Re: [gentoo-user] PYTHON_TARGETS something must have changed

[Dale]

Rich Freeman wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 8, 2019 at 9:38 AM Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com> wrote:
>> The best I can come up with, start figuring out a way to keep python 2
>> around on your own, use a overlay if one is available or start expecting
>> python 2 to disappear, real soon.  It seems the devs want it gone even
>> before it's end of life.
>>
> Nobody really wants it gone per se.  It is just that nobody has
> stepped up to keep it around.  Maintaining it is fairly complex, and I
> suspect the people most interested in the nuts and bolts of python are
> also the ones who are less interested in 2.7.  I think most who want
> it to stay are more interested in it from the standpoint of keeping
> other software running, but may not be interested in actually taking
> care of 2.7 itself.
>
> These sorts of situations usually cause controversy.  Sometimes
> somebody cares enough to maintain the software.  Sometimes it happens
> in an overlay (which allows a maintainer to be a non-dev more easily,
> and it also eliminates most QA requirements so that can ease the
> burden of maintenance, though with the caveat that those QA standards
> exist for a reason so there are downsides).
>
> In the past when stuff like this has happened the software has
> generally ended up being taken out of the tree, because the fact is
> that stuff like this can break pretty quickly if nobody is fixing
> bugs, and if nobody wants to maintain it then that will be what
> happens.  But, it is entirely possible that somebody will step up to
> maintain it.
>
> Python is a bit messier than some previous cases like this because of
> the whole way that PYTHON_TARGETS and such work, and the complexity of
> the dependency graph.  And keep in mind that the upstream announced
> EOL is less than a month off.  Not that this means the code instantly
> stops working, but that is why we're starting to see masks and such
> and more discussion/planning.
>


Well, when a package is last rited and masked for removal, I call that
wanting it gone.  The why I didn't get into because both sides made good
points.  It's not broken, yet, but they are going away and will be gone,
soon.  Still, the end result is, it's going away and it was announced. 

On one side, the packages aren't broken yet.  No one mentioned a package
that wouldn't build or work.  They are still as usable as they were last
week.  But, as you say, python is a different beast and those packages
will start to break, one by one and maybe even several at a time which
will cause all sorts of issues.  As I said, both sides make good
arguments. 

The biggest point of my reply, this change may be the reason the OP is
seeing this problem.  It may not, I hope it isn't since there isn't much
that can be done, but it could be the cause. 

Now back to digesting my homemade taco.  Good stuff. :-D

Dale

:-)  :-)