Unable to created PyInstaller build from HEAD

Description of problem:

I’ve built Plaso by following this guide: https://plaso.readthedocs.io/en/latest/sources/developer/Packaging with pyinstaller.html?highlight=pyinstaller

The result EXE runs great on the builder machine, but raises an error on other machines.

On builder machine:

c:\Temp\plaso\dist\log2timeline>log2timeline.exe
ERROR: Unable to determine location of data files.

usage: log2timeline.exe [-h] [--troubles] [-V] [--artifact_definitions PATH]
                        [--custom_artifact_definitions PATH] [--data PATH]
                        [--artifact_filters ARTIFACT_FILTERS]
                        [--artifact_filters_file PATH] [--preferred_year YEAR]
                        [--process_archives] [--skip_compressed_streams]
                        [-f FILE_FILTER] [--hasher_file_size_limit SIZE]
                        [--hashers HASHER_LIST]
                        [--parsers PARSER_FILTER_EXPRESSION]
                        [--yara_rules PATH] [--partitions PARTITIONS]
                        [--volumes VOLUMES] [-z TIMEZONE] [--no_vss]
                        [--vss_only] [--vss_stores VSS_STORES]
                        [--credential TYPE:DATA] [-d] [-q] [--info]
                        [--use_markdown] [--no_dependencies_check]
                        [--logfile FILENAME] [--status_view TYPE] [-t TEXT]
                        [--buffer_size BUFFER_SIZE] [--queue_size QUEUE_SIZE]
                        [--single_process] [--temporary_directory DIRECTORY]
                        [--worker_memory_limit SIZE] [--workers WORKERS]
                        [--sigsegv_handler] [--profilers PROFILERS_LIST]
                        [--profiling_directory DIRECTORY]
                        [--profiling_sample_rate SAMPLE_RATE]
                        [--storage_format FORMAT]
                        [--task_storage_format FORMAT]
                        [STORAGE_FILE] [SOURCE]

On other clean Windows 10 machines:

C:\Users\Lenovo\Desktop\log2timeline\log2timeline>log2timeline.exe
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "tools\log2timeline.py", line 14, in <module>
  File "c:\users\ofirb\anaconda3\envs\plaso\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\loader\pyimod03_importers.py", line 623, in exec_module
  File "plaso\cli\log2timeline_tool.py", line 19, in <module>
  File "c:\users\ofirb\anaconda3\envs\plaso\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\loader\pyimod03_importers.py", line 623, in exec_module
  File "plaso\cli\extraction_tool.py", line 18, in <module>
  File "c:\users\ofirb\anaconda3\envs\plaso\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\loader\pyimod03_importers.py", line 623, in exec_module
  File "plaso\cli\storage_media_tool.py", line 21, in <module>
  File "c:\users\ofirb\anaconda3\envs\plaso\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\loader\pyimod03_importers.py", line 623, in exec_module
  File "site-packages\dfvfs\volume\tsk_volume_system.py", line 8, in <module>
  File "c:\users\ofirb\anaconda3\envs\plaso\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\loader\pyimod03_importers.py", line 623, in exec_module
  File "site-packages\dfvfs\lib\tsk_partition.py", line 6, in <module>
ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found.
[15320] Failed to execute script log2timeline

This same error happens even when trying to wrap a simple script which is using dfvfs.

Plaso version:

Latest (from master).

Operating system Plaso is running on:

Windows 10 Pro.

Installation method:

built using [l2devtools][https://github.com/log2timeline/l2tdevtools]

Any help would be appreciated! Thank you 😃

[joachimmetz]

I’ll close this issue, since the error you describe appears to lie in the build environment or build process.

[joachimmetz]

So https://plaso.readthedocs.io/en/latest/sources/developer/Packaging with pyinstaller.html is page intended for developers that want to build their own PyInstaller packaged version. The release notes refer to the project (maintainers) no longer providing these builds as part of the release.

You can still try build these yourself and our build scripts have been moved to l2tdevtools, but as you’ve noticed this is typically not a process without struggle.