Details of what is happening with python3.8 in Ubuntu?

[Michael Hudson-Doyle]

Hi Seb,

On Tue, 22 Oct 2019 at 02:27, Sebastien Bacher <seb128 at ubuntu.com> wrote:

> Hey there,
>
> Matthias announced that F would have python3.8 and from the recent
> upload, it looks like that's being worked on actively at the moment.
>

Yes. To be clear, "F would have python3.8 (at archive opening)" means
having python3.8 as a supported version, not just having 3.8 available
(eoan has 3.8 available).


> While looking at the update_excuses_by_team.html#desktop-packages report
> I noticed some delta-over-debian being added to packages where I
> can't really make sense of what's going on in the changelog.
>
> Some examples
>
> http://launchpadlibrarian.net/447713946/pygobject_3.34.0-1build1_3.34.0-1ubuntu1.diff.gz
>
> http://launchpadlibrarian.net/447727952/pycairo_1.16.2-1ubuntu1_1.16.2-1ubuntu3.diff.gz
>
> http://launchpadlibrarian.net/447772089/cracklib2_2.9.6-2build1_2.9.6-2ubuntu1.diff.gz
>
> Some changes for example add a Build-Depends on dh-exec and hacks in the
> .install, I guess those doing the changes understand why but it triggers
> some questions to me
>
> - Could someone explain why those .install tricks are needed exactly?
>

It's because the "abi tag" for python c extensions has changed in a way
that makes it a bit annoying / impossible to write a glob that matches 3.7
and 3.8 release build extensions and not the debug extensions.


> Couldn't the issue be solved in the python packaging tools instead?
>

Yes, probably.

- Can/should those changes be forwarded to Debian? (they are not at the
> moment?) I would be happy to help with that once I understand the
> technical approach being taken.
>

I've made a bug report for cracklib2 now.

- Is that a transition we are under pressure to get through?


Well we want it to complete before opening the archive and I assume people
want the archive to open...


> Should we
> maybe take the time to document what's going on


Well there was this mail:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com/msg09144.html

And there is a transition tracker:
https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/transitions/html/python3.8-add.html
(not
sure this has been advertised but it's not hard to find).

and have more people
> helping and do things in a way were we collectively understand what is
> happening


Maybe roping in more people would help, maybe not. The plan was for
Matthias and I to work on this more or less full time and just crank
through it.


> so we know what to do from those deltas in the futur/ help
> forwarding to Debian for example?
>

While in general we should certainly forward things to Debian I do think
the people who end up doing this transition in Debian in general know to
look for potential fixes in Ubuntu (when the changes will presumably make
more sense if those people are diagnosing the same or similar build
failures). And some of them may not be necessary, if like you say dh-python
can grow smarts to make installing the right extensions into the right
packages more easily.

Cheers,
mwh
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