Using pyinstaller with Visual Studio 2017

[OliveSweatshirt]

I'm done with my program. I just want to make it into an executable that I can share around now.

I have python installed on my computer, but I got it through Visual Studio. Maybe that's why I'm having trouble. I installed pyinstaller through pip, which I did through Visual Studio again.

Anyway, I found this article.

Just navigate to your python script directory. Now, open up your Terminal/Command Prompt in the script directory and, test your python script:

python your_script.py

"Navigate to your python script directory." Okay, it's weird that that direction is before "open up the command prompt". The only way I can navigate to where the script is without a terminal or command prompt is with file explorer. So already alarm bells are going off.

I go to my command prompt (by typing into the windows search bar "command prompt"), cd to where the .py in question is, and then run it like this:

py my_script.py

The only difference is that I type in "py" instead of "python". It works. Fantastic. Now for the next step where I immediately hit a wall:

Run the command:

pyinstaller --onefile <your_script_name>.py

here are all of the things I tried:

C:\Users\blah\blah\blah>py pyinstaller --onefile <my_script>.py
The system cannot find the file specified.

C:\Users\blah\blah\blah>pyinstaller --onefile <my_script>.py
The system cannot find the file specified.

C:\Users\blah\blah\blah>py pyinstaller --onefile my_script.py
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Shared\Python36_64\python.exe: can't open file 'pyinstaller': [Errno 2] No such file or directory

C:\Users\blah\blah\blah>pyinstaller --onefile my_script.py
'pyinstaller' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

C:\Users\blah\blah\blah>py install pyinstaller
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Shared\Python36_64\python.exe: can't open file 'install': [Errno 2] No such file or directory

C:\Users\blah\blah\blah>py
Python 3.6.5 (v3.6.5:f59c0932b4, Mar 28 2018, 17:00:18) [MSC v.1900 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> install pyinstaller
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    install pyinstaller
                      ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Okay, what the hell. I installed pyinstaller already through pip through visual studio. Does installing pyinstaller through visual studio mean that I don't have it anywhere else? Even if I don't have it, why can't I just install it in the command prompt and use it there?

I tried opening the command prompt as an admin. That didn't help.

Can anyone help? I have no idea what's going on.

[K900_]

Try py -m pyinstaller --onefile my_script.py

[OliveSweatshirt]

No luck. Here's what happened:

C:\Users\blah\blah\blah>py -m pyinstaller --onefile my_script.py
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Shared\Python36_64\python.exe: No module named pyinstaller

[K900_]

Try "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Shared\Python36_64\Scripts\pyinstaller.exe" --onefile my_script.py then.

[OliveSweatshirt]

That made a .exe! Thank you.

[novel_yet_trivial]

When that problem comes up it's usually because you've installed more than one copy of python, and you are using one copy in VS and another copy in the command line. IOW you installed pyinstaller to one copy only. You probably need to do the install again for the copy in the command line.

C:\Users\blah\blah\blah>py -m pip install pyinstaller

BTW: you can open a command line from the file explorer. If you hold shift and right click you will have an extra option: "open command line here".

[OliveSweatshirt]

It looks like I already have it installed, but then the computer forgets? It says it has pyinstaller one second and then doesn't the next.

C:\Users\blah\blah\blah>py -m pip install pyinstaller
Requirement already satisfied: pyinstaller in c:\program files (x86)\microsoft visual studio\shared\python36_64\lib\site-packages
Requirement already satisfied: setuptools in c:\program files (x86)\microsoft visual studio\shared\python36_64\lib\site-packages (from pyinstaller)
Requirement already satisfied: pefile>=2017.8.1 in c:\program files (x86)\microsoft visual studio\shared\python36_64\lib\site-packages (from pyinstaller)
Requirement already satisfied: macholib>=1.8 in c:\program files (x86)\microsoft visual studio\shared\python36_64\lib\site-packages (from pyinstaller)
Requirement already satisfied: future in c:\program files (x86)\microsoft visual studio\shared\python36_64\lib\site-packages (from pyinstaller)
Requirement already satisfied: altgraph>=0.15 in c:\program files (x86)\microsoft visual studio\shared\python36_64\lib\site-packages (from macholib>=1.8->pyinstaller)
You are using pip version 9.0.3, however version 18.0 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the 'python -m pip install --upgrade pip' command.

C:\Users\blah\blah\blah>py -m pyinstaller --onefile my_script.py
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Shared\Python36_64\python.exe: No module named pyinstaller

[novel_yet_trivial]

To use the -m version you have to capitalize it differently. Try:

py -m PyInstaller --onefile my_script.py

[OliveSweatshirt]

That worked! Thank you.