[Python-modules-team] Bug#770977: Bug#770977: pytest: Fails to build from source

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Nov 25, 2014 at 04:35:52PM -0500,  wrote:
> Hmm, interesting, I can try and see if I can reproduce it on more systems.
> 
> So the machine I was building on is an IBM x3650 with 2 quad core 2.5GHz
> xeons.  Kernel is amd64, userspace is i386 wheezy, chroot is i386 jessie
> buildd variant.
> 
> So I just tried some more tests.
> 
> jessie-amd64 on sid-amd64: works
> jessie-i386 on sid-amd64: works
> jessie-i386 on wheezy-i386(with amd64 kernel): fails
> Same chroot copied to a sid machine (so 3.16 kernel instead of 3.2 kernel: works
> 
> It would appear that pytest fails on python 3.4.2 when the underlying
> kernel is 3.2 for some reason that I can't even imagine what is.
> 
> I will try upgrading the kernel on our build machine to the
> wheezy-backprot of 3.16 and see if that solves the problem and report
> back.

So to confirm I did this:

Create a VM with a fresh wheezy install.
Create a jessie chroot with debootstrap.
Try building pytest.
It fails.
Upgrade wheezy kernel to 3.16 from wheezy-backports.
Try building pytest in chroot again.
It passes.

So the problem is caused by running on the 3.2 wheezy kernel.

So weird as that is, I think the bug can be closed.  No idea if this
is a bug in the old kernel, or glibc, or python 3.4, with one of them
making some assumption about kernel behaviour based on the linux-libc-dev
headers they were built against.  I suppose it means there is a chance a
system upgrading from wheezy to jessie could have some issues with running
python3 stuff in some cases until it is rebooted to the jessie kernel,
although that would probably be recommended to do as soon as possible
anyhow.

-- 
Len Sorensen