PathNotFoundError when installing a distribution with local packages (win64)

[dinya]

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What happened?

Hello,

I am creating a custom distribution using conda constructor (win64, Windows 10). Two packages are local.

Build of .exe (installator) and installation on build-machine are working fine.

However, when installing on another machine (or when installing on build-machine after deleting/renaming the path to the build-conda environment build-env ), the process is interrupted at the final stage of installation with the error PathNotFoundError:

<...>
Setting up the base environment...
Output folder: C:\opt\some-program\conda-meta
Extract: history
Extract: initial-state.explicit.txt
Installing packages for base...

PathNotFoundError: C:\opt\miniconda3\envs\build-env\conda-bld\noarch\package1-0.0.1-py_0.conda
PathNotFoundError: C:\opt\miniconda3\envs\build-env\conda-bld\win-64\package2-0.0.1-py313_0.conda

::error:: Failed to link extracted packages to C:\opt\some-program
Output folder: C:\opt\some-program\conda-meta
Extract: history
Clearing packages cache...
Created uninstaller: C:\opt\some-program\Uninstall-some-program.exe
Setting installation directory permissions...
Done!
Completed

C:\opt\some-program\conda-meta\initial-state.explicit.txt:

# This file may be used to create an environment using:
# $ conda create --name <env> --file <this file>
# platform: win-64
@EXPLICIT
<...>
file:///C:/opt/miniconda3/envs/build-env/conda-bld/noarch/package1-0.0.1-py_0.conda#c7df6db908073119917f5072
file:///C:/opt/miniconda3/envs/build-env/conda-bld/win-64/package2-0.0.1-py313_0.conda#d054d91de173f6a6a434ee1a508ddd55
<...>

Additional Context

My env:

# Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
annotated-types           0.6.0           py313haa95532_1
aom                       3.12.1               h00a0c3c_0
archspec                  0.2.5              pyhd3eb1b0_0
attrs                     25.4.0          py313haa95532_2
beautifulsoup4            4.14.3          py313haa95532_0
boltons                   25.0.0          py313haa95532_0
brotlicffi                1.2.0.0         py313h885b0b7_0
bzip2                     1.0.8                h2bbff1b_6
ca-certificates           2025.12.2            haa95532_0
cairo                     1.18.4               he9e932c_0
certifi                   2026.01.04      py313haa95532_0
cffi                      2.0.0           py313h02ab6af_1
chardet                   5.2.0           py313haa95532_0
charset-normalizer        3.4.4           py313haa95532_0
click                     8.2.1           py313haa95532_1
colorama                  0.4.6           py313haa95532_0
conda                     26.1.1          py313haa95532_0
conda-build               26.1.0          py313hcfce1f1_1
conda-index               0.10.0          py313haa95532_0
conda-libmamba-solver     26.3.0             pyh3785b3c_0
conda-package-handling    2.4.0           py313haa95532_1
conda-package-streaming   0.12.0          py313haa95532_1
conda-standalone          26.1.1          h2802e11_single_0
constructor               3.15.1          py313haa95532_0
cpp-expected              1.1.0                h214f63a_0
dav1d                     1.2.1                h2bbff1b_0
distro                    1.9.0           py313haa95532_0
evalidate                 2.0.3           py313haa95532_0
expat                     2.7.4                hd7fb8db_0
filelock                  3.20.3          py313haa95532_0
fmt                       11.2.0               h58b7f6e_0
fontconfig                2.15.0               hd211d86_0
freeglut                  3.8.0                hfcef157_0
freetype                  2.14.1               hfbffc0b_0
fribidi                   1.0.16               haf45083_0
frozendict                2.4.6           py313h02ab6af_0
graphite2                 1.3.14               hd77b12b_1
harfbuzz                  12.3.0               h3ef6528_1
icu                       73.1                 h6c2663c_0
idna                      3.11            py313haa95532_0
jinja2                    3.1.6           py313haa95532_0
jpeg                      9f                   ha349fce_0
jsonpatch                 1.33            py313haa95532_1
jsonpointer               3.0.0           py313haa95532_0
jsonschema                4.25.1          py313haa95532_0
jsonschema-specifications 2025.9.1        py313haa95532_0
lcms2                     2.17                 h3732fa5_0
lerc                      4.0.0                h5da7b33_0
libarchive                3.8.2                h6c023e8_0
libavif                   1.3.0                h5bd13ec_0
libbrotlicommon           1.2.0                h907acca_0
libbrotlidec              1.2.0                h02c67a5_0
libbrotlienc              1.2.0                h483e6b9_0
libcurl                   8.18.0               he215731_0
libdeflate                1.22                 h5bf469e_0
libexpat                  2.7.4                hd7fb8db_0
libffi                    3.4.4                hd77b12b_1
libglib                   2.86.3               h9bccc14_0
libiconv                  1.18                 hc89ec93_0
libkrb5                   1.22.1               hb237eb7_0
liblief                   0.17.5               h0c1e6ba_0
libmamba                  2.3.2                hc213065_1
libmambapy                2.3.2           py313h364efb6_1
libmpdec                  4.0.0                h827c3e9_0
libopenjpeg               2.5.4                h02ab6af_1
libpng                    1.6.55               h2854ad3_0
libsolv                   0.7.30               h23a355e_2
libssh2                   1.11.1               h2addb87_0
libtiff                   4.7.1                h3a18249_0
libwebp-base              1.6.0                hbf3958f_0
libxml2                   2.13.9               h6201b9f_0
libzlib                   1.3.1                h02ab6af_0
lz4-c                     1.9.4                h2bbff1b_1
markupsafe                3.0.2           py313h827c3e9_0
mbedtls                   3.5.1                h5da7b33_1
menuinst                  2.4.2           py313h885b0b7_1
msgpack-python            1.1.1           py313h5da7b33_0
msys2-gcc-libs            13.3.0                     1000
msys2-libiconv            1.17                       1000
msys2-libintl             0.22.4                     1000
msys2-msys-mutex          1.0                       msys2
msys2-msys2-runtime       3.5.4                      1000
msys2-patch               2.7.6                      2000
msys2-zlib                1.3.1                      1000
nlohmann_json             3.11.2               h6c2663c_0
nsis                      3.11                 h0ddc74d_0
openssl                   3.5.5                hbb43b14_0
packaging                 25.0            py313haa95532_1
pcre2                     10.46                h5740b90_0
pillow                    12.1.1          py313h9f28578_0
pip                       26.0.1             pyhc872135_0
pip-system-certs          5.3                      pypi_0    pypi
pixman                    0.46.4               h4043f72_0
pkginfo                   1.12.1.2        py313haa95532_0
platformdirs              4.5.0           py313haa95532_0
pluggy                    1.5.0           py313haa95532_0
psutil                    7.0.0           py313h02ab6af_1
py-lief                   0.17.5          py313h0c1e6ba_0
pybind11-abi              5                    hd3eb1b0_0
pycosat                   0.6.6           py313h827c3e9_2
pycparser                 2.23            py313haa95532_0
pydantic                  2.11.9          py313haa95532_0
pydantic-core             2.33.2          py313h215eeae_0
pysocks                   1.7.1           py313haa95532_1
python                    3.13.12         h39c999c_100_cp313
python-libarchive-c       5.3             py313haa95532_0
python_abi                3.13                    3_cp313
pytz                      2026.1.post1    py313haa95532_0
pyyaml                    6.0.3           py313hb9a58be_0
referencing               0.37.0          py313haa95532_0
reproc                    14.2.4               hd77b12b_2
reproc-cpp                14.2.4               hd77b12b_2
requests                  2.32.5          py313haa95532_1
rpds-py                   0.28.0          py313h114bc41_0
ruamel.yaml               0.18.16         py313hb9a58be_0
ruamel.yaml.clib          0.2.14          py313hb9a58be_0
setuptools                80.10.2         py313haa95532_0
simdjson                  3.10.1               h214f63a_0
soupsieve                 2.5             py313haa95532_0
sqlite                    3.51.1               hee5a0db_1
tk                        8.6.15               hf199647_0
tqdm                      4.67.3          py313h4442805_1
truststore                0.10.1          py313haa95532_1
typing-extensions         4.15.0          py313haa95532_0
typing-inspection         0.4.2           py313haa95532_0
typing_extensions         4.15.0          py313haa95532_0
tzdata                    2026a                he532380_0
ucrt                      10.0.22621.0         haa95532_0
urllib3                   2.6.3           py313haa95532_0
vc                        14.42                haa95532_5
vc14_runtime              14.44.35208         h4927774_10
vs2015_runtime            14.44.35208         ha6b5a95_10
wheel                     0.46.3          py313haa95532_0
win_inet_pton             1.1.0           py313haa95532_1
xz                        5.8.2                h53af0af_0
yaml                      0.2.5                he774522_0
yaml-cpp                  0.8.0                hd77b12b_1
zlib                      1.3.1                h02ab6af_0
zstandard                 0.24.0          py313he335c29_0
zstd                      1.5.7                h56299aa_0

