Python 2 in the default installation -- progress made!
Hi everyone,
one of the objectives for stretch was to reduce the number of Python 2
packages that are installed in common scenarios, instead having the Python 3
stack take over. The "standard task" within tasksel is a reasonable place to
look.¹
Thanks to the recent work on reportbug and debianbts, this is now largely
complete.
In a stretch chroot, install the standard task:²
# aptitude install ~prequired ~pimportant ~pstandard
and the only python packages installed are:
# aptitude search ~npython~i
i A dh-python
i A libpython-stdlib
i A libpython2.7
i A libpython2.7-minimal
i A libpython2.7-stdlib
i A libpython3-stdlib
i A libpython3.5-minimal
i A libpython3.5-stdlib
i python
i python-apt
i A python-apt-common
i python-gpg
i python-minimal
i python2.7
i A python2.7-minimal
i A python3
i A python3-apt
i A python3-chardet
i A python3-debian
i A python3-debianbts
i python3-gpg
i A python3-httplib2
i A python3-minimal
i A python3-pkg-resources
i A python3-pycurl
i A python3-pysimplesoap
i python3-reportbug
i A python3-requests
i A python3-six
i A python3-urllib3
i A python3.5
i A python3.5-minimal
where the packages marked "A" (Automatically Installed) are there to satisfy
dependencies only.
We see that:
python
python-apt
python-gpg
python-minimal
python2.7
are now only installed because they are marked as Priority: standard.
Question for discussion: Is Python 2 a tool that would be expected to be found
on any linux machine and so should it be Priority: standard? Is Python 3? Is
now the time to ask ftp-masters to change the overrides to move them to
Priority: optional?
(My personal feeling is that none of the above packages should be Priority:
standard, including Python 3)
The libpython2.7* packages are present because:
i logrotate Recommends mailx
i A mailutils Provides mailx
i A mailutils Depends libpython2.7 (>= 2.7)
I don't know if mailutils can already use Python 3 instead of Python 2 or how
it is actually using Python at all -- the build system will certainly need
some work. Perhaps a keen Python 3 porter can investigate that as an opening
move for stretch+1 (it's too late for stretch for that transition).
cheers
Stuart
① The standard task contains packages you'd expect to find on a linux machine
such as `less`; yes, it also includes a mail-transport-agent and it probably
shouldn't; no, let's not discuss that now.
② Unlike other tasks, the standard task is not defined as a list of packages
but as this aptitude search pattern to find all packages that declare Priority:
required, important or standard; aptitude will also then install packages of
lower priority to satisfy the dependencies.
--
Stuart Prescott http://www.nanonanonano.net/ stuart@nanonanonano.net
Debian Developer http://www.debian.org/ stuart@debian.org
GPG fingerprint 90E2 D2C1 AD14 6A1B 7EBB 891D BBC1 7EBB 1396 F2F7
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