We Keep Coding

Python - Trouble in building executable

I'm a python programmer and I'm trying to build an executable binary to distribute my software to my clients, even if it's not fully executable I want to be able to distribute my software in a way so that it is convenient for the end user.
I have already tried PyInstaller as well as Py2Exe and I'm facing the same problem with a particular software.
I used the splinter module for my program (which of course is a new high level framework to interact with other frameworks like Selenium) and every time I try to compile it there seems to be a file called "webdriver.xpi" that is always left out from the final package and therefore when the program attempts to execute the web-driver it fails with an IO Error saying that the file "webdriver.xpi" was not found....but other than that the GUI and everything works perfectly fine.
So is there a way to include it even manually? I tried including it manually by browsing to the specific folder # library.zip file but it didn't work.
I'm not really expert in this matter and I rely on GUI2Exe for building everything...and I would really appreciate some advice if possible on how to fix this.
Thanks.

I was at this all day and found a workaround, it's sneaky but it works. In the error message I was receiving I noticed that there was a space between in library .zip. I could not trace it down in the source code for py2exe or selenium. I too had tried putting the xpi file in the library zip and it did not work. The workaround is:
In your setup file use these options:
setup(
console=['yourFile.py'],
options={
"py2exe":{
"skip_archive": True,
"unbuffered": True,
"optimize": 2
}
}
)
Run the py2exe install
Copy the xpi file into the dist directory
That should do it.

You need an instruction in your setup.py to include any resource files in your distribution. There is a couple of ways of doing this (see distutils, setuptools, distribute - depending on what you are using to build your distribution), but the py2exe wiki has an example.
You may need to use this py2exe tip to find your resources if you're installing them into the same directory as your exe.
See this answer for some additional info on including resource files in your distribution.

Here is a solution of your question:
I have modify a code little and it should be work since I had a same issue and I solved it:
from distutils.core import setup
import py2exe
wd_base = 'C:\\Python27\\Lib\site-packages\\selenium-2.44.0-py2.7.egg \\selenium\\webdriver'
RequiredDataFailes = [
('selenium/webdriver/firefox', ['%s\\firefox\\webdriver.xpi'%(wd_base), '%s\\firefox\\webdriver_prefs.json'%(wd_base)])
]
setup(
windows=[{"script":"gui_final.py"}],options={"py2exe":{"skip_archive": True,"includes":["sip"]}},
data_files=RequiredDataFailes,
)

I know this is old, but I wanted to give an updated answer to avoid suggesting that programmers do something manually.
There is a py2exe option to specify a list of data files as tuples. (pathtocopyto, [list of files and where to get them])
Example:
from disutils.core import setup
import py2exe
wd_base = 'C:\\Python27\\Lib\\site-packages\\selenium\\webdriver'
RequiredDataFailes = [
('selenium/webdriver/firefox', ['%s\\firefox\\webdriver.xpi'%(wd_base), '%s\\firefox\\webdriver_prefs.json'%(wd_base)])
]
setup(
console=['MyScript.py'],
data_files=RequiredDataFiles,
options={
**mypy2exeopts
}
)
The only downside I am aware of currently is that you still need skip_archive = True. There are workarounds to get the data files in the library.zip, but I haven't had much luck with the webdriver's info.

