Re: Python3 -dbg packages

[Matthias Klose <doko@debian.org>]

On 9/13/21 4:02 PM, Scott Talbert wrote:
> On Fri, 3 Sep 2021, Matthias Klose wrote:
> 
>>> Python 3.8 upstream now has a common ABI for normal and debug extension builds,
>>> so it is technically possible to load a debug extension in the normal
>>> interpreter, or to load a normal extension in the debug interpreter.  In Debian,
>>> debug extensions are shipped with a different name, and only loaded by the
>>> corresponding interpreter.  We could change / simply the current setup, but I
>>> first wanted to know how many people are still using the debug builds.  The
>>> reason for the separate debug builds allowed debugging of stuff in modules
>>> further down the Python stack, without having to rebuild the whole stack. There
>>> are several solutions how to simplify the packaging, I'm not sure how much the
>>> dbg extensions are still used ... There are several scenarios:
>>>
>>>  - Keep the current setup (-dbg packages need to be available to
>>>    run them).
>>>
>>>  - Allow the debug interpreter to load normal debug extensions (but
>>>    load a debug extension if it's available by default).  That would
>>>    allow building debug extensions without having debug extensions
>>>    built for all it's dependencies, maybe requiring changes in the
>>>    dependencies of a package.
>>>
>>>  - Stop building debug extensions, and telling developers to
>>>    build extensions in debug mode, if they need them.  That would
>>>    probably be inline with everything else shipped in Debian.
>>>
>>>  - Stop building debug extensions, and also stop building the Python
>>>    debug interpreter.  You would need to rebuild the interpreter
>>>    itself to have meaningful debug sessions.  I'm not preferring
>>>    this solution.
>>>
>>> I'm currently tending to implement the second scenario, but if people think that
>>> having the -dbg packages available is still useful, then also opt for the third
>>> option.
>>
>> Let's address this before we start adding Python 3.10 as a supported Python3
>> version. Starting with the third option.  I'll file bug reports for the
>> following packages:
> 
> Just to confirm on this: if we currently have a python module that builds a -dbg
> package, we can now drop this in favor of the automatically generated -dbgsym
> package for debugging?

yes, ideally, if there are dependencies on your -dbg in the archive, these
should be removed first.  Sorry, I didn't file these bug reports yet.

Matthias