venv fails with confusing ENOENT when existing venv has broken symlinks
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@brettcannon is already working on this.
Since Jun 8, 2026.
stdlib
topic-venv
type-bug
- Dominant language
- Python
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- 77.2k
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Description
Bug report
Bug description:
python -m venv aborts with [Errno 2] No such file or directory if the target directory already contains a stale venv whose interpreter symlinks point to aremoved Python install.
Re-running venv on an existing environment shouldrefresh those links instead of failing.
Reproducer
mkdir -p oldvenv/bin
ln -s /nonexistent/python3 oldvenv/bin/python3
python3 -m venv oldvenv
Actual behavior
Traceback ends with FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/oldvenv/bin/python3' during the chmod phase.
Expected behavior
venv should replace broken interpreter symlinks just as it overwrites other files when re-run on an existing directory (without requiring --clear).
CPython versions tested on:
3.13
Operating systems tested on:
Linux
Linked PRs
- gh-143770
- gh-150985
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