[Python-modules-team] Bug#788561: Bug RC #788561 (python3-memcache not Python 3 compatible)

[Thomas Goirand]

On 07/05/2015 02:35 PM, Hugo Lefeuvre wrote:
> Ces derniers temps, je me suis mis à travailler activement sur des bugs
> RC pour pouvoir répondre à l'une de tes questions. Je suis donc tombé
> sur le bug #788561[0] et ai commencé à y travailler... avant de me rendre
> compte que tu t'y étais probablement déjà attelé. :-)

Hi,

This is typically the kind of message which you should write in English,
because like that, I can forward it to the BTS.

Indeed, I worked on this. At the time, there was no compat for Py3
upstream, and the Py3 support was added only by myself, with patches on
top of the upstream code. However, what I did wasn't enough.

> Seulement, je n'aurais pas exactement suivi la même méthodologie qu'il
> me semble avoir été choisi ici: Ne penses tu pas qu'il serait bon de
> supprimer ce paquet python3 injustifié assez rapidement, quitte à le
> recréer dans un mois, quand l'upstream aura sorti sa nouvelle version ?

The issue is there only in Jessie. In Sid, the situation is already much
better, as the package now uses the latest commit from upstream plus
this pull request:

https://github.com/linsomniac/python-memcached/pull/67

I really wish we could say "let's wait for upstream", but in the case of
this package, this is not really realistic, as upstream is too slow to
respond. As you can see, the pull request finalizing the Py3 support has
been waiting in github since the 23rd of april, without even a single
reply from upstream.

> Il me semble en effet que l'upstream n'est pas particulièrement pressé
> dans l'intégration de la push request[1]...

Indeed!

> Sinon, il serait peut être possible d'appliquer la push request dans
> debian sous forme de patch, que l'on enlèvera une fois la prochaine
> version upstream libérée. C'est plus compliqué, mais cela permet
> d'éviter la suppression de ce paquet. La tâche sera sûrement facilitée 
> par la suite.

This has already been done in Sid, and therefore, it is my opinion that
we should have one of the below action:
1/ Remove support for Py3 in Jessie, and ask the release team to approve
that. I do believe that they will accept this.
2/ Ask for the release team to accept an update to the package version
which is in Sid. It's very unlikely that they accept.

If you want to work on one of these, it'd be great. But dealing with the
release team for doing this type of fix in stable is famously difficult
because:
1/ They are very busy
2/ They don't accept often big changes in already existing package, and
you need to convince them.

Both are very valid reasons and I don't blame the release team for that.

BTW, the Debian BTS should be updated so that it shows the version in
Sid isn't affected, otherwise indeed, we risk memcached to be removed
from testing for a wrong reason. Can you do such update, with "fixed"
and "found" commands to the BTS?

Cheers,

Thomas Goirand (zigo)