Load dynamically libjulia.dll fails on Win32 from python and LoadLibrary?

[Nelson-numerical-software]

Code below works on windows x86_64 but not on windows x86

Minimal code:

import os
import ctypes
julia_directory = 'D:/julia-1.11.3-win32/julia-1.11.3/bin'
os.chdir(julia_directory)
print("Current Directory:", os.getcwd())
julia_dll = 'libjulia.dll'
library_path = os.path.abspath(julia_dll)
julia_library = ctypes.CDLL(library_path)

result on windows x86:

D:\Developpements\Github\nelson-lang\nelson>python
Python 3.13.1 (tags/v3.13.1:0671451, Dec  3 2024, 19:06:28) [MSC v.1942 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import os
>>> import ctypes
>>> julia_directory = 'D:/julia-1.11.3-win32/julia-1.11.3/bin'
>>> os.chdir(julia_directory)
>>> print("Current Directory:", os.getcwd())
Current Directory: D:\julia-1.11.3-win32\julia-1.11.3\bin
>>> julia_dll = 'libjulia.dll'
>>> library_path = os.path.abspath(julia_dll)
>>> julia_library = ctypes.CDLL(library_path)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<python-input-7>", line 1, in <module>
    julia_library = ctypes.CDLL(library_path)
  File "C:\WindowsTools\Python313\Lib\ctypes\__init__.py", line 390, in __init__
    self._handle = _dlopen(self._name, mode)
                   ~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
OSError: [WinError 193] %1 n’est pas une application Win32 valide
>>

Julia version downloaded from https://julialang-s3.julialang.org/bin/winnt/x86/1.11/julia-1.11.3-win32.zip

from C++ code with MSVC 2022 win32 build as compiler LoadLibrary fails with error:

Unable to load dependent library D:\julia-1.11.3-win32\julia-1.11.3\bin\libjulia-codegen.dll

Same code with x64 build and julia x64 works perfectly.

Do not hesitate to close it if it is a duplicated bug

[vtjnash]

IIUC, we print the actual error message after the "Unable to load dependent library" text, though you could also try loading it (the libjulia-codegen.dll path) into python directly. My recollection of dealing with python.exe in the distant past is that they decided to statically link some stuff into it on Windows for better performance on x86, so the python executable can behave unreliably if you then try to dlopen things from it with ctypes.

[Nelson-numerical-software]

Python's code is here only to have a basic reproductible code.
Main trouble is with LoadLibrary C/C++ code with same trouble.
LoadLibrary with libjulia.dll works on x64 windows but not on win32 build

[Nelson-numerical-software]

libjulia-codegen.dll seems to have a unresolved dependency (I also tried with installer 1.11.3)

Win32

dbghelp not found and seems to search x64 where it should be x86

To compare with x64 version:

Please also notice is reproduced on 3 pcs and win32 github CI

[vtjnash]

I do not know why your system is missing dbghelp.dll, as that is part of your OS, and not a part of Julia

[Nelson-numerical-software]

not also available on Github CI worker (standard github windows image)
Please notice that Julia.exe win32 starts but loadLibrary (or dependency walker) seems to find dbghelp.dll win32

[inkydragon]

On my local system, Win11,

• julia-win64 use C:\WINDOWS\system32\dbghelp.dll
• julia-win32 use C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\dbghelp.dll

The DbgHelp library is implemented by DbgHelp.dll.
Although this DLL is included in all supported versions of Windows, it is rarely the most current version of DbgHelp available.
—— https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/debug/dbghelp-versions

So I would assume that maybe your system is missing SysWOW64\dbghelp.dll.

[Nelson-numerical-software]

on my system Windows 11 Pro up to date, there are also available.
Julia 32 bit and 64 bit start and run correctly But when I load library on 32 bit from python or C/C++ with LoadLibrary dbghelp.dll not correctly found.
I reproduce this trouble also on a official Github CI worker windows.

For now I have dropped julia's support for windows 32 bits in my soft. Where 64 bits works perfectly on windows 64, linux and macos