Pyinstaller : program that reads a csv

Question

I'm building a program in python that reads a csv file given by the user.

I'm using Pyinstaller to build a MacOS Application.

In windows, I used CX_freeze and I just had to put the csv file in the same directory than the .exe for the program to work. But with PyInstaller, the file is not found Even if I put it in the same directory.

So where the user has to put the file in order for the program to find it ?

the program is a very basic one, something like this :

import pandas as pd

df = pd.read_csv('file.csv')

print(df)

Thanks.

Answer 1

When I create executables with Pyinstaller, I have to use the --add-data argument.

http://pyinstaller.readthedocs.io/en/stable/spec-files.html#adding-data-files

With this, you can specify the route for files like your .csv.

If you're creating a one-file bundle, Pyinstaller renames the paths internally [docs], so if you have your .csv inside some folder, you will need to do something like this each time you access to a file in your project:

def resource_path(relative):
    #print(os.environ)
    application_path = os.path.abspath(".")
    if getattr(sys, 'frozen', False):
        # If the application is run as a bundle, the pyInstaller bootloader
        # extends the sys module by a flag frozen=True and sets the app 
        # path into variable _MEIPASS'.
        application_path = sys._MEIPASS
    #print(application_path)
return os.path.join(application_path, relative)