PyInstaller problem making exe files that using transformers and PyQt5 library

Question

So I'm working on an AI project using huggingface library, and I need to convert it into an exe file. I'm using PyQt5 for the interface, and transformers and datasets library from huggingface. I tried using PyInstaller to convert it into an exe file, it does finish building the exe files of the project, but it gives me this error when I run the exe file:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "transformers\utils\versions.py", line 105, in require_version
  File "importlib\metadata.py", line 530, in version
  File "importlib\metadata.py", line 503, in distribution
  File "importlib\metadata.py", line 177, in from_name
importlib.metadata.PackageNotFoundError: tqdm

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "App.py", line 5, in <module>
  File "PyInstaller\loader\pyimod03_importers.py", line 476, in exec_module
  File "transformers\__init__.py", line 43, in <module>
  File "PyInstaller\loader\pyimod03_importers.py", line 476, in exec_module
  File "transformers\dependency_versions_check.py", line 41, in <module>
  File "transformers\utils\versions.py", line 120, in require_version_core
  File "transformers\utils\versions.py", line 107, in require_version
importlib.metadata.PackageNotFoundError: The 'tqdm>=4.27' distribution was not found and is required by this application.
Try: pip install transformers -U or pip install -e '.[dev]' if you're working with git master
[736] Failed to execute script 'App' due to unhandled exception!

[process exited with code 1]

Line 5 on my code was a line of code for importing the transformers library.

...
4| from PyQt5.QtCore import QThread, QObject, pyqtSignal
5| from transformers import AutoTokenizer, AutoModelForQuestionAnswering, pipeline
...
...

And this is my .spec file:

# -*- mode: python ; coding: utf-8 -*-

block_cipher = None

a = Analysis(['App.py'],
             pathex=[],
             binaries=[],
             datas=[
                ('./resources/images/logo.png', '.'), 
                ('./resources/model/config.json', '.'), 
                ('./resources/model/pytorch_model.bin', '.'), 
                ('./resources/model/special_tokens_map.json', '.'), 
                ('./resources/model/tokenizer.json', '.'), 
                ('./resources/model/tokenizer_config.json', '.'), 
                ('./resources/model/vocab.txt', '.')
            ],
             hiddenimports=[],
             hookspath=[],
             hooksconfig={},
             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, 
          [],
          exclude_binaries=True,
          name='App',
          debug=False,
          bootloader_ignore_signals=False,
          strip=False,
          upx=True,
          console=True,
          disable_windowed_traceback=False,
          target_arch=None,
          codesign_identity=None,
          entitlements_file=None , icon='logo.ico')
coll = COLLECT(exe,
               a.binaries,
               a.zipfiles,
               a.datas, 
               strip=False,
               upx=True,
               upx_exclude=[],
               name='App')

I would really appreciate any help given, thanks :D

Answer 1

First, pip install tqdm if you haven't already. Second, specify the path to your Lib/site-packages. You can do this by either:

1. Adding an argument to pathex in your .spec file (.venv for a virtual environment at some folder .venv in your local directory, or the absolute path to your global Python install Lib/site-packages if you're not using a virtual environment):

pathex=['.venv/Lib/site-packages']

2. Specifying the path to Lib/site-packages from the command-line:

pyinstaller --paths '.venv/Lib/site-packages' my_program.py

From the pyinstaller docs

pathex: a list of paths to search for imports (like using PYTHONPATH), including paths given by the --paths option.

Some Python scripts import modules in ways that PyInstaller cannot detect: for example, by using the __import__() function with variable data, using importlib.import_module(), or manipulating the sys.path value at run time.