Pyinstaller adding data files

Question

I'm struggling with pyinstaller. Whenever I build this specific script with a kivy GUI and a .kv file, and run the .exe after the build, I get a fatal error:

IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'main.kv' 

I've tried adding the .kv file, as well as a mdb and dsn file (for pypyodbc) using --add-data, but I get an error: unrecognized arguments: --add-data'main.kv'. (There were more --add-data arguments for the other files mentioned.)

Are there any solutions for this or maybe alternative methods?

Answer 1

As others (@Anson Chan, @schlimmchen) have said:

If you want to add some extra files, you should use Adding Data Files.

Two ways to implement

• Command Line: add parameter to --add-data
• Spec file: add parameter to datas=
  • Generated when running pyinstaller the first time.
    • Then later you can edit your *.spec file.
    • Then running pyinstaller will directly use your *.spec file.

Parameter Logic

Parameter in --add-data or datas=:

• --add-data:
  • format: {source}{os_separator}{destination}
    • os_separator:
      • Windows: ;
      • Mac/Linux/Unix: :
    • source and destination
      • Logic:
        • source: path to single or multiple files, supporting glob syntax. Tells PyInstaller where to find the file(s).
        • destination file or files: destination folder which will contain your source files at run time. * NOTE: NOT the destination file name.
          • folder: destination folder path, which is RELATIVE to the destination root, NOT an absolute path.
  • Examples:
    • Single file: 'src/README.txt:.'
    • multiple files: '/mygame/sfx/*.mp3:sfx'
    • folder: /mygame/data:data'
• datas=
  • Format: list or tuple.
  • Examples: see the following.

added_files = [     ( 'src/README.txt', '.' ),     ( '/mygame/data', 'data' ),     ( '/mygame/sfx/*.mp3', 'sfx' ) ]  a = Analysis(...     datas = added_files,     ... ) 

Your case

For your (Windows OS) here is:

• --add-data in command line
  • pyinstaller -F --add-data "main.kv;." yourtarget.py

OR:

• datas= in yourtarget.spec file, see following:

a = Analysis(...     datas = ["main.kv", "."],     ... ) 

Answer 2

If you check pyinstaller -h for help, you can find --add-data option works like this [--add-data <SRC;DEST or SRC:DEST>]. So in your case try

pyinstaller -F --add-data "main.kv;main.kv" yourtarget.py