regression with latest Python 3.11.1 and _socket not found

[endmarsfr]

Hello,

I had an error with latest Python 3.11.1 on windows 10 and Windows 11.
module _socket not found

it concerns socket.py file line 52

• Everything worked well with previous version 3.11.0
• So i moved back to 3.11.0 version
• it worked again with 3.11.0

I hope, that could be solved easily

Regards

[ramvikrams]

Could you please share the code where you got this error

[pyscripter]

Same issue here. I am using python embedded into another application (the PyScripter IDE). It worked fine with 3.11.0 and all previous versions of python.
It is not just _socket. Python is not able to load any of the dlls in the DLLs directory.

I am using Python on Windows. I have tried adding the DLLs subdirectory to the system path or using os.add_dll_directory with no luck.

partial traceback

 File "c:\Program Files\PyScripter\Lib\rpyc.zip\rpyc\__init__.py", line 44, in <module>
 File "c:\Program Files\PyScripter\Lib\rpyc.zip\rpyc\core\__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
 File "c:\Program Files\PyScripter\Lib\rpyc.zip\rpyc\core\stream.py", line 7, in <module>
 File "C:\Python\Python311\Lib\socket.py", line 51, in <module>
 import _socket
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_socket'

It works fine from python.exe.

importlib.import_module also fails:

>>> importlib.import_module("_socket")
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
 File "C:\Python\Python311\Lib\importlib\__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
 return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1206, in _gcd_import
 File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1178, in _find_and_load
 File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1142, in _find_and_load_unlocked
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_socket'

[pyscripter]

Ok I found the source of this issue and a workaround:
os.path.join(sys.prefix, 'DLLs') is missing from the python path.

The following works.

 dllpath = os.path.join(sys.base_prefix, 'DLLs')
 sys.path.insert(2, dllpath)
 import _socket

Now the question is why os.path.join(sys.base_prefix, 'DLLs') is missing...

[pyscripter]

3d889dc is probably the culprit.

Assumes that a missing ``DLLs`` directory means that standard extension
modules are in the executable's directory.

[endmarsfr]

Nice job :)