your package fails the autopkgtest with the new pytest 7.3 because python/test/unit/function/test_function_space.py uses a bytes object (b""" literal) as module docstring, and pytest crashes while looking for the "PYTEST_DONT_REWRITE" marker.
This does sound like a serious bug in pytest, though. If it can't process the docstring, it should ignore it, not crash.
But I don't quite get why it would choke on a byte string, if it's just looking for a token?
As far as I understand, using a bytes() object as docstring violates PEP-257, which is why I am filing this as a dolfin bug and not a pytest regression. I have Cc'd the debian-python mailing list for a second opinion, but I believe this bug should be resolved by getting rid of the erroneous "b" prefix.
PEP-257 says:
If you violate these conventions, the worst you’ll get is some dirty looks. But some software (such as the Docutils docstring processing system PEP 256, PEP 258) will be aware of the conventions, so following them will get you the best results.
FWIW, I think this should be fixed in both pytest and the affected package. Unless there is a specific reason for the byte string, it should be replaced with a regular string.
