Making single exe file of python code which executes another python code

Question

I am new to Tkinter and I have written a very simple Tkinter code that gets two inputs from the user and then executes another python script using os.system with passing two inputs as arguments. The code basically finds outs the difference in the CSV file.

Sharing the Tkinter code below.

import tkinter as tk
import os
def csv_diff():
    global first
    first = e1.get().replace('\\','\\\\')
    second = e2.get().replace('\\','\\\\')
    execute = 'python' +' '+'File_diff.py' + ' ' +first+' '+second
    os.system(execute)

root = tk.Tk()
root.geometry("400x200")
root.configure(bg='green')
window = tk.Label(root,bg = "yellow", text="File Difference").grid(row=0)
tk.Label(root, text="1st CSV Location").grid(row=1)
tk.Label(root, text="2nd CSV Location").grid(row=2)
e1 = tk.Entry(root)
e2 = tk.Entry(root)
e1.grid(row=1, column=1)
e2.grid(row=2, column=1)
slogan = tk.Button(root,text="Run",command=csv_diff).grid(row=3, column=1, sticky=tk.W,pady=4)
root.mainloop()

The second code File_diff.py is

import sys
first_file_path = sys.argv[1]
second_file_path = sys.argv[2]
with open(first_file_path, 'r') as t1, open(second_file_path, 'r') as t2:
    fileone = t1.readlines()
    filetwo = t2.readlines()
with open('update.csv', 'a') as outFile:
    outFile.write(fileone[0])
with open('update.csv', 'a') as outFile:
    for line in filetwo:
        if line not in fileone:
            outFile.write(line)
with open('update.csv', 'a') as outFile:
    for line in fileone:
        if line not in filetwo:
            outFile.write(line)

Now I want to make a single executable for these programs. I tried using pyinstaller but then it showed the error that no file File_diff.py doesn't exist.

I am not able to understand on how to make a single exe file for these two codes. Can anyone please explain on how to make a single executable file for this?

Answer 1

You need to include File_diff.py into the generated executable:

pyinstaller -F --add-data File_diff.py;. my_script.py

Since all the files packed into the generated executable will be extracted to a temporary directory when running the executable, your code need to get the temporary directory in order to access those files:

import os
import sys
...

# function to get the path of a resource
def get_resource(resource):
    resource_path = getattr(sys, "_MEIPASS", "")
    return os.path.join(resource_path, resource)

Then you can execute the external script like below:

def csv_diff():
    first = e1.get().replace('\\','\\\\')
    second = e2.get().replace('\\','\\\\')
    execute = ' '.join(['python', get_resource('File_diff.py'), first, second])
    os.system(execute)