I got an error while testing py3k on VC6. Here is a patch.

======================================================================
ERROR: test_remove_visual_c_ref (distutils.tests.test_msvc9compiler.msvc9compile
rTestCase)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "e:\python-dev\py3k\lib\distutils\tests\test_msvc9compiler.py", line 112,
 in test_remove_visual_c_ref
    from distutils.msvc9compiler import MSVCCompiler
  File "e:\python-dev\py3k\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 291, in <module
>
    raise DistutilsPlatformError("VC %0.1f is not supported by this module" % VE
RSION)
distutils.errors.DistutilsPlatformError: VC 6.0 is not supported by this module

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 170 tests in 49.070s

FAILED (errors=1, skipped=4)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test_distutils.py", line 18, in <module>
    test_main()
  File "test_distutils.py", line 13, in test_main
    test.support.run_unittest(distutils.tests.test_suite())
  File "e:\python-dev\py3k\lib\test\support.py", line 1054, in run_unittest
    _run_suite(suite)
  File "e:\python-dev\py3k\lib\test\support.py", line 1037, in _run_suite
    raise TestFailed(err)
test.support.TestFailed: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "e:\python-dev\py3k\lib\distutils\tests\test_msvc9compiler.py", line 112,
 in test_remove_visual_c_ref
    from distutils.msvc9compiler import MSVCCompiler
  File "e:\python-dev\py3k\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 291, in <module
>
    raise DistutilsPlatformError("VC %0.1f is not supported by this module" % VE
RSION)
distutils.errors.DistutilsPlatformError: VC 6.0 is not supported by this module

I don’t know the details of MSVC versions, but the error message seems to mean that this version is not supported, so there is nothing to fix.

Other test functions already have such skips. So I think another skip is acceptable here. But maybe it's better to skip entire msvc9compilerTestCase class (by class decorator).

Fixed in r84753(py3k).

Wouldn’t it be more accurate to skip the test instead of returning None (falsely indicating success)?

(Adding distutils2 component so that forward-porting the patch is not forgotten.)

How about attached patch? I confirmed this both on MSVC8 and MSVC6.

Looks excellent, just import the function at the module scope instead of function scope (I’ve heard about import deadlock issues, and performance is not an issue in tests, so there is no reason to import in the function).

Please backport to 3.1 and 2.7 if the bug applies to them.

> I’ve heard about import deadlock issues, and performance is not an
> issue in tests, so there is no reason to import in the function

distutils.msvc9compiler imports winreg internally,
and it only exists on windows, so importing distutils.msvc9.....
compiler may raise ImportError on Linux. So I imported only when
sys.platform == "win32".

Committed in r84760(py3k). And will be merged into other branches.

Re-opening to remind myself about the forward-port.

Éric, what forward porting exactly needs to be done?

Martin: Just applying the same changes to distutils2.