profiling.sampling doesn't work under venv on Windows

[sergey-miryanov]

Bug report

Bug description:

Running the following command inside a virtual environment triggers this error on Windows:
Failed to find the PyRuntime section in process 29072 on Windows platform

python -m profiling.sampling run --subprocesses -m test test_gc

I suspect this happens because virtual environments use shims to launch the original interpreter. Since the shim itself isn't a Python process, that's why profiling.sampling fails.

We can work around this: if --subprocesses option specified then we should proceed with profiling as long as at least one child process is a Python process.

cc @pablogsal

CPython versions tested on:

CPython main branch

Operating systems tested on:

Windows

Linked PRs

• GH-148932: Improve error message if profiling.sampling run from venv on Windows platform #149247
• gh-148932: Docs / profiling.sampling Windows limitations #150272
• [3.15] gh-148932: Docs / profiling.sampling Windows limitations (GH-150272) #150330
• gh-148932: Fix profiling.sampling on Windows virtual environments #150541
• [3.15] gh-148932: Fix profiling.sampling on Windows virtual environments (GH-150541) #151097

[pablogsal]

I think at the very least we should improve the error message if we are sure enough that's the case. Could you make a PR for that @sergey-miryanov ?

[sergey-miryanov]

Yes, will try to do.