Alternative Python build tools issues
After application of patches described in Making sudo pip safe
Fedora Change [0], unexpected issues in packages using
non-standard build methods/scripts appeared. We received
bug reports for DNF [1] and Anaconda [2].
We decided to temporarily revert the main patch last
Friday (2017-02-24) to prevent build failures and anaconda crashes
while we investigate what will need to change.
To simplify, the main reason for the build failures is that some
packages use /usr/bin/python3 (or $PATH/python3) instead of
%{__python3} when building RPMs. It's not always
trivial to fix this in build systems that hardcode assumptions
about where the python3 binary is.
I collected some data to have an idea how many
packages are affected.
The total number of Python 3 packages in
Fedora according Fedora Porting Database [3] is 1837.
The most frequently used alternative build tools for Python
packages are CMake (28 packages) and Autotools (133 packages).
8 out of 28 packages using CMake fail to build in Copr [4]
as well as 12 out of 133 packages using Autotools [5].
These build tools need to be configured to use
%{__python3} during rpm build. There are also some
custom build scripts not following best practices and
hardcoding the path to the python executable or to
python site-packages. Specific fixes will have to be done
in these cases.
We'll meet with Anaconda developers to discuss the problem.
[0]
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Making_sudo_pip_safe?rd=User:Torsa...
[1] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1426435
[2] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1425827
[3] http://fedora.portingdb.xyz/
[4] https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/mcyprian/cmake-pkgs/builds/
[5] https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/mcyprian/autotools-pkgs/builds/
Michal Cyprian