Re: [gentoo-dev] unsanctioned python 2.7 crusade

[Joshua Kinard <kumba@gentoo.org>]

On 1/12/2020 17:17, David Seifert wrote:
> On Sun, 2020-01-12 at 17:07 -0500, Joshua Kinard wrote:
>> On 12/5/2019 09:24, Rich Freeman wrote:
>>> On Thu, Dec 5, 2019 at 8:59 AM Jason A. Donenfeld <zx2c4@gentoo.org
>>>> wrote:
>>>> It's quite another to mask random packages that have USE flags to
>>>> optionally support whatever python 2.7 library. If you're going
>>>> to
>>>> last rites these, talk with the maintainer first, and only then,
>>>> send
>>>> emails one at a time. Doing that en masse isn't appropriate.
>>>
>>> ++ - I have no idea if that happened.  For anything USE-controlled
>>> it
>>> would make more sense to file a bug or mask the package-flag combo
>>> itself.
>>>
>>>> On another topic, I'd prefer for python 2.7 not to be removed
>>>> from
>>>> gentoo. Tons of code still uses it.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I'm sure a million people would share that preference.  I'm not
>>> sure
>>> what the upstream/security status is of 2.7.  Obviously to keep it
>>> around it would need to be reasonably secure, and somebody within
>>> Gentoo would have to want to maintain it.  That's basically the
>>> criteria for keeping anything like this around.  If somebody
>>> stepped
>>> up and said "I'm maintaining 2.7 and here is why it will remain
>>> secure..." I doubt they'd get a lot of resistance.
>>>
>>
>> I'm late to the party as usual.  Seems upstream plans a final 2.7.18
>> security update in April of 2020, then they will consider the 2.7
>> branch
>> EOL.  They say most of these updates were done in 2019, and so are
>> still
>> technically sticking to their mantra of no more updates after
>> 01/01/2020.
>>
>> PEP 373 covers this:
>> https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0373/#release-schedule
>>
>> """
>> Planned future release dates:
>>
>>     2.7.18 code freeze January, 2020
>>     2.7.18 release candidate early April, 2020
>>     2.7.18 mid-April, 2020
>> """
>>
>> IMHO, I think we should retain 2.7.x compatibility for 1 year AFTER
>> the
>> release of 2.7.18.  This provides some time for people to transition
>> systems
>> off of 2.7-dependent packages.
>>
>> It might be worthwhile to treat the removal of Python-2.7 from the
>> tree in
>> the same manner as an EAPI deprecation and removal, given how
>> ingrained it
>> is due to its longevity.  That will minimize the whiplash-effect of
>> emerge
>> complaining about slot conflicts and dependency conflicts.  Like I
>> just ran
>> into w/ setuptools-45.0.0.0's release.
>>
> 
> Thanks for volunteering to help us manage the ton of packages that have
> dropped py2 in the mean time. I wasn't aware you were part of the
> python team, but I must have been mistaken!

I'm not, heh.  But I have noticed the increasing difficulty of getting
emerge to do clean updates recently because of these removals, especially
when you go several weeks between --sync updates on a machine.  The status
of py2 removal does not seem to have been communicated really well, nor any
kind of plan agreed upon, like we've done w/ the EAPI removal.

If I had more time outside of work, I'd love to help.  But it's a struggle
enough right now to keep my systems ~arch updated, especially since my MIPS
boxes aren't exactly speed demons.  Right now, I'm just suggesting that
maybe we should apply the brakes a little bit and try to coordinate how to
remove py2 completely, rather than the way it's being done now.

-- 
Joshua Kinard
Gentoo/MIPS
kumba@gentoo.org
rsa6144/5C63F4E3F5C6C943 2015-04-27
177C 1972 1FB8 F254 BAD0 3E72 5C63 F4E3 F5C6 C943

"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us.  And
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--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic