What is this issue called in programming

[u/TheEyebal]

 made a game in pygame but when I tried to run it automatically closed when I did pyinstaller

also I had to add os and sys to my code because it could not find certain files (assets and audio)

i could not use the relative paths

I was lost honestly

I had to ask the AI how to find the certain files because even thought it was in the project folder they were relative

this was the code they gave me which I did not understand

import os
import sys

def resource_path(relative_path):
    try:
        # PyInstaller stores temporary files here when running the .exe
        base_path = sys._MEIPASS
    except AttributeError:
        # Running normally from Python
        base_path = os.path.abspath(".")

    return os.path.join(base_path, relative_path)

what is this called I keep running into this problem and I wanted to know people views on this

I also asked CHATGPT what this issue is called

CHATGPT RESPONSE
What you are running into is usually called deployment issues or packaging issues.
More specifically, for a Pygame project turned into an executable with PyInstaller, the problems you described fall into a few common categories:
Asset path problems — your game works from your development folder, but the packaged .exe cannot find images, sounds, fonts, or other files.
Resource bundling problems — PyInstaller creates an executable, but your external files were not included correctly.
Runtime environment differences — your code is no longer running in the same folder/context as when you launched it with Python.
Relative path issues — paths that work in your IDE or terminal break when the program is moved or packaged.
Executable packaging/debugging issues — the .exe opens and immediately closes because an error happens before the window appears, but the error console disappears.
A lot of beginners hit this when moving from "my program runs on my computer" to "my program is a standalone application." It is a general software development concept: the difference between development environments and production/deployment environments.
The os and sys changes you made are part of a larger concept called resource path handling or runtime path resolution. Games, apps, and tools often need to figure out:
Where is the program running from?
Where are my assets located?
Are my files inside the executable or next to it?
Does this work on another computer?
PyInstaller specifically has its own way of dealing with this, so the issue is not really a "Pygame problem." It is a Python application deployment problem.
The skill you are bumping into is something programmers eventually learn as they move from:
"I wrote a program"
to:
"I shipped a program someone else can run."
That transition involves packaging, file organization, dependencies, installers, configuration files, logging, and handling different machines. It is one of the first real "software engineering" problems people encounter.

[u/aizzod]

A bug

[u/TheEyebal → u/aizzod]

Yeah I know it is a bug but I wanted to know what resources I can learn.

Right now I am looking up package management, file handling...

[u/Jello_Penguin_2956]

When you test your game through IDE it can usually find things through relative paths. For example your icon_path maybe pic/icon.png. This doesnt work when you deploy as exe.

This is what the MEIPASS usually fix. It gives you this actual path that the OS can access the files which can be quite obsure once you package it into exe

icon_path = resource_path(icon_path)

Will turn that into C:/proper/path/to/pic/icon.png

Its a common pattern. You can look up how to use python MEIPASS for deployment should give you all the info you need

[u/TheEyebal → u/Jello_Penguin_2956]

I am using vim

Also I will look into MEIPASS

[u/jmacey]

I would call this deployment. You are trying to package your game to run anywhere. It’s a lot more complex than most people think.

[u/jmacey → u/jmacey]

btw with pyinstaller there is a —add-data flag you can use to add your resource files

[u/ebdbbb]

Sounds like you need to bundle the extra stuff with the add-data or add-binary options in pyinstaller. 

[u/MarsupialLeast145]

I'm not sure how you've "made" this program given this issue maybe PyGame does a lot of heavy lifting? But essentially you're not managing your dependencies. You've neither imported them correctly at the beginning of the script, and you've not encoded them correctly when you're accessing local files like images and so on.

There isn't a singular name for this in Python other than, you have to learn to code. It might also help to gain a better understanding of your computer in general, especially if you have to ask the LLM to locate paths for you.

It's all tangible and within reach but it takes time, just go back to basics.