Compiling an IronPython WPF project to exe

What is the best way to pack up an IronPython application for deployment? After scouring the web the best thing I've come up with (and what I'm currently doing) is using clr.CompileModules() to glue together my entire project's .py files into one .dll, and then having a single run.py do this to run the dll:
import clr
clr.AddReference('compiledapp.dll')
import app
This is still suboptimal, though, because it means I have to
distribute 3 files (the .dll, the .xaml, and the run.py launcher)
install IronPython on the host machine
Plus, this feels so... hacky, after the wonderful integration IronPython already has with Visual Studio 2010. I'm completely mystified as to why there is no integrated build system for IPy apps, seeing as it all boils down to IL anyway.
Ideally, I want to be able to have a single .exe with the .xaml merged inside somehow (I read that C# apps compile XAML to BAML and merge them in the executable), and without requiring IronPython to be installed to run. Is this at least halfway possible? (I suppose it's ok if the exe needs some extra .DLLs with it or something. The important part is that it's in .exe form.)
Some edits to clarify: I have tried pyc.py, but it seems to not acknowledge the fact that my project is not just app.py. The size of the exe it produces suggests that it is just 'compiling' app.py without including any of the other files into the exe. So, how do I tell it to compile every file in my project?
To help visualize this, here is a screenshot of my project's solution explorer window.
Edit II: It seems that unfortunately the only way is to use pyc.py and pass every single file to it as a parameter. There are two questions I have for this approach:
How do I possibly process a command line that big? There's a maximum of 256 characters in a command.
How does pyc.py know to preserve the package/folder structure? As shown in my project screenshot above, how will my compiled program know to access modules that are in subfolders, such as accessing DT\Device? Is the hierarchy somehow 'preserved' in the dll?
Edit III: Since passing 70 filenames to pyc.py through the command line will be unwieldy, and in the interest of solving the problem of building IPy projects more elegantly, I've decided to augment pyc.py.
I've added code that reads in a .pyproj file through the /pyproj: parameter, parses the XML, and grabs the list of py files used in the project from there. This has been working pretty well; however, the executable produced seems to be unable to access the python subpackages (subfolders) that are part of my project. My version of pyc.py with my .pyproj reading support patch can be found here: http://pastebin.com/FgXbZY29
When this new pyc.py is run on my project, this is the output:
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme>"c:\Program Files (x86)\IronPython 2.7\ipy.exe"
pyc.py /pyproj:GenScheme.pyproj /out:App /main:app.py /target:exe
Input Files:
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\__init__.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\Agent.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\AIDisplay.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\app.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\BaseDevice.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\BaseManager.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\BaseSubSystem.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\ControlSchemes.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\Cu64\__init__.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\Cu64\agent.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\Cu64\aidisplays.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\Cu64\devmapper.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\Cu64\timedprocess.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\Cu64\ui.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\decorators.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\DeviceMapper.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\DT\__init__.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\DT\Device.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\DT\Manager.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\DT\SubSystem.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\excepts.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\FindName.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\GenScheme.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\PMX\__init__.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\PMX\Device.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\PMX\Manager.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\PMX\SubSystem.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\pyevent.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\Scheme.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\Simulated\__init__.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\Simulated\Device.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\Simulated\SubSystem.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\speech.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\stdoutWriter.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\Step.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\TimedProcess.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\UI.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\VirtualSubSystem.py
c:\Projects\GenScheme\GenScheme\Waddle.py
Output:
App
Target:
ConsoleApplication
Platform:
ILOnly
Machine:
I386
Compiling...
Saved to App
So it correctly read in the list of files in the .pyproj... Great! But running the exe gives me this:
Unhandled Exception: IronPython.Runtime.Exceptions.ImportException:
No module named Cu64.ui
So even though Cu64\ui.py is obviously included in compilation, the exe, when run, can't find it. This is what I was afraid of in point #2 in the previous edit. How do I preserve the package hierarchy of my project? Perhaps compiling each package seperately may be needed?
I'll extend the bounty for this question. Ultimately my hope is that we can get a working pyc.py that reads in pyproj files and produces working exes in one step. Then maybe it could even be submitted to IronPython's codeplex to be included in the next release... ;]

Use pyc.py to produce app.exe and don't forget to include app.dll and IronPython libraries.
As for XAML - I've created project just for .xaml files that I compile in VS and then use them from IronPython. For example:
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/CompiledStyle;component/Style.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>

It "boils down to IL", but it isn't compatible with the IL that C# code produces, so it can't be directly compiled to a standalone .exe file.
You'll need to use pyc.py to compile your code to a stub EXE with the DLL that CompileModules creates.
Then distribute those files with IronPython.dll, IronPython.Modules.dll, Microsoft.Dynamic.dll, Microsoft.Scripting.Debugging.dll, Microsoft.Scripting.dll, and of course the XAML file.
To compile other files, just add them as arguments:
ipy.exe pyc.py /main:app.py /target:winexe another.py another2.py additional.py

I posted a Python script which can take an IronPython file, figure out its dependencies and compile the lot into a standalone binary at Ironpython 2.6 .py -> .exe. Hope you find it useful. It ought to work for WPF too as it bundles WPF support.

