[Pkg-javascript-devel] Bug#962469: node-gyp broken because it uses the wrong Python version

[Ralf Jung]

Package: node-gyp
Version: 6.1.0-3
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

current node-gyp on Debian seems to be broken: trying to build a package that relies on node-gyp fails, saying

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/nodejs/node-gyp/gyp/gyp_main.py", line 6, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3251, in <module>
    @_call_aside
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3235, in _call_aside
    f(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3264, in _initialize_master_working_set
    working_set = WorkingSet._build_master()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 583, in _build_master
    ws.require(__requires__)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 900, in require
    needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 786, in resolve
    raise DistributionNotFound(req, requirers)
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: The 'gyp==0.1' distribution was not found and is required by the application

This is after I had to install the Python 2 version of pkg_resources to even get to far. Probably, node-gyp is using Python 2, even though its own dependencies point to Python 2.
I think I got everything to work by patching lib/find-python.js to disable the "python" and "python2" detectors.

Kind regards,
Ralf

-- System Information:
Debian Release: bullseye/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'testing-debug'), (100, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 5.6.13 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_USER, TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE= (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages node-gyp depends on:
ii  gyp               0.1+20200513gitcaa6002-1
ii  libnode-dev       12.13.1~dfsg-1
ii  node-glob         7.1.6-1
ii  node-graceful-fs  4.2.4-1
ii  node-mkdirp       0.5.1-2
ii  node-nopt         3.0.6-4
ii  node-npmlog       4.1.2-2
ii  node-osenv        0.1.5-1
ii  node-request      2.88.1-4
ii  node-rimraf       2.6.3-1
ii  node-semver       7.1.3-1
ii  node-tar          4.4.10+ds1-2
ii  node-which        2.0.2-1
ii  nodejs            12.13.1~dfsg-1

Versions of packages node-gyp recommends:
ii  build-essential  12.8

node-gyp suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information