An error for generating an exe file using pyinstaller - typeerror: expected str, bytes or os.PathLike object, not NoneType

Question

I am trying to build an .exe file from .py file using pysinstaller and Python 3.7.2.

It worked with Python 3.6; then I re-inst

Answer 1

It may be from an ill-formed spec file, something as simple (yet difficult to find) as a commented or missing argument.

When I comment out name in exe,

exe = EXE(pyz,
          a.scripts,
          a.binaries,
          a.zipfiles,
          a.datas,
          [],
          # name='my_app',
          debug=False,
          bootloader_ignore_signals=False,
          strip=False,
          upx=True,
          upx_exclude=[],
          runtime_tmpdir=None,
          console=True,
          icon='resources/icons/icon.ico',
          version='resources/version/version.py')

I get the following traceback:

146666 INFO: Building PYZ (ZlibArchive) c:\projects\my-env\app\qc\tools\my_app\build\my_app_old\PYZ-00.pyz completed successfully.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\lorem\Anaconda3\envs\my-env\Scripts\pyinstaller-script.py", line 10, in 
    sys.exit(run())
  File "C:\Users\lorem\Anaconda3\envs\my-env\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\__main__.py", line 114, in run
    run_build(pyi_config, spec_file, **vars(args))
  File "C:\Users\lorem\Anaconda3\envs\my-env\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\__main__.py", line 65, in run_build
    PyInstaller.building.build_main.main(pyi_config, spec_file, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Users\lorem\Anaconda3\envs\my-env\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\building\build_main.py", line 720, in main
    build(specfile, kw.get('distpath'), kw.get('workpath'), kw.get('clean_build'))
  File "C:\Users\lorem\Anaconda3\envs\my-env\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\building\build_main.py", line 667, in build
    exec(code, spec_namespace)
  File "my_app_old.spec", line 49, in 
    version='resources/version/version.py')
  File "C:\Users\lorem\Anaconda3\envs\my-env\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\building\api.py", line 382, in __init__
    self.name = os.path.join(CONF['distpath'], os.path.basename(self.name))
  File "C:\Users\lorem\Anaconda3\envs\my-env\lib\ntpath.py", line 214, in basename
    return split(p)[1]
  File "C:\Users\lorem\Anaconda3\envs\my-env\lib\ntpath.py", line 183, in split
    p = os.fspath(p)
TypeError: expected str, bytes or os.PathLike object, not NoneType

The application builds when name is included.