PyInstaller uses /usr/bin/sh from real root instead of embedding one for os.system

[GamePlayer-8]

Good evening,

There's an issue when using os.system in the executable. When I've compiled the app on glibc 2.35 and used on glibc 2.38 and I've got sh: symbol lookup error: sh: undefined symbol: rl_trim_arg_from_keyseq.

/usr/bin/sh on my system is pointing at /usr/bin/bash and when I've symlinked the /usr/bin/sh to /usr/bin/dash the problem is gone.

The issue is why couldn't PyInstaller embed the /usr/bin/sh (readlink -f /usr/bin/sh exactly) into the binary to avoid missing /usr/bin/sh in the system?

[bwoodsend]

sh isn't just one file. It's requires the entirety of glibc and GNU's coreutils package. You really want to take the entire OS with you?

[GamePlayer-8]

You really want to take the entire OS with you?

Not really but would be nice to have an option to specify, which sh should be used for os.system

[rokm]

You really want to take the entire OS with you?

Not really but would be nice to have an option to specify, which sh should be used for os.system

Unless you're specifying the full path to the target executable, it will be the one that is found in PATH (so even if you did bundle sh with the frozen application, you would still need to ensure that sys._MEIPASS is in the PATH).

[rokm]

Since you're trying to run an external program, you should take a look at https://pyinstaller.org/en/latest/common-issues-and-pitfalls.html#launching-external-programs-from-the-frozen-application and reset LD_LIBRARY_PATH before your os.system call - then you shouldn't be running into issues with missing symbols with bash, either.

[rokm]

The issue is why couldn't PyInstaller embed the /usr/bin/sh (readlink -f /usr/bin/sh exactly) into the binary to avoid missing /usr/bin/sh in the system?

If you really wanted sh to be collected into frozen application, you would need to instruct PyInstaller to do so, using --add-data or --add-binary or their spec file equivalents. But as Brénainn already pointed out, that is usually not a good idea.