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Tag: python 2

  • Developers continue to remove Python 2 from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

    The mailing list for the Ubuntu development team has been updated with the latest progress in removing Python 2 from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, and its developers are working to ensure that Python 2 will not be available as part of the next Ubuntu LTS release. According to the latest progress report, although the process of removing Python 2 is long, it is currently going smoothly.

    Python 2.7 retire

    Based on some discussions, we are going forward with the Python2 removal.
    python-defaults now migrated to the release pocket and therefore removing
    the binary packages

    libpython-dbg libpython-dev libpython-stdlib
    python python-dbg python-dev python-doc python-minimal

    All dependencies to these packages have been removed in the release and proposed pockets, and hopefully won’t come back again. Further steps are:

    – Remove outstanding references to these binary packages in the list of not built from source list. This means any package having a build dependency on one of the above packages will need a fix.

    – Scan the binary packages in the release pocket for the use of the python shebang, and fix those to use python2 instead of python. This will not include shebangs used in examples shipped in /usr/share/doc (we didn’t care about these before, and we don’t care about those now).

    – After the next archive test rebuild, check for build failures caused by the removal of the python shebang.

    – Before release, add a binary package “python-is-python2-but-deprecated” package shipping the /usr/bin/python symlink, and providing the python package. This allows users to keep the python symlink on upgrade from earlier releases, or to explicitly install it if needed for legacy requirements. It also allows packages from PPAs or third-party sources to be installable.
    *The “python-is-python2-but-deprecated” package must not be used in build dependencies, dependencies and recommendations in the focal release.*

    – Forward looking, we are adding a package python-is-python3, also providing the python symlink, which is *not* installed by default in 20.04 LTS. In follow-up releases and in 22.04 LTS the python symlink pointing to python3 will be installed by default. *python-is-python3 must not be used in dependencies, build dependencies and recommendations.*

    – Document that setup in the release notes.

    – 20.04 LTS will ship python2. Derivatives who cannot port some applications are able to use python2 for the 20.04 LTS release.

    In addition, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS still retains Python2 in the package archives, mainly because users still need it and Ubuntu derivatives that have not yet ported any code to Python 3.

  • Developers are working on removing Python 2 in Ubuntu 20.04

    Python 2 has reached the EOL phase in early 2020, and developers at Ubuntu and Debian continue to work to remove Python 2 from the operating system, continue to migrate packages to Python 3 or remove maintenance package.

    Matthias Klose, the developer of the Ubuntu/Debian project, has been coordinating most Python 2 removals for Ubuntu and Debian and has provided another update on this issue. As of today, the libpython-dev, python, python-minimal and other packages are no longer available as part of the python-defaults package in the Ubuntu 20.04 archive.

    Ubuntu 20.04 python 2

    Although python2-minimal and other python2 * packages are used to satisfy the dependencies of the remaining packages that are not yet compatible with Python 3, these packages are no longer stored in the Ubuntu “Focal” archive. A new python-pointing-to-python2 package that points python to Python 2 is expected to be available in the Focal repository.

    The ultimate goal is to completely remove Python 2 in time for the Ubuntu 20.04 release in April, as this is a long-term support release that requires years of maintenance. However, some Python 2 packages that do not provide Python 3 support remain in the universe archive.

  • Ubuntu 20.04 is removing Python 2

    Python’s developers have announced that Python 2 will stop maintenance after January 1, 2020, and Ubuntu 20.04, which is scheduled for release next April, will be the next long-term support release, so an important goal of Ubuntu 20.04 is to remove Python 2. According to the Ubuntu development team, there are still many Python 2-dependent packages that remain in the Debian beta and Ubuntu’s “Focal Fossa”.

    Matthias Klose, a developer of the Ubuntu/Debian project, is responsible for removing Python 2 for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and has done a lot of work. Recently, he has updated some progress on the mailing list and said that there are still about 3300 errors related to Python 2 packages in Debian, of which about 1500 errors have been closed. In addition, approximately 350 packages are only available in Ubuntu’s Focal repository and are not available in upstream Debian.

    So Matthias believes that the current goal is to convert as many packages as possible from Python 2 to Python 3, but this can be a problem for many packages that are no longer maintained. For most software that is not compatible with Python 3, if no one does the necessary porting, it will be removed from the archive. Finally, there is a more special case of software that is very important in Ubuntu/Debian but only supports Python 2. How to deal with them? Matthias said that it is still undetermined, but the goal is to remove Python 2 before the release of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS in April.

  • Fedora 32 will remove Python 2 package and all its subpackages

    Although Fedora 30 has not yet been officially released, Fedora 32 will not be available until about a year later, but the Fedora team has revealed a major change: Fedora 32 will remove Python 2 package and all its subpackages.

    fedora 29

    Python 2 will officially retire on January 1, 2020, this version no longer provides maintenance, the current countdown continues to shrink, but there are more than a thousand packages in Fedora that rely on Python 2, and Fedora and other Linux distributions have been started to migrate to Python 3.x. While most software has Python 3 by default, Python 2 and various Python 2 only packages are still available and available from different Linux distributions.

    Fedora 32 is scheduled to be available in the first half of 2020 when Python 2 was retired, so Fedora 32 can only choose to remove Python 2. This week the project team has confirmed the removal of the Python 2 change proposal. It is expected that Python 2 and its subpackages will be removed from Fedora starting with Fedora 32.

    However, we can also see that, according to the Fedora project team, if it is really necessary, a version of Python 2.x may be specified on Fedora. To learn more about this change proposal, check out the Fedora mailing list here.