When Things Go Wrong

Could not load _pytransform

Generally, the dynamic library _pytransform is in the same path of obfuscated scripts. It may be:

  • _pytransform.so in Linux
  • _pytransform.dll in Windows
  • _pytransform.dylib in MacOS

First check whether the file exists. If it exists:

  • Check the permissions of dynamic library

    If there is no execute permissions in Windows, it will complain: [Error 5] Access is denied

  • Check whether ctypes could load _pytransform:

    from pytransform import _load_library
m = _load_library(path='/path/to/dist')

  • Try to set the runtime path in the Bootstrap Code of entry script:

    from pytransform import pyarmor_runtime
pyarmor_runtime('/path/to/dist')

Still doesn’t work, report an issue

The license.lic generated doesn’t work

The key is that the capsule used to obfuscate scripts must be same as the capsule used to generate licenses.

If obfuscate scripts by command pyarmor obfuscate, Global Capsule is used implicitly. If obfuscate scripts by command pyarmor build, the project capsule in the project path is used.

When generating new licenses for obfuscated scripts, if run command pyarmor licenses in project path, the project capsule is used implicitly, otherwise Global Capsule.

The Global Capsule will be changed if the trial license file of PyArmor is replaced with normal one, or it’s deleted occasionally (which will be generated implicitly as running command pyarmor obfuscate next time).

The project capsule is overwrited when running command pyarmor init in the project path created before.

In any cases, generating new license file with the different capsule will not work for the obfuscated scripts before. If the old capsule is gone, one solution is to obfuscate these scripts by the new capsule again.

Two types of license.lic

In pyarmor, there are 2 types of license.lic

  • license.lic of PyArmor, which locates in the source path of PyArmor. It’s required to run pyarmor
  • license.lic of Obfuscated Scripts, which is generated as obfuscating scripts or generating new licenses. It’s required to run obfuscated scripts.

Each project has its own capsule .pyarmor_capsule.zip in project path. This capsule is generated when run command pyarmor init to create a project. And license.lic of PyArmor will be as an input file to make this capsule.

When runing command pyarmor build or pyarmor licenses, it will generate a license.lic in project output path for obfuscated scripts. Here the project capsule .pyarmor_capsule.zip will be as input file to generate this license.lic of Obfuscated Scripts.

So the relation between 2 license.lic is:

license.lic of PyArmor --> .pyarmor_capsule.zip --> license.lic of Obfuscated Scripts

If the scripts are obfuscated by command pyarmor obfuscate other than by project, Global Capsule is used implicitly.

Work with subprocess and multiprocessing

When creating new process by Popen or Process, note that Bootstrap Code must be called before importing any obfuscated code in sub-process. Otherwise it will report:

NameError: name '__pyarmor__' is not defined