[utils] Small fixes to utils, make tests pass in Py2 #2877

Job	Run time
Select tests from inputs	1s
Linter	17s
Run tests (ubuntu-20.04, 2.7, cpython, core, sh)	1m 1s
Run tests (ubuntu-20.04, 3.2, cpython, core, sh)	1m 20s
Run tests (ubuntu-20.04, 3.5, cpython, core, sh)	1m 3s
Run tests (ubuntu-20.04, 3.9, cpython, core, sh)	1m 25s
Run tests (ubuntu-20.04, 3.11, cpython, core, sh)	1m 12s
Run tests (ubuntu-20.04, pypy-2.7, cpython, core, sh)	2m 21s
Run tests (ubuntu-20.04, pypy-3.6, cpython, core, sh)	2m 45s
Run tests (ubuntu-20.04, pypy-3.7, cpython, core, sh)	2m 38s
Run tests (windows-2019, 3.4, cpython, core, bat)	2m 6s
Run tests (windows-2019, 3.4, cpython, nodownload, bat)	48s
Run tests (ubuntu-20.04, 2.7, jython, core, sh)	3m 11s
Run tests (ubuntu-20.04, 2.7, jython, nodownload, sh)	33s
	20m 41s

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