On Sat, 12 Oct 2024 10:12:56 +0200 Michał Górny <mgo...@gentoo.org> wrote:
> Hello, > > Historically, all versions of CPython were slotted in a single > package, i.e.: > > dev-lang/python:3.N > > This approach has been causing a major annoyance for users -- due to > Portage "greedy" upgrade behavior, any time a new Python version was > keyworded, Portage insisted on installing it, even though user's > selected targets did not request the specific version. The > potentially worst consequence of that would be random user scripts > stopping to work, as they suddenly start using new Python, while all > their dependencies are still installed per PYTHON_TARGETS. > > Upstream has recently added freethreading support to CPython. Since > this support is not ABI compatible with the regular build, we need to > introduce a separate target for it, and to package it separately. > In the planned patchset, I've already put it as a separate package > (dev- lang/python-freethreading), because otherwise Portage would > insist on upgrading to it! > > However, I think the cleanest way forward would be to stop slotting > CPython like this, and instead have a separate package for each > version, just like the vast majority of distributions do, i.e.: > > dev-lang/python3_N > > This naturally means that only the specific version requested (e.g. > via targets) would be installed, and no cross-slot autoupgrades would > happen. Ideally, I'd like to start doing that with Python 3.14 whose > first alpha is expected next week. Depending on how they handle > freethreading, we'd end up having the first or both of: > > dev-lang/python3_14 > dev-lang/python3_14t > > (Alternatives: python-3_14, python-freethreading-3_14? Though I think > following PYTHON_TARGETS is cleaner here.) > > As a side notice, the existing versions would probably remain as-is > until removal, since there's really no gain in splitting them, given > we'd have to retain compatibility with existing depstrings. > > Comments? > Would you be willing to carry the LibreSSL patches in tree if you do this? Its already a serious chore keeping the python ebuilds in sync with ::gentoo and if you start to double the versions that will only be more ridiculous.