To create a set of assemblies for your IronPython application so that you can distribute it you can either use pyc.py or SharpDevelop.
To compile using pyc.py:
ipy.exe pyc.py /main:Program.py Form.py File1.py File2.py ... /target:winexe
Given the amount of files in your project you could try using SharpDevelop instead of maintaining a long command line for pyc.py. You will need to create a new IronPython project in SharpDevelop and import your files into the project. You will probably need to import the files one at a time since SharpDevelop lacks a way to import multiple files unless they are in a subfolder.
You can then use SharpDevelop to compile your application into an executable and a dll. All the other required files, such as IronPython.dll, Microsoft.Scripting.dll, will be in the bin/debug or bin/release folder. SharpDevelop uses clr.CompileModules and a custom MSBuild task behind the scenes to generate the binaries.
Any IronPython packages defined in your project should be usable from your application after compilation.
Packaging up the XAML can be done by embedding the xaml as a resource. Then using code similar to the following:
import clr
clr.AddReference('PresentationFramework')
clr.AddReference('System')
from System.IO import FileMode, FileStream, Path
from System.Reflection import Assembly
from System.Windows import Application
from System.Windows.Markup import XamlReader
executingAssemblyFileName = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location
directory = Path.GetDirectoryName(executingAssemblyFileName)
xamlFileName = Path.Combine(directory, "Window1.xaml")
stream = FileStream(xamlFileName, FileMode.Open)
window = XamlReader.Load(stream)
app = Application()
app.Run(window)
SharpDevelop 3.2 does not embed resource files correctly so you will need to use SharpDevelop 4.
If you are using IronPython 2.7 you can use the new clr.LoadComponent method that takes an object and either a XAML filename or stream and wires up that object to the XAML.
Whilst the C# compiler can compile your XAML into a BAML resource doing the same with IronPython has a few problems. If you do not link the XAML to a class via the x:Class attribute then it is possible to compile the XAML into a BAML resource and have that embedded into your assembly. However you will not get any autogenerated code so you will need to create that code yourself. Another problem is that this will not work out of the box with SharpDevelop. You will need to edit the SharpDevelop.Build.Python.targets file and change the from Python to C#. Trying to use the x:Class attribute will not work since the BAML reader cannot access any associated IronPython class. This is because the generated IL in the compiled IronPython application is very different to that in a C# or VB.NET assembly.

I installed Visual Studio 2015 with PTVS (ironpython 2.7). I created a very simple WPF project and wasn't able to compile an exe. I always got the exception "ImportError: No module named wpf".
import clr
clr.AddReferenceToFileAndPath("c:\\path\\to\\IronPython.Wpf.dll")
clr.AddReferenceToFileAndPath('c:\\path\\to\\PresentationCore.dll')
clr.AddReferenceToFileAndPath('c:\\path\\to\\PresentationFramework.dll')
clr.AddReferenceToFileAndPath('c:\\path\\to\\WindowsBase.dll')
from System.Windows import Application, Window
import wpf
class MyWindow(Window):
def __init__(self):
wpf.LoadComponent(self, 'RegExTester.xaml')
def OnSearch(self, sender, e):
self.tbOut.Text = "hello world"
if __name__ == '__main__':
Application().Run(MyWindow())
The fault I got was because the clr clause must be before the import wpf. Steps to compile it:
install pip for CPython 2.7 (not ironpython!)
install ipy2asm
python -m pip install ironpycompiler
compile the application like
ipy2asm compile -t winexe -e -s program.py

Using bundle_files = 1 with py2exe is not working

After some big frustration I did it! I converted my django app to an "exe" one to run as a single standalone app on windows (using cherrypy as a WSGI server)
But When I try to to set py2exe's option "bundle_files" to "1" (i.e. bundle the python interpreter Python25.dll inside the generated exe) the generated exe crashes with a message talking about kernel32.dll
But when I use "bundle_file" = "2", the generated exe is runing like a charm, but must -of course- have Python25.dll as a separate file beside it.
Anyone experienced a similar behavior, can you please tell me what I'm missing?
Thank you! :)

this post talks all about using py2exe to get a single exe file.
py2exe - generate single executable file
If you post some code i'll take a look, and your error message will help to.

Maybe you can try pyinstaller instead.
I did have this problem before and didn't find a solution ever, but pyinstaller meets my need too and works perfectly.

