flit --symlink: FileExistsError: [WinError 183] Cannot create a file when that file already exists:

[dougransom]

sometimes I see an error
FileExistsError: [WinError 183] Cannot create a file when that file already exists: 'C:\\Users\\Doug\\dictation toolbox\\natlinkcore\\src\\natlinkcore' -> 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Python39-32\\Lib\\site-packages\\natlinkcore'

when running flit install --symlink' after a pip uninstall`.

Here you can see there is no package in site-packages named natlinkcore. I run a build and install and seeing the error.

`PS C:\Users\Doug\dictation toolbox\natlinkcore> ls 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Python39-32\Lib\site-packages\n*'

Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\Python39-32\Lib\site-packages

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---

d----- 5/20/2022 11:54 AM numpy
d----- 5/20/2022 11:54 AM numpy-1.22.3.dist-info

PS C:\Users\Doug\dictation toolbox\natlinkcore> flit build
Found 115 files tracked in git I-flit.sdist
Built sdist: dist\natlinkcore-5.2.3.tar.gz I-flit_core.sdist
Copying package file(s) from C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpxsoyl83k\natlinkcore-5.2.3\src\natlinkcore I-flit_core.wheel
Writing metadata files I-flit_core.wheel
Writing the record of files I-flit_core.wheel
Built wheel: dist\natlinkcore-5.2.3-py3-none-any.whl I-flit_core.wheel
PS C:\Users\Doug\dictation toolbox\natlinkcore> flit install --symlink
Extras to install for deps 'all': {'.none', 'test'} I-flit.install
Installing requirements I-flit.install
Requirement already satisfied: pysimplegui>=4.60.3 in c:\program files (x86)\python39-32\lib\site-packages (from -r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 1)) (4.60.3)
Requirement already satisfied: pyenvutils in c:\program files (x86)\python39-32\lib\site-packages (from -r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 2)) (1.0.0.2)
Requirement already satisfied: pydebugstring in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from -r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 3)) (0.0.0.2)
Requirement already satisfied: dtactions>=1.5.0 in c:\program files (x86)\python39-32\lib\site-packages (from -r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (1.5.2)
Requirement already satisfied: pytest>=7.1.2 in c:\program files (x86)\python39-32\lib\site-packages (from -r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 5)) (7.1.2)
Requirement already satisfied: debugpy in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (1.6.0)
Requirement already satisfied: pywin32>=300 in c:\program files (x86)\python39-32\lib\site-packages (from dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (304)
Collecting natlinkcore
Using cached natlinkcore-5.2.1-py3-none-any.whl (154 kB)
Requirement already satisfied: dragonfly2 in c:\program files (x86)\python39-32\lib\site-packages (from dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (0.35.0)
Requirement already satisfied: tomli>=1.0.0 in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from pytest>=7.1.2->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 5)) (2.0.1)
Requirement already satisfied: pluggy<2.0,>=0.12 in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from pytest>=7.1.2->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 5)) (1.0.0)
Requirement already satisfied: attrs>=19.2.0 in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from pytest>=7.1.2->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 5)) (22.1.0)
Requirement already satisfied: colorama in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from pytest>=7.1.2->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 5)) (0.4.5)
Requirement already satisfied: iniconfig in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from pytest>=7.1.2->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 5)) (1.1.1)
Requirement already satisfied: py>=1.8.2 in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from pytest>=7.1.2->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 5)) (1.11.0)
Requirement already satisfied: packaging in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from pytest>=7.1.2->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 5)) (21.3)
Requirement already satisfied: atomicwrites>=1.0 in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from pytest>=7.1.2->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 5)) (1.4.1)
Requirement already satisfied: lark-parser==0.8.* in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (0.8.9)
Requirement already satisfied: pyperclip>=1.7.0 in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (1.8.2)
Requirement already satisfied: requests in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (2.27.1)
Requirement already satisfied: regex in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (2022.4.24)
Requirement already satisfied: Werkzeug in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (2.1.2)
Requirement already satisfied: six in c:\program files (x86)\python39-32\lib\site-packages (from dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (1.16.0)
Requirement already satisfied: json-rpc in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (1.13.0)
Requirement already satisfied: setuptools>=40.0.0 in c:\program files (x86)\python39-32\lib\site-packages (from dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (58.1.0)
Requirement already satisfied: decorator in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (5.1.1)
Requirement already satisfied: comtypes in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (1.1.11)
Requirement already satisfied: pyparsing!=3.0.5,>=2.0.2 in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from packaging->pytest>=7.1.2->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 5)) (3.0.9)
Requirement already satisfied: wxPython==4.1.1 in c:\program files (x86)\python39-32\lib\site-packages (from natlinkcore->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (4.1.1)
Requirement already satisfied: pillow in c:\program files (x86)\python39-32\lib\site-packages (from wxPython==4.1.1->natlinkcore->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (9.1.1)
Requirement already satisfied: numpy in c:\program files (x86)\python39-32\lib\site-packages (from wxPython==4.1.1->natlinkcore->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (1.22.3)
Requirement already satisfied: certifi>=2017.4.17 in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from requests->dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (2022.5.18.1)
Requirement already satisfied: charset-normalizer~=2.0.0 in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from requests->dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (2.0.12)
Requirement already satisfied: urllib3<1.27,>=1.21.1 in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from requests->dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (1.26.9)
Requirement already satisfied: idna<4,>=2.5 in c:\users\doug\appdata\roaming\python\python39\site-packages (from requests->dragonfly2->dtactions>=1.5.0->-r C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Local\Temp\tmppbjstc_prequirements.txt (line 4)) (3.3)
Installing collected packages: natlinkcore
Successfully installed natlinkcore-5.2.1
Symlinking src\natlinkcore -> C:\Program Files (x86)\Python39-32\Lib\site-packages\natlinkcore I-flit.install
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python39-32\lib\runpy.py", line 197, in _run_module_as_main
return run_code(code, main_globals, None,
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python39-32\lib\runpy.py", line 87, in run_code
exec(code, run_globals)
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python39-32\Scripts\flit.exe_main.py", line 7, in
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python39-32\lib\site-packages\flit_init.py", line 192, in main
Installer.from_ini_path(args.ini_file, user=args.user, python=python,
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python39-32\lib\site-packages\flit\install.py", line 430, in install
self.install_directly()
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python39-32\lib\site-packages\flit\install.py", line 324, in install_directly
os.symlink(src.resolve(), dst)
FileExistsError: [WinError 183] Cannot create a file when that file already exists: 'C:\Users\Doug\dictation toolbox\natlinkcore\src\natlinkcore' -> 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Python39-32\Lib\site-packages\natlinkcore'
PS C:\Users\Doug\dictation toolbox\natlinkcore>`

Note I previously had a natlinkcore but i uninstalled it.

[dougransom]

workaround with pip install -e .

[takluyver]

Symlinks on Windows still don't seem to 'just work' the way they do on Linux & Mac - the --pth-file option is there mostly as a fallback for Windows.

I'll leave this open for now to see if anyone has any good ideas, but I don't have any easy way to investigate it, so I'm not going to do anything further at the moment.