Challenges packaging Python for a Linux distro - at Python Language Summit
Matthias Klose gave a presentation at the Python Language Summit on the
Challenges packaging Python for a Linux distro.
There's a follow-on open space for working through some of these
questions, on Saturday:
https://us.pycon.org/2021/events/open-spaces/#openspace-42
2021-05-15 18:15 UTC in Lounge 2
Matthias covered:
* No python on Debian systems by default.
* Python2 removal coming soon, just hanging around for PyPy at this point.
* One 3.x version at a time. Doesn't line up with cpython's support terms.
* Python is split into multiple binary packages, for dependency (and
historically licensing) reasons.
* DFSG
* autopkgtests, and automatic testing of reverse-dependencies
* The existence of the "deadsnakes" PPA for Ubuntu, for people who want
non-standard Python versions.
* Applications generally are installed outside the default sys.path.
* Modules are shipped installed with --single-version-externally-managed.
* The site-packages => dist-packages rename.
* PEP 3149 sharing a single /usr/share/python3/ across versions and
implementations.
* Pip isn't used in our packages (except in rare cases).
* A historic look through license issues in the cpython sources, in the
past.
* The ensurepip module depends on wheels that are shipped without source.
* pip and distro package managers get in conflict, esp. with
sudo pip install.
* Arch inclusively. Debian includes some weird architectures, some of
which aren't widely used.
* Communication issues between the Core Python developers + PyPA and
Debian/Ubuntu recently.
There was a strong Q&A section. I didn't take notes for this. Off the
top of my head:
* What do we provide for scientific / data scientist use cases?
* Are there technical issues with using python3.x where x != default?
* Are we aware of the problems on Debian?
* Who decides what is/isn't packaged?
* Have we considered a separate "system-python" that lives off PATH, and
is used by Debian packaged applications. Then developers can get their
own pristine python?
* Who is still suggesting sudo pip install? pip upstream would be happy
to help hunt down any references like that.
SR
--
Stefano Rivera
http://tumbleweed.org.za/
+1 415 683 3272
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