No module named when using PyInstaller

Question

I try to compile a Python project under Windows 7 using PyInstaller. The project works fine, there are no issues, however when I try to compile it the result doesn't work. Though I get no warnings during compilation there are many in the warnmain.txt file in the build directory: warnmain.txt

I don't really understand those warnings, for example "no module named numpy.pi" since numpy.pi is no module but a number. I never tried to import numpy.pi. I did import numpy and matplotlib explicitly. In addition I'm using PyQt4. I thought the error might be related to those libraries.

However I was able to compile a simple script which uses numpy succesfully:

import sys
from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore
import numpy as np

class MainWindow(QtGui.QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        QtGui.QMainWindow.__init__(self)

        self.pb = QtGui.QPushButton(str(np.pi), self)

app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
main = MainWindow()
main.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

Successfully here means that the created executable file actually showed the desired output. However there is also a warnmain.txt file created which contains exactly the same 'warnings' as the one before. So I guess the fact that compiling my actual project does not give any success is not (or at least not only) related to those warnings. But what else could be the error then? The only output during compilation are 'INFO's and none of the is a negative statement.

I did not specify an additional hook directory but the hooks where down using the default directory as far as I could read from the compile output, e.g. hook-matplotlib was executed. I could not see any hook for numpy neither could I for my small example script but this one worked. I used the following imports in my files (not all in the same but in different ones):

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as ppl
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt4agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt4agg import NavigationToolbar2QTAgg as NavigationToolbar
from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore
import json
import sys
import numpy # added this one later
import matplotlib # added this one later

Since PyInstaller does not give any errors/warnings I could not figure out if the problem is related to the libraries or if there is something else to be considered.

Solution 1

The problem were some runtime dependencies of matplotlib. So the compiling was fine while running the program threw some errors. Because the terminal closed itself immediately I didn't realize that. After redirecting stdout and stderr to a file I could see that I missed the libraries Tkinter and FileDialog. Adding two imports at the top of the main solved this problem.

Solution 2

Had a similar problem with no module named FileDialog. Discovered that with version 3.2, I could use

pyinstaller --hidden-import FileDialog ...

instead of modifying my main script.

Solution 3

Pyinstaller won't see second level imports. So if you import module A, pyinstaller sees this. But any additional module that is imported in A will not be seen.

There is no need to change anything in your python scripts. You can directly add the missing imports to the spec file. Just change the following line:

hiddenimports=[],

to

hiddenimports=["Tkinter", "FileDialog"],

Solution 4

If you are getting ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ... errors and you:

• call PyInstaller from a directory other than your main script's directory
• use relative imports in your script

then your executable can have trouble finding the relative imports.

This can be fixed by:

• calling PyInstaller from the same directory as your main script

• OR removing any __init__.py files (empty __init__.py files are not required in Python 3.3+)

• OR using PyInstaller's paths flag to specify a path to search for imports. E.g. if you are calling PyInstaller from a parent folder to your main script, and your script lives in subfolder, then call PyInstaller as such:

  pyinstaller --paths=subfolder subfolder/script.py.

Solution 5

I was facing the same problem and the following solution worked for me:

1. I first removed the virtual environment in which I was working.
2. Reinstalled all the modules using pip (note: this time I did not create any virtual environment).
3. Then I called the pyinstaller.
4. The .exe file created thereafter executed smoothly, without any module import error.

View more solutions

Comments

[panofish]

This is the redirect command I used: myprogram.exe 1> errors.txt 2>&1 --- I got the same result as you... I was missing Tkinter and FileDialog modules as well :) Thanks, much appreciated.

[Efren]

So is the problem that PyInstaller doesn't pick up second level imports? Or was this not a project with a setup.py?

[a_guest]

Yes. If you import a module and this module imports other modules itself then PyInstaller apparently won't realize those second level imports.

[niCk cAMel]

Wow, this helped, tnx. Though I had to make my main script folder a python package by creating __init__.py in the same folder. Otherwise strange things would happen depending on from where the executable was run. Anything from failing relative import to not succeeding importing serial.

[Sean McCarthy]

Similar to you, I found pyinstaller could not find modules I installed with Poetry. I could, however, use modules installed in a "venv" virtual environment created with python3 -m venv venv

[Ankit Chawla]

This one worked for me Thanks a lot for this.

[LarsH]

I've had to use this --hidden-import option more than once, to fix ModuleNotFound errors that appeared when trying to run the compiled exe. The missing modules were _cffi_backend and nacl, when using the nacl module.

[nathancy]

Hey thanks for this answer, especially the --paths section. THANK YOU

[n1nsa1d00]

You are a lifesaver!!!