RFC: Setting a minimum Python version of 3.4 [Was: Future of Python 2 compat code in python-debian]

[Jelmer Vernooij]

No thoughts here, other than: That all sounds very reasonable.

Supporting at least the version of Python in Debian stable has some
advantages - it's useful to be able to backport. But I don't think there's
a good reason to keep supporting Python 3.4 - even 3.5 is already out of
upstream support.

Cheers,

Jelmer

On Fri, Oct 30, 2020 at 06:33:06PM +1100, Stuart Prescott wrote:
> My previous request for comment (reproduced below to save you searching) 
> didn't elucidate any responses, so I'll have another attempt at provoking a 
> response here...
> 
> I propose that:
> 
> * we raise the minimum Python version needed for python-debian to Python 3.5 
> (which was available in stretch/oldstable)
> 
> * we drop compat code for Python 2.7 and older Python 3.2/3.3/3.4 as we go 
> (that includes typing, enum, and various workarounds for decompressors; 
> there's about 20 places in the code where the version of the interpreter is 
> tested, all of which could go). This doesn't need to be done in a rush.
> 
> * we continue to run tests on both stable and unstable with all supported 
> Python 3 interpreters (`py3versions -s`)
> 
> comments, thoughts, reactions?
> 
> regards
> Stuart
> 
> 
> On Sunday, 12 April 2020 13:14:18 AEDT Stuart Prescott wrote:
> > Hi folks
> > 
> > As you might have just noticed, we have now dropped the Python 2 module
> > package (python-debian) from the archive. I've not yet disabled running the
> > test suite under Python 2 on salsa.
> > 
> > The question is then what to do with Python 2 support and indeed also code
> > that exists to work around limitations in Python 3.3 and 3.4.
> > 
> > We can do one of the following:
> > 
> > 1) Continue to support python >= 2.7 and python3 >= 3.3. Leave the Python 2
> > and 3.old code in there for the time being and leave the test suite running
> > under Python 2 for as long as possible. However, the tests are run against
> > Debian unstable and python-apt will soon be unavailable there.
> > 
> > 2) Continue to support python >= 2.7 and python3 >= 3.3. Leave the Python 2
> > and 3.old code there with disabled tests and when it breaks, shrug our
> > shoulders
> > 
> > 3) Declare support for python3 >= 3.5. Disable tests but only remove the
> > legacy support whenever someone is spending time on a particular piece of
> > code
> > 
> > 4) Declare support for python3 >= 3.5. Actively remove old code now.
> > 
> > Thinking about releases we support, python3 in stretch and all supported
> > Ubuntu releases is >= 3.5. Any backported packages that needed a newer
> > python- debian for some reason would also be using python3 >= 3.5 at this
> > stage.
> > 
> > I am personally leaning towards 3 or 4.
> > 
> > Comments and suggestions most welcome.
> > 
> > Stuart
> 
> 
> -- 
> Stuart Prescott    http://www.nanonanonano.net/   stuart at nanonanonano.net
> Debian Developer   http://www.debian.org/         stuart at debian.org
> GPG fingerprint    90E2 D2C1 AD14 6A1B 7EBB 891D BBC1 7EBB 1396 F2F7
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> https://alioth-lists.debian.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pkg-python-debian-maint