Script compiled with pyinstaller is missing a .dll file, when the file is manually copied in the program's folder it just dies

Question

I have a python script which is basically a graphic interface (pysimpleguy) to a mysql database.

I am working in python 3.8; my dependencies are:

• PySimpleGUI 4.55.1
• sqlalchemy 1.3.20
• pymysql 1.0.2
• pandas 1.1.3
• regex 2020.10.15
• pillow 8.0.1

The code works and I'd like to compile it to .exe to distribute it to users in my organization.

I tried to compile it with:

pyinstaller -D .\db_interface_v3.6.1_release.py --debug=imports

However, pyinstaller throws some errors when compiling:

201667 INFO: Building COLLECT COLLECT-00.toc
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "c:\users\spit\anaconda3\lib\runpy.py", line 194, in _run_module_as_main
    return _run_code(code, main_globals, None,
  File "c:\users\spit\anaconda3\lib\runpy.py", line 87, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "C:\Users\Spit\anaconda3\Scripts\pyinstaller.exe\__main__.py", line 7, in <module>
  File "c:\users\spit\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\__main__.py", line 124, in run
    run_build(pyi_config, spec_file, **vars(args))
  File "c:\users\spit\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\__main__.py", line 58, in run_build
    PyInstaller.building.build_main.main(pyi_config, spec_file, **kwargs)
  File "c:\users\spit\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\building\build_main.py", line 782, in main
    build(specfile, kw.get('distpath'), kw.get('workpath'), kw.get('clean_build'))
  File "c:\users\spit\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\building\build_main.py", line 714, in build
    exec(code, spec_namespace)
  File "C:\Users\Spit\Desktop\DIPEx db parser\db_interface_v3.6.1_release.spec", line 37, in <module>
    coll = COLLECT(exe,
  File "c:\users\spit\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\building\api.py", line 818, in __init__
    self.__postinit__()
  File "c:\users\spit\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\building\datastruct.py", line 155, in __postinit__
    self.assemble()
  File "c:\users\spit\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\building\api.py", line 866, in assemble
    shutil.copy(fnm, tofnm)
  File "c:\users\spit\anaconda3\lib\shutil.py", line 415, in copy
    copyfile(src, dst, follow_symlinks=follow_symlinks)
  File "c:\users\spit\anaconda3\lib\shutil.py", line 261, in copyfile
    with open(src, 'rb') as fsrc, open(dst, 'wb') as fdst:
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'C:\\Users\\Spit\\Desktop\\DIPEx db parser\\dist\\db_interface_v3.6.1_release\\share\\jupyter\\lab\\staging\\node_modules\\.cache\\terser-webpack-p
lugin\\content-v2\\sha512\\2e\\ba\\cfce62ec1f408830c0335f2b46219d58ee5b068473e7328690e542d2f92f2058865c600d845a2e404e282645529eb0322aa4429a84e189eb6b58c1b97c1a'

If I try to run the compiled exe, I get an error regarding a specific .dll:

INTEL MKL ERROR: Impossibile trovare il modulo specificato. mkl_intel_thread.dll.
Intel MKL FATAL ERROR: Cannot load mkl_intel_thread.dll.

If I take this missing .dll from my Anaconda environment and copy it into the program's folder, when I try to run the .exe again it just dies without further messages:

import 'numpy.ma' # <pyimod03_importers.FrozenImporter object at 0x000001F6A455BEE0>
PS C:\Users\Spit\Desktop\DIPEx db parser\dist\db_interface_v3.6.1_release>

Any idea on how to sort it out?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Sorted out. As a future reference if someone stumbles upon this question, the error is caused by Windows' PATH_MAX limitation, preventing pyinstaller to find all the necessary files.

In order to disable said limitation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/maximum-file-path-limitation?tabs=cmd

Kudos to https://github.com/bwoodsend