your package fails the autopkgtest with the new pytest 7.3 because python/test/unit/function/test_function_space.py uses a bytes object (b""" literal) as module docstring, and pytest crashes while looking for the "PYTEST_DONT_REWRITE" marker.
This does sound like a serious bug in pytest, though. If it can't process the docstring, it should ignore it, not crash.
But I don't quite get why it would choke on a byte string, if it's just looking for a token?
As far as I understand, using a bytes() object as docstring violates PEP-257, which is why I am filing this as a dolfin bug and not a pytest regression. I have Cc'd the debian-python mailing list for a second opinion, but I believe this bug should be resolved by getting rid of the erroneous "b" prefix.
PEP-257 says: > If you violate these conventions, the worst you’ll get is some dirty > looks. But some software (such as the Docutils docstring processing > system PEP 256, PEP 258) will be aware of the conventions, so > following them will get you the best results.FWIW, I think this should be fixed in both pytest and the affected package. Unless there is a specific reason for the byte string, it should be replaced with a regular string.