[BCC steering-council@python.org] Some issues were raised to me privately by individual upstream Python maintainers about the user experience of Python in Debian, focused on confusion caused by the split of CPython into a number of smaller packages. I have spoken with the Python Steering Council and met with Matthias and Stefano to discuss what issues we can feasibly fix in Debian in time for the bullseye release. Agreed amongst the three of us: - An issue was raised about distutils, considered core functionality of the language, being split off the core Python package. We can't change the distutils package split in time for bullseye, as we are in freeze and this change would be disruptive. - It was requested that we differentiate between "system" Python and what upstream considers core Python. A package rename (e.g. python3 -> python3-system) will confuse everyone and take multiple releases to implement, and cannot be targeted until bookworm at the earliest. - When users install Python, it should be easy to install all required modules for what upstream considers core, including venv, distutils, and lib2to3. I propose that we add a python3-full* metapackage for bullseye. (*We can use a different name, but it must be a name not currently in use.) Actions: - Stefano: Update python-policy to describe "python3-full". - Matthias: Prepare new "python3.9-full" and "python3-full" packages for Debian and make sure these can be shipped in bullseye. - Matthias: Proposing to backport "python3-full" packages to buster and Ubuntu LTSes. - Elana: Request a "distros roundtable" at the upcoming PyCon to facilitate longer-term discussions with distributions who package and build Python. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me or discuss on this thread. (I'm not normally subscribed to debian-python@ so please CC me.) - e
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