Debian 12: errors when using Python3 venv?

Nicholas Papadonis

unread,

Jun 14, 2023, 4:00:06 PM6/14/23

to

Hi,

I just cleanly installed Debian 11 and am trying to create a virtual environment for Python.

I get the following error, does anyone know how to resolve this? Am I missing some packages that need to be installed?

1843 [deb12:~]$ python3 -m venv pt
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<frozen runpy>", line 189, in _run_module_as_main
File "<frozen runpy>", line 148, in _get_module_details
File "<frozen runpy>", line 112, in _get_module_details
File "/usr/lib/python3.11/venv/__init__.py", line 7, in <module>
import logging
File "/usr/lib/python3.11/logging/__init__.py", line 43, in <module>
import threading
File "/home/vboxuser/threading.py", line 3, in <module>
sem = threading.Semaphore()
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
AttributeError: partially initialized module 'threading' has no attribute 'Semaphore' (most likely due to a circular import)

David Peacock

unread,

Jun 14, 2023, 5:10:06 PM6/14/23

to

Hey there,

On Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 3:56 PM Nicholas Papadonis <nick.pap...@gmail.com> wrote:

I just cleanly installed Debian 11 and am trying to create a virtual environment for Python.

Assuming you meant Debian 12 here, based on the subject line, and am answering as such.

I get the following error, does anyone know how to resolve this? Am I missing some packages that need to be installed?

1843 [deb12:~]$ python3 -m venv pt

First time I ran this I was notified that I didn't have the python3-venv package installed. After taking care of that, I was able to run your command without any errors on my clean Debian 12 system.

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<frozen runpy>", line 189, in _run_module_as_main
File "<frozen runpy>", line 148, in _get_module_details
File "<frozen runpy>", line 112, in _get_module_details
File "/usr/lib/python3.11/venv/__init__.py", line 7, in <module>
import logging
File "/usr/lib/python3.11/logging/__init__.py", line 43, in <module>
import threading
File "/home/vboxuser/threading.py", line 3, in <module>
sem = threading.Semaphore()
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
AttributeError: partially initialized module 'threading' has no attribute 'Semaphore' (most likely due to a circular import)

This won't be helpful information for you in that I am not providing a solution, but please know that I couldn't reproduce your issue on my system so I suspect there is something amiss with yours.

I hope this is something of a pointer for you.

David

Ulf Volmer

unread,

Jun 14, 2023, 5:40:06 PM6/14/23

to

Am Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 03:55:44PM -0400 schrieb Nicholas Papadonis:

> File "/home/vboxuser/threading.py", line 3, in <module>

I'm surprised about this file. It should not appear by creating a python
venv.

Best regards
Ulf

Kushal Kumaran

unread,

Jun 15, 2023, 12:10:07 AM6/15/23

to

Your /home/vboxuser/threading.py is hiding the threading module from the
python standard library.

--
regards,
kushal

Roland Müller

unread,

Jun 22, 2023, 10:00:07 AM6/22/23

to

Hello

Python is loading the first file with .py extension as module when it is
requested by an import in the called script. Even an empty file is
loaded as module.

The feature or bad thing is that the current directory is in the python
path.

$ touch threading.py
$ python -m venv my_venv

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 187, in _run_module_as_main
    mod_name, mod_spec, code = _get_module_details(mod_name, _Error)
File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 146, in _get_module_details
    return _get_module_details(pkg_main_name, error)
File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 110, in _get_module_details
    __import__(pkg_name)
File "/usr/lib/python3.10/venv/__init__.py", line 7, in <module>
    import logging
File "/usr/lib/python3.10/logging/__init__.py", line 217, in <module>
    _lock = threading.RLock()
AttributeError: module 'threading' has no attribute 'RLock'
Error in sys.excepthook:

BR,

Roland