A day later, I think I have found a solution. It is kind of hacky, but it
works.
Firstly, this
*> there should be no need for any system icons, let alone all the icons in
the world*
is not entirely true. Turns out, the UI does use a couple of system icons,
for things like arrows in drop-down lists. Still, this doesn't justify
lugging around a whole icon theme, let alone all available themes.
Here is how I solved my problem. Since I am a newbie, it took me a bit to
realize that the spec file is actually just another Python script which
gets imported somewhere, and I can just add Python code to it, and it will
be executed. So, I can hijack the datas list after it was populated by
Analysis and before it is passed for file collection, and make whatever
modifications I want in it. I will paste my spec file below for all future
strugglers.
After excluding almost everything from *share/* (except for the few files
that were truly required), the build size in one-file mode dropped to *53
MB*, and the launch time to *~0.6 seconds*, which is already quite
manageable, but I suspect even more stuff could be stripped out without
compromising the portability of my app.
Also, while I was working on this problem, it occurred to me that the ideal
solution in my case would be just to have symlinks in *share/* that point
to corresponding directories in */usr/share*. Or even completely do away
with substituting the system paths for these locations and just have the
app use whatever is available locally in the system. I mean, any graphical
Linux installation is bound to have at least *some* UI theme and *some*
icon pack. If it does not, then the user likely has bigger problems than my
app not working. Alas, there seems to be no way to instruct PyInstaller to
do anything like this: neither create links, nor collect pre-made link
files (it just copies the directories they link to). Please correct me if I
am wrong. *If any PyInstaller maintainer reads this — please consider
making it possible!*
*My spec file:*
# -*- mode: python ; coding: utf-8 -*-
block_cipher = None
ONEFILE = True
a = Analysis(['myapp.py'],
binaries=[],
datas=[],
hiddenimports=[],
hookspath=[],
hooksconfig={},
runtime_hooks=[],
excludes=[],
win_no_prefer_redirects=False,
win_private_assemblies=False,
cipher=block_cipher,
noarchive=False)
print('********************* CUSTOM SEGMENT *********************')
# Force exclude some unneeded files.
datas_tmp = []
exclude_counter = 0
to_exclude = [ # Exceptions from datas gathered by Analysis.
'/usr/share',
]
to_add_back = [ # Exceptions from exceptions.
'/usr/share/icons/Adwaita/scalable/',
'/usr/share/icons/Adwaita/scalable-up-to-32/',
'/usr/share/icons/Adwaita/index.theme',
'/usr/share/mime/mime.cache',
]
def match_any_substring(substrings: list, in_what: str) -> bool:
for s in substrings:
if s in in_what:
return True
return False
for item in a.datas:
if match_any_substring(to_exclude, item[1]) and not \
match_any_substring(to_add_back, item[1]):
# print('Excluding', item[1])
exclude_counter += 1
else:
datas_tmp.append(item)
a.datas = datas_tmp
if exclude_counter > 0:
print('Excluded {} data files.'.format(exclude_counter))
with open('debug_datas.txt', 'w') as f:
print('Dumping datas to {}...'.format(f.name))
for item in a.datas:
f.write(repr(item) + '\n')
print('******************* END CUSTOM SEGMENT *******************')
pyz = PYZ(a.pure, a.zipped_data,
cipher=block_cipher)
if ONEFILE:
exe = EXE(pyz,
a.scripts,
a.binaries,
a.zipfiles,
a.datas,
[],
name='myapp',
debug=False,
bootloader_ignore_signals=False,
strip=False,
upx=True,
upx_exclude=[],
runtime_tmpdir=None,
console=True,
disable_windowed_traceback=False,
target_arch=None,
codesign_identity=None,
entitlements_file=None)
else:
exe = EXE(pyz,
a.scripts,
[],
exclude_binaries=True,
name='myapp',
debug=False,
bootloader_ignore_signals=False,
strip=False,
upx=True,
console=True,
disable_windowed_traceback=False,
target_arch=None,
codesign_identity=None,
entitlements_file=None)
coll = COLLECT(exe,
a.binaries,
a.zipfiles,
a.datas,
strip=False,
upx=True,
upx_exclude=[],
name='myapp')
On Tuesday, August 10, 2021 at 9:04:11 PM UTC+3 Евгений Белоусов wrote:
> Greetings, everyone.
>
> I am making a GUI application on Linux using PyGObject. I tried packaging
> it using PyInstaller, but the size of produced distribution was enormous:
> ~800 MB in one-dir mode, and 200+ MB in one-file mode, which takes ~4.5
> seconds to unpack and launch on my machine.
>
> I soon discovered that most of that volume is due to /usr/share/icons,
> /usr/share/themes and some other directories being copied into the
> distribution *in whole*. The icon packs alone take up around 600 MB on my
> system. I guess, PyInstaller thinks they are required by Gtk, and they may
> be, but not in my project. I do use a few icons in the GUI, but I supply
> the icon files myself, so there should be no need for any system icons, let
> alone all the icons in the world.
>
> Icon packs are the main concern, but there is also a lot of other files
> from /usr/share which get copied and which I suspect are unneeded in my
> case.
>
> I've looked through the documentation, and could not find any info on
> *excluding* data files, only adding. I am new to PyInstaller (and Python
> in general, for that matter), and so far I cannot find any way to not
> collect all those files. I tried using the 'excludes' argument to the
> Analyzer, but either I am not using it correctly, or it is meant for
> something else.
>
> It would be great if there was some way to just blacklist certain
> locations to prevent PyInstaller from collecting anything from them.
>
> The only way I can currently see for dealing with this problem is to
> simply delete those directories from the ready distribution, but then I'd
> have to stick with the one-dir mode, which is not ideal.
>
> I will keep digging, but any help would be much appreciated.
>
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