Thanks for the invitation. I would like to briefly summarize the results of my previous communication with Stefano and the current status of my work.
Here are the repositories I have been working on. I have
completed the build and testing of python3.14t and python3t. An
experimental repository is also under my account:
https://salsa.debian.org/ben0i0d/python3t
https://salsa.debian.org/ben0i0d/python3t-defaults
In my previous work, I enabled nogil and the t
flag to ensure that python3t is completely isolated from the
existing Python line. That is, python3t/3.14t follows the “B”
technical route. I isolated their dist-packages.
(However, note that since I haven’t adapted pip packages yet, the
current venv does not work properly, though manual pip
installation works fine.)
When I communicated with Stefano via email, he agreed with the idea of using a suffix and nogil, but suggested two corrections:
We cannot split out a separate python3t source package. The
builds must produce two parallel interpreters from the
existing CPython team packages (of course, they are isolated,
including /usr/lib, i.e., the standard library
is isolated).
dist-packages should not be isolated. This way,
we only need to focus on the porting, and if issues arise,
venv can be used as a transition.
I agree with this view, and this is what I am currently doing—choosing option (a).
Regarding GIL vs. nogil, pure Python modules are usually not a problem, e.g., pip. The challenge lies in Python packages with C extensions.
From my perspective, under option (a), the main issue only occurs when mixing GIL and nogil. Perhaps we should first introduce the nogil interpreter into Debian as a base, like Fedora, which could also bring nogil support to Ubuntu 26.04.
As for adapting modules for nogil, I don’t have a good solution yet. This problem will need to be discussed by the community, and I have not conducted tests or developed feasible approaches for mixed usage so far.
Ideally, I plan to complete option (a) within two weeks, i.e., finish the rules modifications and submit them.
At that time, I will carry out this part of the investigation.
Best regards,
Xu Chen (ben0i0d)
Xu Chen mentioned that he had some previous email with Stefanor, so I'm looping him into this thread.