Use pyinstaller to freeze the application.

_freeze.py

@@ -4,16 +4,16 @@
 import sys
 import os
 import shutil
-import glob
+import tempfile
+import time
+import datetime
 import getopt
-from cx_Freeze import setup, Executable
 
-from vasl_templates.webapp.config.constants import APP_NAME, APP_VERSION, APP_DESCRIPTION
+from PyInstaller.__main__ import run as run_pyinstaller
 
 BASE_DIR = os.path.split( os.path.abspath(__file__) )[ 0 ]
-BUILD_DIR = os.path.join( BASE_DIR, "build" )
 
-MAIN_ENTRY_POINT = "vasl_templates/main.py"
+MAIN_SCRIPT = "vasl_templates/main.py"
 APP_ICON = os.path.join( BASE_DIR, "vasl_templates/webapp/static/images/app.ico" )
 
 TARGET_NAMES = {
@@ -23,24 +23,16 @@ DEFAULT_TARGET_NAME = "vasl-templates"
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-def get_extra_files():
-    """Get the extra files to include in the release."""
-    def globfiles( fspec ): #pylint: disable=missing-docstring,unused-variable
-        fnames = glob.glob( fspec )
-        return zip( fnames, fnames )
-    extra_files = []
-    extra_files.append( "LICENSE.txt" )
-    return extra_files
-
-# ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
 # parse the command-line options
 output_fname = None
+work_dir = None
 cleanup = True
-opts,args = getopt.getopt( sys.argv[1:], "o:", ["output=","noclean"] )
+opts,args = getopt.getopt( sys.argv[1:], "o:w:", ["output=","work=","noclean"] )
 for opt,val in opts:
     if opt in ["-o","--output"]:
         output_fname = val.strip()
+    elif opt in ["-w","--work"]:
+        work_dir = val.strip()
     elif opt in ["--noclean"]:
         cleanup = False
     else:
@@ -48,6 +40,18 @@ for opt,val in opts:
 if not output_fname:
     raise RuntimeError( "No output file was specified." )
 
+# figure out where to locate our work directories
+if work_dir:
+    build_dir = os.path.join( work_dir, "build" )
+    if os.path.isdir( build_dir ):
+        shutil.rmtree( build_dir )
+    dist_dir = os.path.join( work_dir, "dist" )
+    if os.path.isdir( dist_dir ):
+        shutil.rmtree( dist_dir )
+else:
+    build_dir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+    dist_dir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+
 # figure out the format of the release archive
 formats = { ".zip": "zip", ".tar.gz": "gztar", ".tar.bz": "bztar", ".tar": "tar" }
 output_fmt = None
@@ -59,54 +63,68 @@ for extn,fmt in formats.items():
 if not output_fmt:
     raise RuntimeError( "Unknown release archive format: {}".format( os.path.split(output_fname)[1] ) )
 
-# initialize the build options
-build_options = {
-    "packages": [ "os", "asyncio", "jinja2" ],
-    "excludes": [ "tkinter" ],
-    "include_files": get_extra_files(),
-}
+# configure pyinstaller
+# NOTE: Using UPX gave ~25% saving on Windows, but failed to run because of corrupt DLL's :-/
+# NOTE: Setting --specpath breaks the build - it's being used as the project root...? (!)
+target_name = TARGET_NAMES.get( sys.platform, DEFAULT_TARGET_NAME )
+args = [
+    "--distpath", dist_dir,
+    "--workpath", build_dir,
+    "--onefile",
+    "--name", target_name,
+]
+# NOTE: We also need to include the config/ and data/ subdirectories, but we would like to
+# make them available to the user, so we include them ourself in the final release archive.
+def map_dir( src, dest ): #pylint: disable=missing-docstring
+    args.extend( [ "--add-data", src + os.pathsep + dest ] )
+map_dir( "vasl_templates/ui", "vasl_templates/ui" )
+map_dir( "vasl_templates/resources", "vasl_templates/resources" )
+map_dir( "vasl_templates/webapp/static", "static" )
+map_dir( "vasl_templates/webapp/templates", "templates" )
+if sys.platform == "win32":
+    args.append( "--noconsole" )
+    args.extend( [ "--icon", APP_ICON ] )
+    # NOTE: These files are not always required but it's probably safer to always include them.
+    import distutils.sysconfig #pylint: disable=import-error
+    dname = os.path.join( distutils.sysconfig.get_python_lib() , "PyQt5/Qt/bin" )
+    args.extend( [ "--add-binary", os.path.join(dname,"libEGL.dll") + os.pathsep + "PyQt5/Qt/bin" ] )
+    args.extend( [ "--add-binary", os.path.join(dname,"libGLESv2.dll") + os.pathsep + "PyQt5/Qt/bin" ] )
+args.append( MAIN_SCRIPT )
 
