Unable to use pyinstaller to package - always informed module doesnt exist "darkdetect"

[CesparRes]

I've thrown my self at this for quite some time today - I've followed the docs page about using --onedir and --add-data

The command line I'm currently running:
pyinstaller --onedir --windowed --hidden-import=pkg_resources.extern --hidden-import=darkdetect --hidden-import distutils --add-data "e:/python stuff/site stuff/simply book/.venv/lib/site-packages/customtkinter;customtkinter/" bookings_tool_themed.py

Upon attempting to run the exe - i'm told that darkdetect module is not found.

Everything is running within the .venv and I've even manually tried installing darkdetect but pip tells me it's already installed (I guess as part of customtkinter package).

I've only discovered customtkinter today so it's a fresh install with (I assume) the latest version (5.2.2).

I've been using pyinstaller for a while but usually hidden imports solves things - so not totally sure why darkdetect is not being found, despite clearly being in the env, and even hidden imported.

[FedericoSpada]

Hi,
these are the settings I personally use for my projects.

I use the following .spec file:

a = Analysis(
   ["main.py"],
   pathex = [],
   binaries = [],
   datas = [
      ("theme.json", "customtkinter/assets/themes")
      ],
   hiddenimports = [],
   hookspath = [],
   hooksconfig = {},
   runtime_hooks = [],
   excludes = [],
   noarchive = False,
)

pyz = PYZ(a.pure)

exe = EXE(
   pyz,
   a.scripts,
   [],
   exclude_binaries = True,
   name = "ApplicationName",
   debug = False,
   bootloader_ignore_signals = False,
   strip = False,
   upx = True,
   console = False,
   disable_windowed_traceback = False,
   argv_emulation = False,
   target_arch = None,
   codesign_identity = None,
   entitlements_file = None,
   icon = ["ApplicationLogo.ico"],
)

coll = COLLECT(
   exe,
   a.binaries,
   a.datas,
   strip = False,
   upx = True,
   upx_exclude = [],
   name = "ApplicationName",
)

where "theme.json" is a custom theme located in my source code folder. If you use default themes, you can leave "datas" empty.

Then, I launch this command:

pyinstaller.exe pyinstaller.spec --noconfirm --clean --distpath out\dist --workpath out\build

[lukagouvea]

Hey, I think I am late to the discussion, but I use a second pyinstaller .spec file in order to get the complete list of imports in the project, then the original .spec file imports the list created. I used it first because pyarmor had some problems with packaging.

The .spec file responsible to write the imports list:

from pathlib import Path
import sys

build_dir = Path(sys.argv[0]).resolve().parent
repo_root = build_dir.parent

a = Analysis(
    [str(repo_root / 'app' / 'main.py')],
    pathex=[],
    binaries=[],
    datas=[],
    hiddenimports=['logging.config'],
    hookspath=[],
    hooksconfig={},
    runtime_hooks=[],
    excludes=[],
    noarchive=False,
    optimize=0,
)

import os

from PyInstaller.compat import base_prefix, EXTENSION_SUFFIXES
from fnmatch import fnmatch


hookscript = str(build_dir / 'hidden_imports.py')

hiddenimports = set([])


for name, path, kind in a.pure:
    if name.startswith('pyi_rth'):
        continue
    hiddenimports.add(name)

for name, path, kind in a.binaries:
    if kind == 'EXTENSION':
        for x in EXTENSION_SUFFIXES:
            if fnmatch(name, '*' + x):
                name = name[:-len(x)]
                break
        hiddenimports.add(name.replace(os.sep, '.'))

with open(hookscript, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    f.write("hiddenimports=[%s]" % ", ".join([repr(x) for x in hiddenimports]))

The other one, who imports the written file (the path only works on my project, you'll have to change it):

from pathlib import Path
import sys

build_dir = Path(sys.argv[0]).resolve().parent

import sys
sys.path.append(str(build_dir))

from hidden_imports import hiddenimports



a = Analysis(
    [ 'main.py'],
    pathex=[],
    binaries=[],
    datas=[],
    hiddenimports=hiddenimports,
    hookspath=[],
    hooksconfig={},
    runtime_hooks=[],
    excludes=[],
    noarchive=False,
    optimize=0,
)
pyz = PYZ(a.pure)

exe = EXE(
    pyz,
    a.scripts,
    [],
    exclude_binaries=True,
    name='NAME',
    debug=False,
    bootloader_ignore_signals=False,
    strip=False,
    upx=True,
    console=False,
    disable_windowed_traceback=False,
    argv_emulation=False,
    target_arch=None,
    codesign_identity=None,
    entitlements_file=None,
)
coll = COLLECT(
    exe,
    a.binaries,
    a.datas,
    strip=False,
    upx=True,
    upx_exclude=[],
    name='NAME',
)

Maybe it can be helpful.

I also use a powershell script to automate the spec file calls with pyinstaller, obfuscate with pyarmor critical files, copy some assets and create the installer with Inno Setup.