How to Building an App with Python and PySide6

This guide assumes you already have an python code that can running locally, and it has a GUI built by Pyside6 or PyQt6. How to create an App so you can share with your friends or the public, even they don’t install python on their computer? The most common method is using the tool py2app .

from setuptools import setup

APP = ['main.py']
DATA_FILES = []
OPTIONS = {
    'argv_emulation': True,
    'packages': ['PySide6'],
}

setup(
    app=APP,
    data_files=DATA_FILES,
    options={'py2app': OPTIONS},
    setup_requires=['py2app'],
)

Replace 'main.py' with the name of your main script. If your application uses additional data files (like images or text files), you should list them in DATA_FILES.

python setup.py py2app -A

The above is the whole process. I wish it could be that simple. However, in practice, if there is no accident, there will definitely be an accident. Here are some tips.

Launch Error

Sometimes the app in the file folder dist can’t open: it says Launch Error. But you don’t know why.

Here is a tip: don’t open it by double click the app, but use command in terminal. It will be much easier if you know the error message. It costs me nearly one whole night to find out this tip

Although it looks that there is only one file demo.app in the dist file, but acutally not. You can use the following code to run the app:

./dist/demo.app/Contents/MacOS/demo

If the App doesn’t run, the error message will tell you why.

In my case, it says that

libshiboken6.abi3.6.6.dylib’ (no such file)

What the hell is this file? Never heard of. Anyway, I used two ways to solve this problem:

1, in the setup.py file, I added the path of this file to the framworks.

from setuptools import setup

APP = ['main.py']
DATA_FILES = []
OPTIONS = {
    'packages': ['PySide6'],
    'frameworks': ['/System/Volumes/Data/Users/henrywu/MyDrive/99_Coding/01-Github/test/venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/shiboken6/libshiboken6.abi3.6.6.dylib']
}

setup(
    app=APP,
    data_files=DATA_FILES,
    options={'py2app': OPTIONS},
    setup_requires=['py2app'],
)

2, Since in the error message, it say no such file and try to find it from many path. I thought if I copy the file to one of these path, for example, “/usr/local/lib/libshiboken6.abi3.6.6.dylib’ (no such file)”, it might solve the problem. It turns out it works!

Debug by Simply Start

You can also create a simple “Hello World” application using PySide6. This process helps determine if the problem is specific to your application or a more general issue with your py2app setup.

import sys
from PySide6.QtWidgets import QApplication, QLabel

def main():
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    label = QLabel('Hello World!')
    label.show()
    sys.exit(app.exec())

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

python hello_world.py

from setuptools import setup

APP = ['hello_world.py']
DATA_FILES = []
OPTIONS = {
    'argv_emulation': True,
    'packages': ['PySide6'],
}

setup(
    app=APP,
    data_files=DATA_FILES,
    options={'py2app': OPTIONS},
    setup_requires=['py2app'],
)

python setup.py py2app

./dist/hello_world.app/Contents/MacOS/hello_world

Debug by Reset Everything

Sometimes, it is difficult to tell what’s the problem. So one solution is … restart your computer. Just kidding. But reset the environment always a good start to repair something.

You can delete the existing venv file and rebuild it by requirments.txt .

First, test if you can run your code locally. If you can, then generate a requirments.txt file by the following code:

pip freeze > requirements.txt

Delete your old environment:

deactivate

rm -r /path/to/your/venv

Create a new virtual environment:

python3 -m venv your/new/venv

Activate the new virtual environment:

source /path/to/your/new/venv/bin/activate

Install necessary packages:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Note: in the terminal, python3 and python is different, while pip3 and pip is also different. If one is not working, you can consider change to another one.