[Jaunty] packages incompatible with python 2.6

Hi, this is Uche Ogbuji (i.e. lead developer of the upstream project), and I thought I'd just get in touch more directly.

The above note is correct that we are deprecating 4Suite. We have ceased development on it, but not maintenance. We are focusing development on Amara 2.x ( http://wiki.xml3k.org/Amara2 ), which is a replacement for the packages currently in debian as python-4suite-xml and python-amara. It is unfortunately not backwards compatible, and thus not a drop-in replacement.

Our difficulty has been that although we *intend* to keep maintaining 4Suite, we're short on resources given the heavy work on Amara 2.x. We'd like to help with this Debian issue, but we need you to help us help. Please be specific with the problems you are seeing building on Python 2.6. We have received the following bug report:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2187756&group_id=39954&atid=428292

But we're not sure your problems are identical. If you can post more specifics, we'll have someone look at it within a few days.

Thanks, and sorry for the inconvenience.

Uche, thank you your feedback!

So far, I've encountered this issue. When test-building it with Python 2.6, it hangs forever:
make[1]: Entering directory `/pack/python-4suite-1.0.2'
cd 4Suite-XML-1.0.2 && python2.6 setup.py config --system 2>&1 | tee -a ../build-python2.6-log

Please try the attached patch (courtesy Jeremy Kloth) for this issue. If you confirm the fix, we'll make a new 4Suite point release. Thanks.

Thank you for the patch, but I'm still facing a hang while compiling with python2.6.
I'm not sure it's a 4suite issue at this point or Ubuntu specific, I'll have a try with Debian.

Jeremy reports that it builds for him, with that patch, on a stock Ubuntu Jaunty alpha 6. Is there a way we can get access to a server where we can see the problem? We're no longer able to reproduce it. Could it be a question of other Python modules or other apps you have installed?

I am having issue installing "gnome"

I know there have been a lot of 'python' updates recently, but I still can not get 'gnome' to install.
Via terminal I get this:
Can't install gnome as it depends on serpentine
can't install serpentine as it depends on python-4suite-xml
ok, so when I try to install python-4suite-xml I get this;

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
python-4suite-xml: Depends: python (< 2.6) but 2.6.1-0ubuntu3 is to be installed

Dougie, thank you for your comment.

The problem you describe is essentially the exact problem that is being discussed here. I did not know it had such wide-reaching implications.

As a workaround, I suggest you try to get a hold of python 2.5 (from Intrepid if necessary) and then prevent an upgrade to 2.6 via pinning or by forbidding the 2.6 version in aptitude.

I'm unable to reproduce the build issue with Jaunty alpha 6 (although install doesn't work because of the patches to distutils install locations). If you could run the setup.py with DISTUTILS_DEBUG set, it should show where things are getting hung up. (e.g., 'DISTUTILS_DEUBG=1 python2.6 setup.py build')

I see no debug messages at all, program hangs immediately and CPU raises to 99%.
I'll try to have a blind upload to a PPA to see if it's only me.

I had a typo in the example listed (although correct earlier). Using bash, 'DISTUTILS_DEBUG=1 python2.6 setup.py config' should, at the minimum, display `Distribution.parse_config_files():` to stderr. If not, there is something going on with your python environment that will required more detailed debugging.

Indeed, here's the output:

dktrkranz@utumno:/python-4suite-1.0.2/4Suite-XML-1.0.2$ DISTUTILS_DEBUG=1 python2.6 setup.py config
Distribution.parse_config_files():
PackageManager.parse_config_files():
PackageManager.parse_package_file(): parsing 'packages/Xml.pkg'
options (after parsing config files):
option dict for 'build_docs' command:
  {'build_dir': ('setup script', 'docs/xml'), 'inplace': ('setup script', True)}
PackageManager.parse_command_line():
options (after parsing command line):
option dict for 'build_docs' command:
  {'build_dir': ('setup script', 'docs/xml'), 'inplace': ('setup script', True)}
option dict for 'config' command:
  {}
PackageManager.run_commands():
PackageManager.get_package_distriution(): creating '4Suite-XML' distribution object
PackageManager._sort_distributions():
PackageManager._scan_path(): scanning /python-4suite-1.0.2/4Suite-XML-1.0.2
PackageManager._scan_path(): scanning /usr/lib/python26.zip
PackageManager._scan_path(): scanning /usr/lib/python2.6
  loading /usr/lib/python2.6/wsgiref.egg-info
PackageManager._scan_path(): scanning /usr/lib/python2.6/plat-linux2
PackageManager._scan_path(): scanning /usr/lib/python2.6/lib-tk
PackageManager._scan_path(): scanning /usr/lib/python2.6/lib-old
PackageManager._scan_path(): scanning /usr/lib/python2.6/lib-dynload
  loading /usr/lib/python2.6/lib-dynload/Python-2.6.egg-info

Just noticed that the first patch given didn't include the full fix for the problem (as fixed in CVS). This patch (along with the previous patch) should solve your current problem.

Jeremy, I tried your patches and everything went fine, thanks! Some of your hunks were already present in original tarball, so I just applied these in the attached patch. I could upload fix directly or waiting for you to release a point release, either way is fine for me. I still have to mangle debian/rules to fit with new Python packaging style, but I need to do it anyway.

Luca,

I'd say upload it ASAP as there are other packages we can't fix until this
is fixed in the archive.

Luca,

Thanks for the success report. There will be a bit of work needed to prep a point release (clean-up, testing, docs, etc.), and today is a pretty packed day for me, and I think, Jeremy. We can for sure make a point release tomorrow (Wednesday). I don't know if that's fast enough re: Scot's point, but I wanted to make sure you had a strong commitment of when we could complete it, so you can decide whether to upload the patch as a stop-gap for the two days.

Thanks.

Thanks for working on the point release, it will be useful when Debian moves to Python 2.6. In the meantime, I've uploaded a fix for current package in Jaunty, I reserve to have a look at point release to see if there are other fixes which we could want to have in.

This bug was fixed in the package python-4suite - 1.0.2-7ubuntu1

---------------
python-4suite (1.0.2-7ubuntu1) jaunty; urgency=low

  * Python 2.6 transition (LP: #338079):
    + debian/rules:
      - Include /usr/share/python/python.mk
      - Replace site-packages with py_sitename_sh.
  * debian/patches/90-python2.6.dpatch: add Python 2.6 compatibility at
    build time to avoid Python interpreter to hang forever, thanks to
    Uche Ogbuji and Jeremy Kloth for their precious assistance!

 -- Luca Falavigna <email address hidden> Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:08:40 +0000

Hi! I've been funded by a 4Suite user to work for a couple of days to update 4Suite so it runs under Python 2.6 and Python 2.7, on Windows. I'll also check that it works on a Mac and can test it against a Linux distro. This will only contain minor patches, and no API changes.

I also have permission from the 4Suite devs (specifically, Uche Ogbuji) to cut a new release, and I'll be working with him to update the Sourceforge distros.

My public repository is at http://bitbucket.org/dalke/4suite-maint and I'll be going through the various patches I find in order to make the update. Let me know of anything I should be take care of.

  -- Andrew Dalke <email address hidden>