I also faced similar problem. But mine is with PyGTK. Simple program has no problem with it. Although there is no straight solution, there is an explanation provided here.
It says:
This is based on the Inno sample code in the py2exe distribution. It has worked successfully for a rather complicated PyGTK/Twisted app requiring extra data at runtime (GTK runtime data, GtkBuilder files, images, text data) that just wouldn't work with bundle_files.

Here's The solution:
from distutils.core import setup
import py2exe, sys, os
sys.argv.append('py2exe')
setup(
options = {'py2exe': {'bundle_files': 3}},
windows = [{'script': "Your_App_Name.py"}],
zipfile = None,
)

Create plugins for python standalone executables

how to create a good plugin engine for standalone executables created with pyInstaller, py2exe or similar tools?
I do not have experience with py2exe, but pyInstaller uses an import hook to import packages from it's compressed repository. Of course I am able to import dynamically another compressed repository created with pyInstaller and execute the code - this may be a simple plugin engine.
Problems appears when the plugin (this what is imported dynamically) uses a library that is not present in original repository (never imported). This is because import hook is for the original application and searches for packages in original repository - not the one imported later (plugin package repository).
Is there an easy way to solve this problem? Maybe there exist such engine?

When compiling to exe, your going to have this issue.
The only option I can think of to allow users access with thier plugins to use any python library is to include all libraries in the exe package.
It's probably a good idea to limit supported libraries to a subset, and list it in your documentation. Up to you.
I've only used py2exe.
In py2exe you can specify libraries that were not found in the search in the setup.py file.
Here's a sample:
from distutils.core import setup
import py2exe
setup (name = "script2compile",
console=['script2compile.pyw'],
version = "1.4",
author = "me",
author_email="somemail#me.com",
url="myurl.com",
windows = [{
"script":"script2compile.pyw",
"icon_resources":[(1,"./ICONS/app.ico")] # Icon file to use for display
}],
# put packages/libraries to include in the "packages" list
options = {"py2exe":{"packages": [ "pickle",
"csv",
"Tkconstants",
"Tkinter",
"tkFileDialog",
"pyexpat",
"xml.dom.minidom",
"win32pdh",
"win32pdhutil",
"win32api",
"win32con",
"subprocess",
]}}
)
import win32pdh
import win32pdhutil
import win32api

PyInstaller does have a plugin system for handling hidden imports, and ships with several of those already in. See the webpage (http://www.pyinstaller.org) which says:
The main goal of PyInstaller is to be compatible with 3rd-party packages out-of-the-box. This means that, with PyInstaller, all the required tricks to make external packages work are already integrated within PyInstaller itself so that there is no user intervention required. You'll never be required to look for tricks in wikis and apply custom modification to your files or your setup scripts. Check our compatibility list of SupportedPackages.

py2exe fails to generate an executable

I am using python 2.6 on XP. I have just installed py2exe, and I can successfully create a simple hello.exe from a hello.py. However, when I try using py2exe on my real program, py2exe produces a few information messages but fails to generate anything in the dist folder.
My setup.py looks like this:
from distutils.core import setup
import py2exe
setup(console=['ServerManager.py'])
and the py2exe output looks like this:
python setup.py py2exe
running py2exe
creating C:\DevSource\Scripts\ServerManager\build
creating C:\DevSource\Scripts\ServerManager\build\bdist.win32
...
...
creating C:\DevSource\Scripts\ServerManager\dist
*** searching for required modules ***
*** parsing results ***
creating python loader for extension 'wx._misc_' (C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\wx-2.8-msw-unicode\wx\_misc_.pyd -> wx._misc_.pyd)
creating python loader for extension 'lxml.etree' (C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\lxml\etree.pyd -> lxml.etree.pyd)
...
...
creating python loader for extension 'bz2' (C:\Python26\DLLs\bz2.pyd -> bz2.pyd)
*** finding dlls needed ***
py2exe seems to have found all my imports (though I was a bit surprised to see win32 mentioned, as I am not explicitly importing it). Also, my program starts up quite happily with this command:
python ServerManager.py
Clearly I am doing something fundamentally wrong, but in the absence of any error messages from py2exe I have no idea what.

I put this in all my setup.py scripts:
distutils.core.setup(
options = {
"py2exe": {
"dll_excludes": ["MSVCP90.dll"]
}
},
...
)
This keeps py2exe quiet, but you still need to make sure that dll is on the user's machine.

