Hidden imports are not visible to the pyinstaller.
This function implicitly imports modules.
A class named ONNXMiniLM_L6_V2 from one of these modules.
This class also uses importlib.import_module to import such dependencies as "onnxruntime", "tokenizers", and "tqdm".
So we need to deal with all these imports.
The issue with hidden imports
To reproduce this error, we need a minimal project for pyinstaller.
Environment:
- Windows 10
- Python 3.11.9
- chromadb 0.6.3
- pyinstaller 6.12.0
Project sructure:
somedir\
env # virtual environment directory
pyinst # directory for pyinstaler files
embedding.py # additional file for --onefile
main.py
Python files:
embedding.py
def embedding_function():
return "Hello"
main.py
import tkinter as tk
import chromadb
from embedding import embedding_function
root = tk.Tk()
label = tk.Label(root, text=embedding_function())
label.pack()
root.mainloop()
Steps to reproduce:
Create the Python files and the pyinst directory in some directory.
Run the following in cmd.
Volume:\somedir>python -m venv env
Volume:\somedir>env\scripts\activate
(env) Volume:\somedir>python -m pip install chromadb
...
(env) Volume:\somedir>python -m pip install pyinstaller
...
(env) Volume:\somedir>cd pyinst
(env) Volume:\somedir\pyinst>python -m PyInstaller "Volume:\somedir\main.py" --onefile -w
...
Pyinstaller will generate the necessary directories and the main.spec file.
pyinst\
build # directory
dist # directory, main.exe here
main.spec
When I try to run main.exe I get the same error NameError: name 'ONNXMiniLM_L6_V2' is not defined.
Solutions
Hook and spec file
At this point, we need to create a hook for chromadb and edit the spec file to handle hidden imports.
- Create a hook file and save it to the desired location.
hook-chromadb.py
from PyInstaller.utils.hooks import collect_submodules
# --collect-submodules
sm = collect_submodules('chromadb')
hiddenimports = [*sm]
- Edit the spec file to add all the dependencies mentioned above.
Edit hiddenimports (--hidden-import) and hookspath (--additional-hooks-dir).
# -*- mode: python ; coding: utf-8 -*-
a = Analysis(
['Volume:\\somedir\\main.py'],
pathex=[],
binaries=[],
datas=[],
hiddenimports=['onnxruntime', 'tokenizers', 'tqdm'],
hookspath=['Volume:\\path to the directory where the hook file is located'],
hooksconfig={},
runtime_hooks=[],
excludes=[],
noarchive=False,
optimize=0,
)
pyz = PYZ(a.pure)
exe = EXE(
pyz,
a.scripts,
a.binaries,
a.datas,
[],
name='main',
debug=False,
bootloader_ignore_signals=False,
strip=False,
upx=True,
upx_exclude=[],
runtime_tmpdir=None,
console=False,
disable_windowed_traceback=False,
argv_emulation=False,
target_arch=None,
codesign_identity=None,
entitlements_file=None,
)
Run pyinstaller:
(env) Volume:\somedir\pyinst>python -m PyInstaller main.spec --clean
...
Now I can run main.exe without errors and see the root window.
CLI example
We do the same thing.
(env) Volume:\somedir\pyinst>python -m PyInstaller "Volume:\somedir\main.py" --onefile -w --collect-submodules chromadb --hidden-import onnxruntime --hidden-import tokenizers --hidden-import tqdm --clean
The generated spec file in this case:
# -*- mode: python ; coding: utf-8 -*-
from PyInstaller.utils.hooks import collect_submodules
hiddenimports = ['onnxruntime', 'tokenizers', 'tqdm']
hiddenimports += collect_submodules('chromadb')
a = Analysis(
['Volume:\\somedir\\main.py'],
pathex=[],
binaries=[],
datas=[],
hiddenimports=hiddenimports,
hookspath=[],
hooksconfig={},
runtime_hooks=[],
excludes=[],
noarchive=False,
optimize=0,
)
pyz = PYZ(a.pure)
exe = EXE(
pyz,
a.scripts,
a.binaries,
a.datas,
[],
name='main',
debug=False,
bootloader_ignore_signals=False,
strip=False,
upx=True,
upx_exclude=[],
runtime_tmpdir=None,
console=False,
disable_windowed_traceback=False,
argv_emulation=False,
target_arch=None,
codesign_identity=None,
entitlements_file=None,
)
You can do the same for other dependencies if they have hidden imports.
