the .db file, which i thought referencing sys.MEIPASS or sys.executable would fix.
Error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "interface/GUI.py", line 673, in <module>
File "interface/GUI.py", line 82, in __init__
File "interface/GUI.py", line 212, in getServerNames
sqlite3.OperationalError: no such table: servernames
This is how my file tree looks:
PubData-master ##(Project Root Directory)
Interface ##(Directory)
GUI.py ##(Main Script, this is where i reference 'PubData.db')
GUI.spec ##(Pyinstaller spec file)
PubData.db ## This is my database file, in the PubData-master Directory
If anyone could tell me what i am doing wrong, or give me a solution, i would be extremely grateful!
if you are trying to access any data file you specified in the .spec file, in your code, you must use Pyinstaller's _MEIPASS folder to reference your file. Here is how i did so with the file named Data.db:
import sys
import os.path
if hasattr(sys, "_MEIPASS"):
datadir = os.path.join(sys._MEIPASS, 'Data.db')
else:
datadir = 'Data.db'
conn = lite.connect(datadir)
this replaced the following single line:
conn = lite.connect("Data.db")
This link explained it very well: https://irwinkwan.com/2013/04/29/python-executables-pyinstaller-and-a-48-hour-game-design-compo/