Control: tags 1070794 wontfix
# Solution options provided below.
# (BTS processing instructions have to go in the top)
On Thu, 9 May 2024 09:20:01 +0000 Hang Lei <hang...@microsoft.com> wrote:
Package: debhelper
Version: 13.11.10
Dear Maintainer,
I'm writing to discuss a change introduced in debhelper 13.10.10: this
PR<https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debhelper/-/merge_requests/120> fixes
#1048890<https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1048890> by deleting the
__pycache__ folder.
[...]
Considering the impact on performance, I believe that removing the __pycache__
directory may not be beneficial. Could we explore the possibility of reverting
this change?
Thanks for your time and consideration.
Related issue: [Packaging] Add Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat support by bebound * Pull
Request #28888 * Azure/azure-cli
(github.com)<https://github.com/Azure/azure-cli/pull/28888>
Cheers,
Hang
Hi Hang
Thanks for reaching out. :)
No Debian package ships `.pyc` files directly in the `.deb`. Instead
they generate them during installation. I am not super well-versed in
this area, so I cannot be fully helpful on all of the rationales behind
the decision to byte-compile on install (and clean up on removal). You
would have to ask the Debian Python Team / Debian Python Policy
maintainers if that rationale is important. As I recall, it involves (or
involved) cases like people running python code as root, reproducible
builds, multiple interpreter support (including embedded interpreters)
and special cases in that ballpark.
What I do know, is that this byte compilation for Debian packages is
generally triggered by using `dh_python3` from the `dh-python` package
for python3 files[1]. The `dh_python3` helper is *not* enabled by
default. With modern debhelper versions adding `dh-sequence-python3` to
Build-Depends would do. Older versions of `debhelper` would require a
`dh ... --with python3`.
Since the package in question does not seem to install the python files
in the "standard" locations (I noted an `/opt` in the GitHub PR), you
may have to consult the `dh-python` documentation for having it set up
the recompilation correctly. See
https://salsa.debian.org/python-team/tools/dh-python/-/blob/master/dh_python3.rst?ref_type=heads
(heading "private dirs" seems relevant)
That documentation also has sections for exceptions to the byte
compilation via the `bcep` files. Like if certain files can only be
compiled with a given version of python (etc.).
This is the only solution I can offer you with the current Python
landscape in Debian. If you want to change that landscape, I am afraid I
will have to ask you to raise the concerns with the Python team and they
are the authority on this topic. Because it is not my jurisdiction and
I cannot offer to be middleman in challenging the landscape, I have
tagged this bug as `wontfix`, since it is the closest tag we have for
this case.
I hope it was helpful and enable you to restore the original performance.
Best regards,
Niels
[1]: Historically, there was also a `dh_python`, which may be relevant
if you still support python2 and Debian/Ubuntu releases that still have
`python2`. That is probably so old that it only works with
`dh ... --with python`.
