Windows 32 failure: "OSError: [WinError 126] The specified module could not be found" during test collection on Windows Py 3.6.8 32 bits only

[pombredanne]

We have a new failure on Python 3.6 Windows 32 bits in the CI:
https://dev.azure.com/nexB/44deaec8-15bb-470e-b20f-1e2c33a64c65/_apis/build/builds/2569/logs/189

2020-09-22T00:37:56.9919952Z ##[section]Starting: Run scancode tests with py3.6 on Win2016_32_py36
2020-09-22T00:37:57.0037429Z ==============================================================================
2020-09-22T00:37:57.0037901Z Task         : Command line
2020-09-22T00:37:57.0038223Z Description  : Run a command line script using Bash on Linux and macOS and cmd.exe on Windows
2020-09-22T00:37:57.0038503Z Version      : 2.164.2
2020-09-22T00:37:57.0038898Z Author       : Microsoft Corporation
2020-09-22T00:37:57.0039199Z Help         : https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/utility/command-line
2020-09-22T00:37:57.0039807Z ==============================================================================
2020-09-22T00:37:57.8681003Z Generating script.
2020-09-22T00:37:57.8780856Z Script contents:
2020-09-22T00:37:57.8787724Z Scripts\py.test -vvs --reruns=3 tests\scancode
2020-09-22T00:37:57.9123766Z ========================== Starting Command Output ===========================
....
2020-09-22T00:38:10.9567016Z src\extractcode\libarchive2.py:111: in load_lib
2020-09-22T00:38:10.9567381Z     return command.load_shared_library(dll, libdir)
2020-09-22T00:38:10.9567744Z src\commoncode\command.py:277: in load_shared_library
2020-09-22T00:38:10.9568034Z     raise e
2020-09-22T00:38:10.9568495Z src\commoncode\command.py:266: in load_shared_library
2020-09-22T00:38:10.9568800Z     lib = ctypes.CDLL(dll_path)
2020-09-22T00:38:10.9569359Z C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Python\3.6.8\x86\lib\ctypes\__init__.py:348: in __init__
2020-09-22T00:38:10.9569752Z     self._handle = _dlopen(self._name, mode)
2020-09-22T00:38:10.9570254Z E   OSError: [WinError 126] The specified module could not be found

Things work fine otherwise on other OS, arches and on Python 2.7.

Using a Windows VM and this https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon I was able to trace the failure:

3:18:38.3202609 PM	python.exe	5184	CloseFile	C:\dev\scancode-toolkit-develop-2020-09-22\Lib\site-packages\extractcode_libarchive\lib\libarchive.dll	SUCCESS	
3:18:38.3205379 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\dev\scancode-toolkit-develop-2020-09-22\Scripts\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3207585 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\Windows\SysWOW64\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3210046 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\Windows\System\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3212256 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\Windows\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3214403 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\dev\scancode-toolkit-develop-2020-09-22\Lib\site-packages\extractcode_libarchive\lib\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3217182 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\dev\scancode-toolkit-develop-2020-09-22\Scripts\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3219392 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\Users\pombreda\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\Scripts\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3222250 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\Users\pombreda\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3223954 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\Windows\SysWOW64\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3225765 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\Windows\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3227441 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\Windows\SysWOW64\wbem\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3229367 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3230658 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\Windows\SysWOW64\OpenSSH\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	PATH NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3232977 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\Users\pombreda\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a
3:18:38.3234457 PM	python.exe	5184	CreateFile	C:\dev\scancode-toolkit-develop-2020-09-22\Lib\site-packages\extractcode_libarchive\lib\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll	NAME NOT FOUND	Desired Access: Read Attributes, Disposition: Open, Options: Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a

Somehow libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll is looked for and is missing. That's weird as it was not an issue untilnow (nad was not an issue since May 2020)

[pombredanne]

See also https://bugs.python.org/issue41836

[pombredanne]

This was found after the merge of #2233 's #2234 PR in develop