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
