Example: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/python/cpython/build/3.7.0a0.9414

======================================================================
ERROR: test_get_exe_bytes (distutils.tests.test_bdist_wininst.BuildWinInstTestCase)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\projects\cpython\lib\distutils\tests\test_bdist_wininst.py", line 24, in test_get_exe_bytes
    exe_file = cmd.get_exe_bytes()
  File "C:\projects\cpython\lib\distutils\command\bdist_wininst.py", line 361, in get_exe_bytes
    f = open(filename, "rb")
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'C:\\projects\\cpython\\lib\\distutils\\command\\wininst-14.12.exe'
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I thought we'd special cased the v14 toolset already.

This should be an update to the Python code in distutils that selects the filename based on compiler version.

Extract of pythoninfo of the failed build:

os.environ[VS110COMNTOOLS]: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\Tools\
os.environ[VS120COMNTOOLS]: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\
os.environ[VS140COMNTOOLS]: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\Tools\

The build starts with:

Using "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe"  (found in the PATH)

Oh, and the PATH:

os.environ[PATH]: C:\Perl\site\bin;C:\Perl\bin;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files\7-Zip;C:\Tools\GitVersion;C:\Tools\NuGet;C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Web Platform Installer\;C:\Tools\PsTools;C:\Program Files\Git LFS;C:\Program Files\Mercurial\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Subversion\bin;C:\Tools\WebDriver;C:\Tools\Coverity\bin;C:\Tools\MSpec;C:\Tools\NUnit\bin;C:\Tools\NUnit3;C:\Tools\xUnit;C:\Program Files\nodejs;C:\Program Files (x86)\iojs;C:\Program Files\iojs;C:\Users\appveyor\AppData\Roaming\npm;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\Client SDK\ODBC\110\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\120\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\120\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\130\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\130\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\Client SDK\ODBC\130\Tools\Binn\;C:\Ruby193\bin;C:\go\bin;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache\Maven\bin;C:\Python27;C:\Python27\Scripts;C:\Program Files\erl8.3\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\CMake\bin;C:\Tools\curl\bin;C:\Program Files\LLVM\bin;C:\Users\appveyor\.dnx\bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft DNX\Dnvm\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\SQLDB\DAC\130;C:\Program Files\Amazon\AWSCLI\;C:\Program Files\dotnet\;C:\Tools\vcpkg;C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet\;C:\Users\appveyor\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps;C:\Users\appveyor\AppData\Local\Yarn\bin;C:\Users\appveyor\AppData\Roaming\npm;C:\Program Files\Docker;C:\Program Files\Git\cmd;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Service Fabric\bin\Fabric\Fabric.Code;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Service Fabric\Tools\ServiceFabricLocalClusterManager;C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Yarn\bin;C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\140\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\140\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\140\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\nodejs\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\Extensions\TestPlatform;C:\Users\appveyor\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps;C:\Users\appveyor\AppData\Local\Yarn\bin;C:\Users\appveyor\AppData\Roaming\npm;C:\Program Files\AppVeyor\BuildAgent\

This is the bit that needs fixing https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/master/Lib/distutils/command/bdist_wininst.py#L340

                bv = '.'.join(CRT_ASSEMBLY_VERSION.split('.', 2)[:2])
                if bv == '14.11':
                    # v141 and v140 are binary compatible,
                    # so keep using the 14.0 stub.
                    bv = '14.0'

AppVeyor has clearly gotten hold of 14.12, which should also be binary compatible (version numbers here are not strictly SemVer, but the 14 indicates binary compatibility).

@Steve: do you want to work on a fix?

Happy for someone else to do it. I won't have time this week - too much going on at work.

> Happy for someone else to do it. I won't have time this week - too much going on at work.

Sure. I wrote a PR to fix the exact bug.

New changeset 9e7c136ad8bc8e8eec50c2a8ae5ff02752f695a2 by Victor Stinner in branch 'master':
bpo-32302: Fix distutils bdist_wininst for CRT v142 (#4851)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/9e7c136ad8bc8e8eec50c2a8ae5ff02752f695a2

New changeset 645fa19f15cddeec8d882a9e1420173e7516f0e4 by Victor Stinner (Miss Islington (bot)) in branch '3.6':
bpo-32302: Fix distutils bdist_wininst for CRT v142 (GH-4851) (#4861)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/645fa19f15cddeec8d882a9e1420173e7516f0e4

It seems like AppVeyor is fixed, thanks Steve for the help!

Later, it would be nice to write a more generic fix than hardcoding two minor versions.