How to include files from a subdirectory in cxfreeze setup

Question

I've created a cxfreeze_setup.py file and run the command python cxfreeze_setup.py build_exe

The cxfreeze_setup.py contains this:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

# Python 3 compatibility
from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function,
                        unicode_literals)

import sys
from cx_Freeze import setup, Executable

from daysgrounded.globalcfg import NAME, VERSION, DATA_FILES
from daysgrounded import (DESC, LICENSE, URL, KEYWORDS, CLASSIFIERS)

AUTHOR = 'Joao Matos'
SCRIPT = NAME + '/__main__.py'
TARGET_NAME = NAME + '.exe'

base = None
# GUI applications require a different base on Windows
if sys.platform == 'win32':
    base = 'Win32GUI'

build_exe_options = dict(compressed=True,
                         include_files=['AUTHORS.txt',
                                        'CHANGES.txt',
                                        'LICENSE.txt',
                                        'README.txt',
                                        'README.rst',
                                        NAME],
                        )

setup(name=NAME,
      version=VERSION,
      description=DESC,
      long_description=open('README.txt').read(),
      #long_description=(read('README.txt') + '\n\n' +
      #                  read('CHANGES.txt') + '\n\n' +
      #                  read('AUTHORS.txt')),
      license=LICENSE,
      url=URL,
      author=AUTHOR,
      author_email='jcrmatos@gmail.com',

      keywords=KEYWORDS,
      classifiers=CLASSIFIERS,

      executables=[Executable(script=SCRIPT,
                              base=base,
                              compress=True,
                              targetName=TARGET_NAME,
                             )],

      options=dict(build_exe=build_exe_options),
     )

The build works but I would like to include the *.txt files from the NAME subdirectory in the same directory where the exe is created. The include_files only allows me to include the subdirectory (not move the files).

The end result I wanted is the same that is made with a "normal" build command like python setup.py sdist bdist_egg bdist_wininst bdist_wheel where this is done with the setup.py options

include_package_data=True
package_data=dict(daysgrounded=['usage.txt', 'LICENSE.txt', 'banner.txt'])

and MANIFEST.in file with

include daysgrounded\banner.txt
include daysgrounded\LICENSE.txt
include daysgrounded\usage.txt

Thanks,

JM

Answer 1

If I understand correctly, you want to do the following.

BUILD_DIR/path_to_file/somefile.txt

to

DEST_DIR/somefile.txt

where dest dir also contains the {program}.exe

Try the following using the include_files like this:

include_files = 
   [
    ('path_to_file/somefile.txt', 'somefile.txt'),
    ('path_to_file/otherfilename.txt, 'newfilename.txt)
   ]

The second line demonstrates renaming the file by changing the second name.

If I understand the description above correctly, this is specific to the example:

include_files=[
    ('daysgrounded/AUTHORS.txt','AUTHORS.txt'),
    ('daysgrounded/CHANGES.txt','CHANGES.txt'),
    ('daysgrounded/LICENSE.txt','LICENSE.txt'),
    ('daysgrounded/README.txt','README.txt'),
    ('daysgrounded/README.rst','README.rst'),
    NAME],