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= Prevent from building packages providing python3dist(...) = 0 <!-- The name of your change proposal --> = | = Prevent from building RPM packages providing python3dist(...) = 0 <!-- The name of your change proposal --> = | ||
== Summary == | == Summary == | ||
Revision as of 14:03, 11 November 2022
Prevent from building RPM packages providing python3dist(...) = 0
Summary
It sometimes happens that Python packages succeed to build with incorrect version metadata.
They generate a wrong provide in format python3dist(...) = 0 and python3.Xdist(...) = 0.
While version 0 (or equal versions like 0.0 or 0.0.0) is probably technically valid, in most cases this indicates a packaging error.
We propose to prevent this error from happening by explicitly failing the RPM build when such provides was to be generated.
Owner
- Name: Miro Hrončok, Karolina Surma
- Email: mhroncok@redhat.com, ksurma@redhat.com
Current status
- Targeted release: Fedora Linux 38
- Last updated: 2022-11-11
- FESCo issue: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
- Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
- Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
Detailed Description
This change is about automatic RPM provides in the following form:
python3dist(distname) = 0python3.Xdist(distname) = 0
Where X is the Python minor version (eg. 10, 11...) It does not affect any other provides. More about the provides: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/packaging-guidelines/Python/#Machine-readable-provides
An example of the incorrect provides
$ rpm -qpP python3-ssh-python-0.10.0-5.fc38.x86_64.rpm python-ssh-python = 0.10.0-5.fc38 python3-ssh-python = 0.10.0-5.fc38 python3-ssh-python(x86-64) = 0.10.0-5.fc38 python3.11-ssh-python = 0.10.0-5.fc38 python3.11dist(ssh-python) = 0 python3dist(ssh-python) = 0
In January 2022 the umbrella Bugzilla ticket was created for Python packages providing this incorrect provide:
On Nov 10 2022 there are 22 linked Bugzilla tickets, 13 of which are not closed.
The change doesn't affect a big part of the Python ecosystem.
We aim to prevent such situation from happening by increasing the robustness of the python-rpm-generators (namely pythondistdeps.py).
The generator will error and fail the build if python3dist(...) = 0 was to be generated.
Feedback
The idea was posted on python-devel mailing list and received a positive feedback. No alternatives to this approach were proposed.
Benefit to Fedora
The correct metadata is essential for the whole package ecosystem. More deterministic behavior of the generators will bring those benefits:
- The packages will stop lying about the version they provide.
- The requirements generators (eg.
%pyproject_buildrequires) will correctly evaluate the Build- and Runtime Requirements based on the correct Provides. - The package maintainers who BuildRequire
%{py3dist pkgname}in their specfiles will always require the correctly evaluated version.
Scope
- Proposal owners:
- implement & test the change in python-rpm-generators (pythondistdeps.py)
- ...
- Other developers:
- fix the packaging error to prevent from generating such metadata
TBD how
- Release engineering: not needed for this Change
- Policies and guidelines: not needed for this Change
- Trademark approval: not needed for this Change
- Alignment with Objectives: No
Upgrade/compatibility impact
None.
How To Test
TBD
User Experience
The actual users should notice no difference.
Dependencies
TBD
Contingency Plan
- Contingency mechanism: TBD
- Contingency deadline: TBD
- Blocks release? No
Documentation
N/A (not a System Wide Change)