python / python/cpython

'ImportError: DLL load failed while importing xxxxxxx: The filename or extension is too long' with LongPathsEnabled

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OS-windows topic-importlib type-bug
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Bug report

Bug description:

Python 3.11.9

In Python there there is a known limitation on Windows for paths being limited at 260 symbols, unless LongPathsEnabled is set, see https://docs.python.org/3/using/windows.html#removing-the-max-path-limitation.

Without that registry key set import of module at long path fails with ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'xxxxxxxxx' or opening file fails with FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory. With registry key set the limit is extended and 260 symbols long paths are working fine.

The issue I've found that importing binary Python extension seems to break on long paths (250 symbols seems to be max length) even with LongPathsEnabled, see the snippet below.
To reproduce this, you can setup some very long path (>250 symbols) in your site-packages and put in that directory one empty .py file (in my case it's "yyyy...yyyyyyyyyyy.py") and some .pyd file that it's importing fine without any other binary dependencies - in my case I was using _yaml.cp311-win_amd64.pyd I got from https://pypi.org/project/PyYAML/#files.

# Importing just .py module.
import xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy as script
print(len(script.__file__)) # 298. Doesn't seem to have limit at 250-260 symbols.
# Importing .pyd.
import xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx._yaml as yaml
print(len(yaml.__file__)) # 250. seems to be the max.

Found this issue working with Blender (related issue) - Blender comes with it's own Python and there's an option to store some of Blender addons dependencies next to blender.exe, so it can be virtually anywhere on the computer and paths can get very long.

CPython versions tested on:

3.11

Operating systems tested on:

Windows

Linked PRs
  • gh-156759

Contributor guide

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First steps

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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the Windows reproduction using a site-packages path longer than 250 characters, an empty .py module, and the _yaml.cp311-win_amd64.pyd extension. Compare the ordinary module import with the binary extension import under LongPathsEnabled, and review linked PR gh-156759. Done means binary Python extensions import successfully from these long paths on Windows.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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