Two gaps left every Windows git-checkout install unable to recover from
the exact failure state #83569 reports:
1. Self-lock detection. _detect_venv_python_processes() always excludes
the calling process by design — a CLI hermes update IS the venv python.
An updater that had already imported a native venv extension (the
canonical one being cryptography.hazmat.bindings._rust, mapped while
hermes_cli.main resolved external secret sources) passed every
preflight and then died mid-sync with os error 5 when uv tried to
rewrite the mapped .pyd, stranding the venv half-updated. A new
preflight now refuses the sync before touching the checkout, writes
the update-incomplete marker so the next fresh launch completes the
install, and exits 2. Verified on a live Windows 11 host: after
importing hermes_cli.main, tasklist /m _rust.pyd shows the .pyd mapped
in the caller, and a peer process cannot open it read-write
(Permission denied) — while a rename succeeds, matching how uv/pip
actually fail (truncate+write, not rename).
2. Early-recovery install path. _early_recovery._run_repair_install used
sys.executable -m pip unconditionally. Windows git checkouts install
on a uv-managed base interpreter (python-build-standalone), whose
EXTERNALLY-MANAGED marker makes plain pip abort with
externally-managed-environment — the repair no-oped and the venv
stayed broken. The repair now detects the PEP 668 marker, prefers
uv pip install with VIRTUAL_ENV pointed at the project venv, and
falls back to pip --break-system-packages when no uv binary exists.
Both fixes ship with subprocess/unit regressions (sabotage-verified):
the new tests fail on pre-fix code and pass with it. Complements #77517,
which keeps the updater from importing cryptography in the first place;
this PR is the defence-in-depth when any future path loads it anyway.
Fixes#83569
Halldrix
c6a71294b6