Re: MBF for deprecating Python2 usage
On August 4, 2017 6:49:23 AM EDT, Matthias Klose <doko@debian.org> wrote:
>On 03.08.2017 21:08, barry@debian.org wrote:
>> On Aug 3, 2017, at 17:57, Matthias Klose <doko@debian.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> While at DebCamp, Stefano Rivera and I sat down to analyze what
>needs to be done
>>> to deprecate Python2 usage within the distribution. It might not be
>possible to
>>> drop Python2 for the next release, but there are still too many
>issues with
>>> packages. For now we identified some categories which need fixing.
>These are
>>> documented at https://wiki.debian.org/Sprints/2017/Python3Montreal,
>resulting in
>>> more than 3000 bug reports. That's a high number, on the other hand
>we won't
>>> make much progress if the issues are not named. My intent is to
>bring that up
>>> in the Python BoF next week at DebConf and then filing these bug
>reports with
>>> the user tags mentiond on the wiki page.
>>
>> Great to hear that you guys talked about it.
>>
>> Just a quick note that PEP 394 discussions have revived, lead by the
>Fedora folks. Please do check out the new thread, especially if you
>have opinions about what /usr/bin/python should do once Python 2.7 is
>EOL.
>>
>> https://mail.python.org/pipermail/linux-sig/2017-August/thread.html
>
>I replied to this thread. I think there should be one release which is
>not
>shipping /usr/bin/python before /usr/bin/python should be reused and
>pointed at
>python (>> 2). This should be good enough to get all scripts actively
>converted
>which are not part of the distribution. If that release is buster, we
>should
>require the use of python2 instead of python now, document that in
>policy and
>provide a lintian check for that.
>
>Matthias
I disagree.
There will be users whose reaction to removal of python2.7 will be to compile their own.
Reintroducing /usr/bin/python as a python3 version risks their systems for no benefit (since all python3 stuff points to /usr/bin/python3 and works fine). Just let it go and don't bring it back.
As far as when to drop it goes, I believe that the python-django maintainers are planning on releasing Buster with Django 1.11 as bilingual python2/python3. Then they'll go to Django 2, which is python3 only, early in the Bullseye cycle.
For the chunk of the Python ecosystem that is built around Django, keeping python2.7 in for Buster would be a significant aid to transition.
Scott K
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