setup-python failing due to missing cache directory

[wmmc88]

Description:
This job on my repo has been failing since #303 was merged in. Only the python 11 alpha variant is failing due to a cache related issue for pip. It fails in the Post Setup Python stage.

Action version: master

Platform:

• Ubuntu
• macOS
• [ x] Windows

Runner type:

• [x ] Hosted
• Self-hosted

Tools version:

python 3.11.0-alpha

Repro steps:
Run any pipeline with python 3.11.0-alpha on windows.

Expected behavior:
The job should succeed.

The job fails on Post Setup Python

[hugovk]

I'm seeing it too, also Windows and 3.11 alpha:

• https://github.com/hugovk/pypistats/runs/5015794619?check_suite_focus=true
• Bump respx from 0.19.0 to 0.19.1 hugovk/pypistats#311

I don't think #303 has been released yet, v2 is still pointing to v2.3.1 from November:

• https://github.com/actions/setup-python/tags

Possibly linked to the release of pip 22 on Sunday?

[wmmc88]

hm. yeah I assumed it was due to #303 because I use the master tag for setup-python and the failure coincided with the merging of the #303, but looks like you're right in that its not released to v2 and u have the same issue on v2.

[MaksimZhukov]

Hello @wmmc88! Thank you for the report!
We are investigating the issue. We will come back with investigation results as soon as we have them.

[dmitry-shibanov]

Hello @wmmc88. Thank you for your report. It's partly related to these changes, but the root cause is different. Previously cache key for pip didn't contain version of the python, that is why cache got hit on the primary key and the action didn't resave it. Now primary and restore keys have been changed and it forces action to resave cache.
I've added some more debug logs and found that the pip cache dir for python 3.11.0-alpha.4 (latest pip in general) returns output to stderr not to the stdout. I'm not sure the issue itself related to setup-python or pip. For now we continue investigation.

[janosh]

Could this error have a similar cause?

Run actions/setup-python@v2
  with:
    python-version: 3.8
    cache: pip
    cache-dependency-path: setup.cfg
    token: ***
Successfully setup CPython (3.8.10)
C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Python\3.8.10\x64
Error: The process 'C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Python\3.8.10\x64\Scripts\pip.exe' failed with exit code 322122

[dmitry-shibanov]

Hello @janosh. Yes, It's related to this issue: actions/toolkit#992
I'm not sure, but it's also can be related to this issue: pypa/pip#10875

[jku]

From what I can tell failures started as windows image updated from 20220123.1 to 20220131.1: actions/runner-images#5009

EDIT: this may be different after all: your error message is not the same and started on previous version -- sorry for spam