I've discovered that py2exe works just fine if I comment out the part of my program that uses wxPython. Also, when I use py2exe on the 'simple' sample that comes with its download (i.e. in Python26\Lib\site-packages\py2exe\samples\simple), I get this error message:
*** finding dlls needed ***
error: MSVCP90.dll: No such file or directory
So something about wxPython makes py2exe think I need a Visual Studio 2008 DLL. I don't have VS2008, and yet my program works perfectly well as a directory of Python modules. I found a copy of MSVCP90.DLL on the web, installed it in Python26/DLLs, and py2exe now works fine.
I still don't understand where this dependency has come from, since I can run my code perfectly okay without py2exe. It's also annoying that py2exe didn't give me an error message like it did with the test_wx.py sample.
Further update: When I tried to run the output from py2exe on another PC, I discovered that it needed to have MSVCR90.DLL installed; so if your target PC hasn't got Visual C++ 2008 already installed, I recommend you download and install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package.

wxPython has nothing to do with it. Before Python 2.6, Python used Visual Studio 2003 as their Windows compiler. Beginning with 2.6, they switched to Visual Studio 2008, which requires a manifest file in some situations. This has been well documented. See the following links:
http://wiki.wxpython.org/py2exe
http://py2exe.org/index.cgi/Tutorial#Step52
Also, if you're creating a wxPython application with py2exe, then you want to set the windows parameter, NOT the console one. Maybe my tutorial will help you:
http://www.blog.pythonlibrary.org/2010/07/31/a-py2exe-tutorial-build-a-binary-series/

It looks like this is only a dependency for Python 2.6. I wasn't getting this error under 2.5, but after the upgrade I am.
This email thread has some background for why the problem exists and how to fix it:
http://www.nabble.com/py2exe,-Py26,-wxPython-and-dll-td20556399.html
I didn't want to have to install the vcredist. My application currently requires no installation and can be run by non-administrators, which is behavior I don't want to lose. So I followed the suggestions in the links and got the necessary Microsoft.VC90.CRT.manifest and msvcr90.dll by installing Python "for this user only". I also needed msvcp90.dll that I found in the WinSxS folder of an "all users" Python 2.6 install. Since I already had two of the three, I included msvcm90.dll to prevent future errors though I didn't get any immediate errors when I left it out. I put the manifest and the three DLLs in the libs folder used by my frozen application.
The trick I had to perform was including an additional copy of the manifest and msvcr90.dll in the root of my application folder next to by py2exe generated executable. This copy of the DLL is used to bootstrap the application, but then it appears to only look in the libs folder.
Hopefully that discovery helps someone else out.
Also, I had the same problem with having py2exe log a real error message. Then I realized that stderr wasn't getting redirected into my log file. Add "> build.log 2>&1" on the command line where you invoke py2exe.

import sys
sys.path.append('C:\\WINDOWS\\WinSxS\\x86_microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.4148_none_5090ab56bcba71c2')
On each Windows, you can find the file MSVCP90.dll in some subdirectory in C:\\WINDOWS\\WinSxS\\
In my case, the directory was: x86_microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.4148_none_5090ab56bcba71c2.
Go to C:\\WINDOWS\\WinSxS\\ and use windows file search to find MSVCP90.dll.

Just for your info, for me it worked to copy the files
Microsoft.VC90.CRT.manifest
msvcr90.dll
into the directory with the .exe on the user's machine (who has no python or VC redistributable installed).
Thanks for all the hints here!

The output says you're using WX. Try running py2exe with your script specified as a GUI app instead of console. If I'm not mistaken, that tends to cause problems with py2exe.

Try this: http://www.py2exe.org/index.cgi/Tutorial#Step52
It worked for me

There is some info on the wxPython wiki.
Deploy a Python app
py2exe with wxPython and Python 2.6

On my win8.1, I do not find the path
c:/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0/VC/redist/x86/Microsoft.VC90.CRT
On the contrary , the dll is found in
C:/WINDOWS/WinSxS/x86_Microsoft.VC90.CRT_XXXXXXX
The XXX may vary according to your PC
You may search in the path , then add the path in you setup.py
import sys
sys.path.append('C:/WINDOWS/WinSxS/x86_Microsoft.VC90.CRT_XXXXXXX')

import sys
sys.path.append('c:/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0/VC/redist/x86/Microsoft.VC90.CRT')