Question

I’ve wrote GTK application with python.

All graphical user interface is in glade file, and there are some images used. I wish to compile my application into EXEcutable file. For that I’m using PyInstaller compiler and UPX packer.

I’ve done as manual says:

python Configure.py
python Makespec.py --onefile --windowed --upx /path/to/yourscript.py
python Build.py /path/to/yourscript.spec

PyInstaller works perfectly and create one exe file. But to make my application work correctly i have to copy my glade and image files into exe’s folder.

Is there any way to compile those files into executable?

I’ve edited my spec file in various ways but i can not achieve what i want. Spec file below only copies file to directory, but does not compile into executable file

# -*- mode: python -*-
a = Analysis([os.path.join(HOMEPATH,'support\\_mountzlib.py'), os.path.join(HOMEPATH,'support\\useUnicode.py'), 'r:\\connection\\main.py'],
             pathex=['C:\\Documents and Settings\\Lixas\\Desktop\\pyinstaller-1.5-rc1'])

pyz = PYZ(a.pure)

exe = EXE( pyz,
          a.scripts,
          a.binaries,
          a.zipfiles,
          a.datas,
          name=os.path.join('dist', 'NetworkChecker.exe'),
          debug=False,
          strip=False,
          upx=True,
          console=False,
          icon='r:\\connection\\ikona.ico'        )

coll = COLLECT(
    exe,
    [('gui.glade', 'r:\\connection\\gui.glade', 'DATA')],
    [('question16.png', 'r:\\connection\\question16.png', 'DATA')],
#   a.binaries,
#   strip=False,
    upx=True,
    name='distFinal')

I wish to have only one executable file with everything included into

Answer 1

PyInstaller does allow you to bundle all your resources into the exe, without the trickyness of turning your data files into .py files — your COLLECT object seems to be correct, the tricky step is accessing these files at runtime. PyInstaller will unpack them into a temporary directory and tell you where they are with the _MEIPASS2 variable. To get the file paths in both development and packed mode, I use this:

def resource_path(relative):
    return os.path.join(
        os.environ.get(
            "_MEIPASS2",
            os.path.abspath(".")
        ),
        relative
    )


# in development
>>> resource_path("gui.glade")
"/home/shish/src/my_app/gui.glade"

# in deployment
>>> resource_path("gui.glade")
"/tmp/_MEI34121/gui.glade"