[marcoesters]

Thank you for the report! It almost looks like the packages are not actually in the installer. Could you show your construct.yaml file? Especially the channels would be interesting to see.

When you run the installer, could you also look into the pkgs directory to see if the packages are in there? That would help narrow down where the problem may be.

[dinya]

@marcoesters Thanks for the feedback.

It almost looks like the packages are not actually in the installer.

No, they are presented in the sfx-archive (.exe):

pkgs\package1-0.0.1-py_0\info\repodata_record.json
pkgs\package1-0.0.1-py_0.conda
pkgs\package2-0.0.1-py313_0\info\repodata_record.json
pkgs\package2-0.0.1-py313_0.conda

Could you show your construct.yaml file? Especially the channels would be interesting to see.

name: some-program
version: 0.0.1

channels:
  - http://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/
  - https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
  - file:///C:\opt\miniconda3\envs\build-env\conda-bld

specs:
  - python >= 3.13, < 3.15
  - matplotlib >= 3.1.0
  - numpy <3
  - pandas >= 2, < 3
  - pyyaml >= 5.1.1
  - scipy >= 1.2.1
  - xlrd >= 1.2.0
  - openpyxl >= 2.6.2
  - pillow
  - lmfit
  - pydantic < 3
  - uncertainties
  - semver
  - conda-forge::simplejson
  - conda-forge::peakutils >= 1.3.2
  - package1
  - package2

exclude:
  - sip
  - pyqt
  - pyqt6-sip
  - qtbase
  - qtdeclarative
  - qtsvg
  - qttools
  - qtwebchannel
  - qtwebsockets
  - tk
  - wheel
  - openssl
  - setuptools
  - setuptools-scm
  - pip

license_file: ../LICENSE.rtf

welcome_image: welcome.png [win]

icon_image: logo.png [win]

initialize_by_default: True

register_python_default: True

When you run the installer, could you also look into the pkgs directory to see if the packages are in there? That would help narrow down where the problem may be.

Packages are in there on the fail moment (all contents of .conda-files except metadata.json):

C:\opt\some-program\pkgs\package1-0.0.1-py_0\info\...
C:\opt\some-program\pkgs\package1-0.0.1-py_0\site-packages\...
C:\opt\some-program\pkgs\package1-0.0.1-py_0.conda

C:\opt\some-program\pkgs\package2-0.0.1-py313_0\info\...
C:\opt\some-program\pkgs\package2-0.0.1-py313_0\Lib\site-packages\...
C:\opt\some-program\pkgs\package2-0.0.1-py313_0\Scripts\...
C:\opt\some-program\pkgs\package2-0.0.1-py313_0.conda

[marcoesters]

Your construct.yaml looks fine to me. The origin is likely with conda since the installer uses conda install to install the packages from the local package cache in pkgs. Could you install conda-standalone 25.7.0 into your installer build environment and rebuild the installer? It could be related to the following regression: conda/conda#15306

[dinya]

Could you install conda-standalone 25.7.0 into your installer build environment and rebuild the installer?

I downgraded conda-standalone from 26.1.1 to 25.7.0

conda install conda-standalone=25.7.0

and rebuild the installer. But the error PathNotFoundError is still here.

[dinya]

@marcoesters, should I check any other content (configss) in the builded .exe? At least _conda.exe --version returns conda 25.7.0 as expected.

[marcoesters]

Thanks for testing that! I will try to see if I can reproduce or isolate the issue. I will get back to you when I find the problem.

[marcoesters]

I think I was able to reproduce this problem in isolation and it only seems to be an issue on Windows. I filed an issue with conda: conda/conda#15831

[dinya]

@marcoesters bravo! waiting for the fix :)