 # freeze the application
-# NOTE: It would be nice to be able to use py2exe to compile this for Windows (since it produces
-# a single EXE instead of the morass of files cx-freeze generates) but py2exe only works up to
-# Python 3.4, since the byte code format changed after that.
-target = Executable(
-    MAIN_ENTRY_POINT,
-    base = "Win32GUI" if sys.platform == "win32" else None,
-    targetName = TARGET_NAMES.get( sys.platform, DEFAULT_TARGET_NAME ),
-    icon = APP_ICON
-)
-if os.path.isdir( BUILD_DIR ):
-    shutil.rmtree( BUILD_DIR )
+start_time = time.time()
 os.chdir( BASE_DIR )
-del sys.argv[1:]
-sys.argv.append( "build" )
-# nb: cx-freeze doesn't report compile errors or anything like that :-/
-setup(
-    name = APP_NAME,
-    version = APP_VERSION,
-    description = APP_DESCRIPTION,
-    options = {
-        "build_exe": build_options
-    },
-    executables = [ target ]
-)
-print()
-
-# locate the release files
-files = os.listdir( BUILD_DIR )
-if len(files) != 1:
-    raise RuntimeError( "Unexpected freeze output." )
-dname = os.path.join( BUILD_DIR, files[0] )
-os.chdir( dname )
-
-# remove some unwanted files
-for fname in ["debug.cfg","logging.cfg"]:
-    fname = os.path.join( "lib/vasl_templates/webapp/config", fname )
+run_pyinstaller( args ) # nb: this doesn't return any indication if it worked or not :-/
+
+# add extra files to the distribution
+def ignore_files( dname, fnames ): #pylint: disable=redefined-outer-name
+    """Return files to ignore during copytree()."""
+    # ignore Python cached files
+    ignore = [ "__pycache__" ]
+    # ignore dot files
+    ignore.extend( f for f in fnames if f.startswith(".") )
+    # ignore anything in .gitignore
+    fname = os.path.join( dname, ".gitignore" )
     if os.path.isfile( fname ):
-        os.unlink( fname )
+        for line_buf in open(fname,"r"):
+            line_buf = line_buf.strip()
+            if not line_buf or line_buf.startswith("#"):
+                continue
+            ignore.append( line_buf ) # nb: we assume normal filenames i.e. no globbing
+    return ignore
+shutil.copy( "LICENSE.txt", dist_dir )
+shutil.copytree( "vasl_templates/webapp/data", os.path.join(dist_dir,"data") )
+shutil.copytree( "vasl_templates/webapp/config", os.path.join(dist_dir,"config"), ignore=ignore_files )
+# copy the examples
+dname = os.path.join( dist_dir, "examples" )
+os.makedirs( dname )
+fnames = [ f for f in os.listdir("examples") if os.path.splitext(f)[1] in (".json",".png") ]
+for f in fnames:
+    shutil.copy( os.path.join("examples",f), dname )
 
 # create the release archive
+os.chdir( dist_dir )
+print()
 print( "Generating release archive: {}".format( output_fname ) )
 shutil.make_archive( output_fname2, output_fmt )
 file_size = os.path.getsize( output_fname )
@@ -115,4 +133,11 @@ print( "- Done: {0:.1f} MB".format( float(file_size) / 1024 / 1024 ) )
 # clean up
 if cleanup:
     os.chdir( BASE_DIR ) # so we can delete the build directory :-/
-    shutil.rmtree( BUILD_DIR )
+    os.unlink( target_name + ".spec" )
+    shutil.rmtree( build_dir )
+    shutil.rmtree( dist_dir )
+
+# log the elapsed time
+elapsed_time = time.time() - start_time
+print()
+print( "Elapsed time: {}".format( datetime.timedelta( seconds=int(elapsed_time) ) ) )

setup.py

@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ setup(
             "lxml==4.2.4",
             "pylint==1.9.2",
             "pytest-pylint==0.9.0",
-            "cx-Freeze==5.1.1",
+            "PyInstaller==3.4",
         ],
     },
     include_package_data = True,

vasl_templates/main_window.py

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 """ Main application window. """
 
+import sys
 import os
 import re
 import json
@@ -54,8 +55,12 @@ class MainWindow( QWidget ):
 
         # initialize the main window
         self.setWindowTitle( APP_NAME )
+        if getattr( sys, "frozen", False ):
+            dname = sys._MEIPASS #pylint: disable=no-member,protected-access
+        else:
+            dname = os.path.join( os.path.split(__file__)[0], "webapp" )
         self.setWindowIcon( QIcon(
-            os.path.join( os.path.split(__file__)[0], "webapp/static/images/app.ico" )
+            os.path.join( dname, "static/images/app.ico" )
         ) )
 
         # create the menu

vasl_templates/webapp/__init__.py

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 """ Initialize the package. """
 
+import sys
 import os
 import configparser
 import logging
@@ -28,7 +29,15 @@ def load_debug_config( fname ):
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 # initialize Flask
-app = Flask( __name__ )
+if getattr( sys, "frozen", False ):
+    # NOTE: The support directories must have been set up by pyinstaller (via --add-data).
+    meipass = sys._MEIPASS #pylint: disable=no-member,protected-access
+    app = Flask( __name__,
+        template_folder = os.path.join( meipass, "templates" ),
+        static_folder = os.path.join( meipass, "static" )
+    )
+else:
+    app = Flask( __name__ )
 
 # load the application configuration
 config_dir = os.path.join( BASE_DIR, "config" )

vasl_templates/webapp/config/constants.py

@@ -1,10 +1,14 @@
 """ Application constants. """
 
+import sys
 import os
 
 APP_NAME = "VASL Templates"
 APP_VERSION = "v0.4" # nb: also update setup.py
 APP_DESCRIPTION = "Generate HTML for use in VASL scenarios."
 
-BASE_DIR = os.path.abspath( os.path.join( os.path.split(__file__)[0], ".." ) )
+if getattr( sys, "frozen", False ):
+    BASE_DIR = os.path.split( sys.executable )[0]
+else:
+    BASE_DIR = os.path.abspath( os.path.join( os.path.split(__file__)[0], ".." ) )
 DATA_DIR = os.path.join( BASE_DIR, "data" )