macospyqtpyqt4pyinstallerpy2app

OSX app built with python quits immediately if app bundle is executed from finder but runs fine from command line

So I have this pyqt project and I want to build a osx.app dmg using pyinstaller

pyinstaller created the output in

dist/MyApplication.app

I can run it directly from terminal

cd dist
./MyApplication.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApplication

However, if I try to run the app bundle directly either with

open -a MyApplication.app

or 

open .
# double click on MyApplication.app folder (appears just as MyApplication from finder)

It starts and then quits immediately

Now if I navigate to

$ cd ./Contents/MacOS/

and open a finder

$ open .
#then double click on MyApplication

it runs fine, but with a terminal windows opened in the background

Last login: Fri Mar 14 18:01:13 on ttys005
MyApplication/dist/MyApplication.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApplication ; exit;
MyApplication/dist/MyApplication.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApplication ; exit;

I use similar steps to build a windows exe without any issues (although there is no MyApplication.app concept in windows)

How do I diagnose this issue?

Thanks

Solution

  • So I followed this py2app tutorial to see if it works better than pyinstaller, with this code

    if __name__=="__main__":
    print "Hello"

    and got similar results

    i.e. app closes when I do 

    open -a HelloTest.app

    while it runs fine with

    ./HelloTest.app/Contents/MacOS/HelloTest

    but then this tidbit in the tutorial explains it

    When run normally, your application’s stdout 
and stderr output will go to the Console logs. 
To see them, open the Console application:

$ open -a Console

    After examining the console logs, it seems like if I run 

    open -a MyApplication.app

    the app runs in a sandbox and if you open any file to write without specifying absolute path it will fail to create the file

    if I run

    ./MyApplication.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApplication

    directly the app can create files in the current directory

    So I have to go back and specify the full path while creating files, instead of just assuming it will create in the working directory.