makespec: Remove *variable path* substitution.

Remove the automatic substitution of PyInstaller.HOME_PATH (most likely
the ``site-packages`` directory) in relative CLI path parameters to into
a relocatable ``os.path.join(HOME_PATH, ...)``. I can't think of any
good reason why anyone would even notice this feature exists whereas
it's more likely that a PyInstaller test would unwittingly run into it.

PyInstaller/building/makespec.py

@@ -48,12 +48,6 @@ def make_path_spec_relative(filename, spec_dir):
         return filename
 
 
-# Support for trying to avoid hard-coded paths in the .spec files. Eg, all files rooted in the Installer directory tree
-# will be written using "HOMEPATH", thus allowing this spec file to be used with any Installer installation. Same thing
-# could be done for other paths too.
-path_conversions = ((HOMEPATH, "HOMEPATH"),)
-
-
 class SourceDestAction(argparse.Action):
     """
     A command line option which takes multiple source:dest pairs.
@@ -81,27 +75,6 @@ def __call__(self, parser, namespace, value, option_string=None):
         getattr(namespace, self.dest).append((portable_filepath(src), portable_filepath(dest)))
 
 
-def make_variable_path(filename, conversions=path_conversions):
-    if not os.path.isabs(filename):
-        # os.path.commonpath can not compare relative and absolute paths, and if filename is not absolute, none of the
-        # paths in conversions will match anyway.
-        return None, filename
-    for (from_path, to_name) in conversions:
-        assert os.path.abspath(from_path) == from_path, ("path '%s' should already be absolute" % from_path)
-        try:
-            common_path = os.path.commonpath([filename, from_path])
-        except ValueError:
-            # Per https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.path.html#os.path.commonpath, this raises ValueError in several
-            # cases which prevent computing a common path.
-            common_path = None
-        if common_path == from_path:
-            rest = filename[len(from_path):]
-            if rest.startswith(('\\', '/')):
-                rest = rest[1:]
-            return to_name, rest
-    return None, filename
-
-
 def removed_key_option(x):
     from PyInstaller.exceptions import RemovedCipherFeatureError
     raise RemovedCipherFeatureError("Please remove your --key=xxx argument.")
@@ -132,21 +105,6 @@ def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
         raise RemovedWinSideBySideSupportError("Please remove your --win-no-prefer-redirects argument.")
 
 
-# An object used in place of a "path string", which knows how to repr() itself using variable names instead of
-# hard-coded paths.
-class Path:
-    def __init__(self, *parts):
-        self.path = os.path.join(*parts)
-        self.variable_prefix = self.filename_suffix = None
-
-    def __repr__(self):
-        if self.filename_suffix is None:
-            self.variable_prefix, self.filename_suffix = make_variable_path(self.path)
-        if self.variable_prefix is None:
-            return repr(portable_filepath(self.path))
-        return "os.path.join(%s, %r)" % (self.variable_prefix, portable_filepath(self.filename_suffix))
-
-
 # An object used to construct extra preamble for the spec file, in order to accommodate extra collect_*() calls from the
 # command-line
 class Preamble:
@@ -759,8 +717,7 @@ def main(
 
     # If script paths are relative, make them relative to the directory containing .spec file.
     scripts = [make_path_spec_relative(x, specpath) for x in scripts]
-    # With absolute paths replace prefix with variable HOMEPATH.
-    scripts = list(map(Path, scripts))
+    scripts = list(map(portable_filepath, scripts))
 
     # Translate the default of ``debug=None`` to an empty list.
     if debug is None:

news/8116.bugfix.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fix :class:`ValueError` build error on Windows if :option:`--specpath` is set to
+a different drive.

tests/unit/test_makespec.py

@@ -17,39 +17,6 @@
 from PyInstaller.building import makespec
 
 
-def test_make_variable_path():
-    p = os.path.join(makespec.HOMEPATH, "aaa", "bbb", "ccc")
-    assert (makespec.make_variable_path(p) == ("HOMEPATH", os.path.join("aaa", "bbb", "ccc")))
-
-
-def test_make_variable_path_regression():
-    p = os.path.join(makespec.HOMEPATH + "aaa", "bbb", "ccc")
-    assert makespec.make_variable_path(p) == (None, p)
-
-
-def test_Path_constructor():
-    p = makespec.Path("aaa", "bbb", "ccc")
-    assert p.path == os.path.join("aaa", "bbb", "ccc")
-
-
-def test_Path_repr():
-    p = makespec.Path(makespec.HOMEPATH, "aaa", "bbb", "ccc")
-    assert p.path == os.path.join(makespec.HOMEPATH, "aaa", "bbb", "ccc")
-    assert (repr(p) == "os.path.join(HOMEPATH,%r)" % os.path.join("aaa", "bbb", "ccc"))
-
-
-def test_Path_repr_relative():
-    p = makespec.Path("aaa", "bbb", "ccc.py")
-    assert p.path == os.path.join("aaa", "bbb", "ccc.py")
-    assert repr(p) == "%r" % os.path.join("aaa", "bbb", "ccc.py")
-
-
-def test_Path_regression():
-    p = makespec.Path(makespec.HOMEPATH + "-aaa", "bbb", "ccc")
-    assert p.path == os.path.join(makespec.HOMEPATH + "-aaa", "bbb", "ccc")
-    assert (repr(p) == repr(os.path.join(makespec.HOMEPATH + "-aaa", "bbb", "ccc")))
-
-
 def test_add_data(capsys):
     """
     Test CLI parsing of --add-data and --add-binary.
@@ -59,9 +26,10 @@ def test_add_data(capsys):
 
     assert parser.parse_args([]).datas == []
     assert parser.parse_args(["--add-data", "/foo/bar:."]).datas == [("/foo/bar", ".")]
-    assert parser.parse_args([r"--add-data=C:\foo\bar:baz"]).datas == [(r"C:\foo\bar", "baz")]
+    if os.name == "nt":
+        assert parser.parse_args([r"--add-data=C:\foo\bar:baz"]).datas == [(r"C:/foo/bar", "baz")]
     assert parser.parse_args([r"--add-data=c:/foo/bar:baz"]).datas == [(r"c:/foo/bar", "baz")]
-    assert parser.parse_args([r"--add-data=/foo/:bar"]).datas == [("/foo/", "bar")]
+    assert parser.parse_args([r"--add-data=/foo/:bar"]).datas == [("/foo", "bar")]
 
     for args in [["--add-data", "foo/bar"], ["--add-data", "C:/foo/bar"]]:
         with pytest.raises(SystemExit):