On 1/11/21 5:34 PM, Shai Berger wrote: > Package: python3-distutils > Version: 3.9.1-2 > Severity: normal > > Dear Maintainer, > > For years I've known that installing a newer version of Python > on my Debian system breaks existing virtualenvs set up for the > old Python version. Today I investigated a little and found out > why: > > While this packages lists, among other things, > Breaks: ..., libpython3.8-stdlib (< 3.8.0~b2-5) > > In fact, installing it at this version removes most files from > /usr/lib/python3.8/distutils/ and thereby breaks any use of > distutils or setuptools under python 3.8, and that most certainly > includes libpython3.8-stdlib=3.8.7-1 which I currently have > installed, as well as, I believe, any other version of libpython3.8-stdlib. > > I see two, non-exclusionary paths to solve this: > - Just mark the breakage correctly > - Provide real, rather than virtual, python3.x-distutils packages
Debian ships with one Python3 version only. So once we are finished with upgrading to a new Python version, the old Python3 version (3.8 in this case) is removed. The removal bug https://bugs.debian.org/978710 is not yet addressed. The python3-tk, python3-gdbm and python3-distutils packages are real packages, not virtual packages, which support both the old 3.8 and the new 3.9 Python versions during the time Debian is doing the transition to a new Python3 version. After the transition we remove 3.8, so we only build those using 3.9. If you want to maintain packages for 3.8 yourself, you have to provide the binary packages built from the source packages python3.8 and python3-stdlib-extensions yourself. Closing this issue as won't fix. Matthias
