PermissionError when Spyder is started

Error encountered when i open spyder

File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\utils\external\lockfile.py”, line 88, in symlink rename(newlinkname, filename) PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied: ‘C:\Users\mzeeqazi\.spyder-py3\spyder.lock.1517167725983.newlink’ -> ‘C:\Users\mzeeqazi\.spyder-py3\spyder.lock’

Traceback (most recent call last): File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\app\start.py”, line 118, in main lock_created = lock.lock() File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\utils\external\lockfile.py”, line 150, in lock symlink(str(os.getpid()), self.name) File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\utils\external\lockfile.py”, line 91, in symlink os.rmdir(newlinkname) OSError: [WinError 145] The directory is not empty: ‘C:\Users\mzeeqazi\.spyder-py3\spyder.lock.1517167725983.newlink’

Traceback (most recent call last): File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\plugins_init_.py”, line 511, in <lambda> toggled=lambda checked: self.toggle_view(checked), File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\plugins\ipythonconsole.py”, line 713, in toggle_view self.create_new_client(give_focus=False) File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\plugins\ipythonconsole.py”, line 1009, in create_new_client self.connect_client_to_kernel(client) File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\plugins\ipythonconsole.py”, line 1035, in connect_client_to_kernel stderr_file) File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\plugins\ipythonconsole.py”, line 1440, in create_kernel_manager_and_kernel_client kernel_manager.start_kernel(stderr=stderr) File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\jupyter_client\manager.py”, line 257, in start_kernel **kw) File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\jupyter_client\manager.py”, line 203, in _launch_kernel return launch_kernel(kernel_cmd, **kw) File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\jupyter_client\launcher.py”, line 128, in launch_kernel proc = Popen(cmd, **kwargs) File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\subprocess.py”, line 709, in init restore_signals, start_new_session) File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\subprocess.py”, line 997, in _execute_child startupinfo) FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified

Version and main components

• Spyder Version: 3.2.4
• Python Version: 3.6.3
• Qt Versions: 5.6.2, PyQt5 5.6 on Windows

Dependencies

pyflakes >=0.6.0 :  1.6.0 (OK)
pycodestyle >=2.3:  2.3.1 (OK)
pygments >=2.0   :  2.2.0 (OK)
pandas >=0.13.1  :  0.20.3 (OK)
numpy >=1.7      :  1.13.3 (OK)
sphinx >=0.6.6   :  1.6.3 (OK)
rope >=0.9.4     :  0.10.5 (OK)
jedi >=0.9.0     :  0.10.2 (OK)
nbconvert >=4.0  :  5.3.1 (OK)
sympy >=0.7.3    :  1.1.1 (OK)
cython >=0.21    :  0.26.1 (OK)
qtconsole >=4.2.0:  4.3.1 (OK)
IPython >=4.0    :  6.1.0 (OK)
pylint >=0.25    :  1.7.4 (OK)

[ccordoba12]

@dalthviz, please work on this one. The idea is to address this problem

File “D:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\utils\external\lockfile.py”, line 88, in symlink rename(newlinkname, filename) PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied: ‘C:\Users\mzeeqazi.spyder-py3\spyder.lock.1517167725983.newlink’ -> ‘C:\Users\mzeeqazi.spyder-py3\spyder.lock’

To solve it, we need to catch IOError and OSError around these lines

https://github.com/spyder-ide/spyder/blob/3.x/spyder/utils/external/lockfile.py#L91-L92

and pass in the except part.

[ccordoba12]

Thanks for reporting the full error @mzeeqazi! That was what made me finally realize the source of this problem: the removal of the conda environment used to start our kernels. So the second part of your problem is a duplicate of issue #4958.

You have two options to fix it until we do:

1. Run in a system terminal (cmd.exe) spdyer --reset.
2. Go to Preferences > Python interpreter and select either the Default interpreter or a new custom one.