[Python-modules-team] Bug#896313: python-pymediainfo: pymediainfo fails to import

[Helmut Grohne]

On Sat, Apr 21, 2018 at 08:05:53PM -0400, Antoine Beaupre wrote:
> So I don't quite understand how this can possibly happen: setuptools is
> required to build the package in the first place, why can't dh-python
> figure that out on its own?

Thank you for your attention to detail.

I admit having little clue about the situation around pkg-resources. I
still think that it is a bug to miss a dependency on it, but your case
is very convincing for shifting the responsibility to insert it to
dh-python or something else. Adding pkg-resources to depends should not
be the responsibility of individual packages as that'd be fragile.

> It's a little strange to expect upstream to add a install_requires on
> setuptools when it's part of the install process itself, ie. if you run
> `setup.py install` (which is how dh-python builds the package), isn't it
> reasonable from upstream to assume that setuptools will be installed at
> that stage?

Yeah, having upstream take care of Debian's idiosyncrasies doesn't make
much sense.

> What should be done here?

The issue has come up on debian-python at l.d.o as well:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-python/2018/04/msg00067.html

I suggest following up there. I'm fairly surprised that this hasn't come
up any earlier.

Helmut