[itamaro]

GH-156483 made getpath locate a venv's base installation relative to the resolved base executable instead of the home key in pyvenv.cfg. When the resolved executable lives outside the installation tree (e.g. a launcher binary symlinked into it), nothing is found there and discovery falls back to the compiled-in PREFIX. The venv then either fails to start or silently runs with another installation's standard library.

This PR:

• Keeps gh-106045: Fix venv path discovery for symlinked executables #156483's behavior when the resolved executable's directory locates a standard library (pybuilddir.txt, the stdlib zip, or os.py). Otherwise it keeps searching from home, as before gh-106045: Fix venv path discovery for symlinked executables #156483.
• In that fallback case, still searches the resolved executable's directory for lib-dynload when determining exec_prefix: after prefix, before home and the compiled-in EXEC_PREFIX. Layouts with a separate exec prefix (e.g. ./configure --exec-prefix) then keep loading extension modules from the right place, and a stale lib-dynload near the home symlink can't take precedence over the one beside the resolved executable.

The tests added by GH-156483 pass unchanged. Three new test_getpath cases cover the launcher-outside-the-installation and separate-exec-prefix layouts, and a misleading lib-dynload near home; each fails without this change.

Reproducer

On main (0a86a34), with a plain ./configure --prefix=$HOME/py-under-test && make && make install:

#!/bin/sh
# Usage: venv-home-repro.sh <installed-prefix> <X.Y>
set -eu
PREFIX=$1; VER=$2
W=$(mktemp -d)
mkdir -p "$W/runtime/bin" "$W/runtime/lib" "$W/launcher"
cp -R "$PREFIX/lib/python$VER" "$W/runtime/lib/"
cp "$PREFIX/bin/python$VER" "$W/launcher/python3"
ln -s "$W/launcher/python3" "$W/runtime/bin/python3"
PYTHONHOME="$W/runtime" "$W/runtime/bin/python3" -m venv --without-pip "$W/venv"
grep '^home' "$W/venv/pyvenv.cfg"
echo "expected base_prefix: $W/runtime"
"$W/venv/bin/python" -c 'import os, sys; print("actual base_prefix:", sys.base_prefix); print("os.py loaded from:", os.__file__)'

Before:

home = /tmp/tmp.NFug9wEr4h/runtime/bin
expected base_prefix: /tmp/tmp.NFug9wEr4h/runtime
actual base_prefix: /home/user/py-under-test
os.py loaded from: /home/user/py-under-test/lib/python3.16/os.py

(With $HOME/py-under-test/lib/python3.16 removed, the venv instead fails with ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'encodings'.)

After:

home = /tmp/tmp.8Zne2otFrw/runtime/bin
expected base_prefix: /tmp/tmp.8Zne2otFrw/runtime
actual base_prefix: /tmp/tmp.8Zne2otFrw/runtime
os.py loaded from: /tmp/tmp.8Zne2otFrw/runtime/lib/python3.16/os.py

Written with assistance from Claude Code Fable 5.1

• Issue: venv base path does not resolve symlinks using realpath() #106045

[bedevere-app]

When you're done making the requested changes, leave the comment: I have made the requested changes; please review again.

[ambv]

If you rebase, the Hypo failure is fixed.

[itamaro]

I have made the requested changes; please review again.

[bedevere-app]

Thanks for making the requested changes!

@ambv: please review the changes made to this pull request.

[ambv]

We can no longer "skip news" for this if it shipped to 3.14.9 and 3.15.1.

[ambv]

@itamaro nitpick: update the description before landing to match the code.

It says the resolved executable's directory is searched for lib-dynload "after prefix and home". Since your reorder, it's searched after prefix but before home (Modules/getpath.py:636-642). And there's three cases.

[itamaro]

@itamaro nitpick: update the description before landing to match the code.

It says the resolved executable's directory is searched for lib-dynload "after prefix and home". Since your reorder, it's searched after prefix but before home (Modules/getpath.py:636-642). And there's three cases.

thanks, updated the description!

[miss-islington-app]

Thanks @itamaro for the PR 🌮🎉.. I'm working now to backport this PR to: 3.14, 3.15.
🐍🍒⛏🤖

[bedevere-app]

GH-160354 is a backport of this pull request to the 3.15 branch.

[bedevere-app]

GH-160355 is a backport of this pull request to the 3.14 branch.