On Wed, Sep 03, 2025 at 05:11:12PM +0200, Johannes Berg wrote: > On Wed, 2025-09-03 at 16:57 +0200, Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote: > > There are actually 3 different issues that depend on python version: > > > > 1. sphinx-pre-install: > > > > This used to be a Perl script. The goal is to check if sphinx-build > > is installed and works, and identify missing dependencies. > > > > The problem is: if one installs python3xx-Sphinx, instead of > > python3-Sphinx, the script will fail, except if it first switches > > to python3.xx; > > So let it fail. Fail is fine, at least it's a clear signal. The python3- > Spinx package will anyway be a sort of meta-package that's basically > empty and depends on a specific version. No, that's not the case. On Leap, python3-Sphinx uses python 3.6 and has Sphinx version 2.3.x, which is too old. > > 2. sphinx-build logic inside makefile, required for doc-specific targets: > > > > - If python < 3.7, doc builds fail; > > Fine, python 3.7 is really old by now, if you actually have python3==3.7 > you probably have other problems anyway. I don't think we need to > support that. On our past discusions on linux-doc ML, we opted to support the latest openSUSE LTS version (Leap). > > - If python3xx-Sphinx is installed, build only works if started using > > the right python3.xx exec > > Yeah, but again, we can require python3-sphinx here. See above. python311-Sphinx is OK, and it is a distro-installed package. I can't see why we can't use to build the docs if the user explicitly installed it. > > Now, for (1) and (2), it should be possible to allow building docs even > > if the distro requires Python < 3.7, providing extra packages for newer > > Python, as almost all distros do. See, several distros require python > > on their minimal install images, because it can be using during package > > install. Removing the default python replacing by a new version may break > > the system, as the newer version may not be backward-compatible. > > Umm, no? I'm not sure there's a need to cater to truly ancient software > in today's kernel build environment. Even debian *oldoldstable* has > python3==3.9: > https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/python3 True, but at least one of the major LTS distros don't have it(*). We can review it after Leap is replaced for the next openSUSE release. (*) also, RHEL8 (and its derivated releases) suffer the same issues and they aren't EOL yet. For most of us, I doubt the fallback logic would ever be used. > > The best alternative seems to check if: > > > > - python version is bellow the minimal supported version; > > - there is a newer python binary at PATH; > > - check if sphinx-build runs with the newest version. > > > > If all those 3 conditions are met, build docs with a version that works, > > printing a message to tell the user what Python binary was used. > > I still disagree. The only predictable thing is to use "python3" and > associated python3-xyz tools, and let things fail if those versions are > too old. > > Picking a random different version that will depend on the kernel > version etc. is just going to introduce more moving parts and will > eventually be painful. When it becomes painful, we can drop it. Anyway, I'll let it for Jon to decide. -- Thanks, Mauro
