Python testing with Github Actions on Windows

Question

I'm trying to test a Python package on Windows using GitHub actions. The following job description is successful on Linux and MacOS but on Windows the final Test ${{ matrix.os }} binding section fails.

  test:
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [windows-latest]
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v1
      - uses: actions-rs/toolchain@v1
        with:
          toolchain: nightly
          default: true
      - name: Unit tests
        run: cargo test
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v1
        with:
          python-version: '3.7'
      - name: Test ${{ matrix.os }} binding
        run: |
          python3 -m venv venv3
          venv3\Scripts\Activate.ps1
          python3 -m pip install maturin numpy
          maturin develop
          python3 -m unittest discover tests

This is the resulting error log.

2020-05-02T11:26:46.8753138Z ##[group]Run actions/setup-python@v1
2020-05-02T11:26:46.8753394Z with:
2020-05-02T11:26:46.8753556Z   python-version: 3.7
2020-05-02T11:26:46.8753701Z   architecture: x64
2020-05-02T11:26:46.8753843Z ##[endgroup]
2020-05-02T11:26:46.9972224Z Successfully setup CPython (3.7.6)
2020-05-02T11:26:47.0429209Z ##[group]Run python3 -m venv venv3
2020-05-02T11:26:47.0429485Z python3 -m venv venv3
2020-05-02T11:26:47.0429617Z venv3\Scripts\Activate.ps1
2020-05-02T11:26:47.0429746Z python3 -m pip install maturin numpy
2020-05-02T11:26:47.0429871Z maturin develop
2020-05-02T11:26:47.0430000Z python3 -m unittest discover tests
2020-05-02T11:26:47.0470479Z shell: C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\pwsh.EXE -command ". '{0}'"
2020-05-02T11:26:47.0470607Z env:
2020-05-02T11:26:47.0470733Z   pythonLocation: C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Python\3.7.6\x64
2020-05-02T11:26:47.0470858Z ##[endgroup]
2020-05-02T11:26:57.7836092Z ##[error]Process completed with exit code 1.
2020-05-02T11:26:57.7855441Z Cleaning up orphan processes

It's not clear to me why it's failing.

Answer 1

The Python 3 executable is usually available with python3 on Linux and Mac, where the default python might the old Python 2. This is not the case on Windows so the solution is just to use python .