docutils-develop

[Docutils-develop] commit r9177 remove `bdist_rpm`

[Guenter M. <mi...@us...>]

Dear Adam, dear docutils developers,

the commit r9177 does "Remove ``bdist_rpm`` settings in ``setup.cfg``".
The reasons stated in the commit message are not convincing:

> Docutils does not publish RPMs,

While the Docutils project does not build RPM packages itself and does
not plan to do so, the the [bdist_rpm] section was introduced in response
to a public request in https://sourceforge.net/p/docutils/bugs/122/.

> the command is no longer supported for the Python Package Index. See
> :pep:`527` for further details."

The reason for the [bdist_rpm] section is not publishing on PyPI but
facilitating the inclusion of Docutils in 3rd party software
distributions using the RPM package format.

"python-docutils" RPM packages are part of, e.g., the SuSe and Fedora Linux
distributions.
https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/buildinfo?buildID=2022758
https://gitea.opensuse.org/rpm/python-docutils

If there are reasons to stop this support for RPM packagers, this should be
clearly communicated (starting with an "end of service announcement"
in the "Future Changes" section of the RELEASE-NOTES).

Günter

Re: [Docutils-develop] commit r9177 remove `bdist_rpm`

[Adam T. <aat...@ou...>]

Dear Günter,

[snip]

> The reason for the [bdist_rpm] section is not publishing on PyPI but
> facilitating the inclusion of Docutils in 3rd party software
> distributions using the RPM package format.

> "python-docutils" RPM packages are part of, e.g., the SuSe and Fedora Linux
> distributions.
> https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/buildinfo?buildID=2022758
> https://gitea.opensuse.org/rpm/python-docutils

Fedora uses the modern and standards compliant "pyproject" (PEP 517 & 518) approach:

https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/python-docutils/blob/rawhide/f/python-docutils.spec#_49

Opensuse also use the modern approach:

https://gitea.opensuse.org/rpm/python-docutils/src/branch/factory/python-docutils.spec#L75

In general, the move is that Python packaging tools should not publish binary distributions for anything other than Python packaging standards (the Wheel specification), and repackagers for other distributions or platforms (e.g. ".deb" for debian, or ".rpm" for the red hat ecosystem) should use their own tooling.

> If there are reasons to stop this support for RPM packagers, this should be
> clearly communicated (starting with an "end of service announcement"
> in the "Future Changes" section of the RELEASE-NOTES).

I shall add a notice, but note as above this does not stop support for RPM packagers, as they do not use "setup.py bdist_rpm".

Thanks,
Adam

Re: [Docutils-develop] commit r9177 remove `bdist_rpm`

[Guenter M. <mi...@us...>]

Dear Adam,

thank you for the clarifications.

On 2022-11-15, Adam Turner wrote:

...
>> "python-docutils" RPM packages are part of, e.g., the SuSe and Fedora Linux
>> distributions.
...
> Fedora uses the modern and standards compliant "pyproject" (PEP 517 &
> 518) approach:
...
> Opensuse also use the modern approach:
...

> In general, the move is that Python packaging tools should not publish
> binary distributions for anything other than Python packaging standards
> (the Wheel specification), and repackagers for other distributions or
> platforms (e.g. ".deb" for debian, or ".rpm" for the red hat ecosystem)
> should use their own tooling.

>> If there are reasons to stop this support for RPM packagers, this
>> should be clearly communicated (starting with an "end of service
>> announcement" in the "Future Changes" section of the RELEASE-NOTES).

> I shall add a notice, but note as above this does not stop support for
> RPM packagers, as they do not use "setup.py bdist_rpm".

We don't know if anyone else has ``setup.py bdist_rpm`` in their
workflow. However, since dropping support for "setup.py bdist_rpm" only
affects package maintainers (and/or home-packagers) and the known
"main customers" are not affected, I tend to agree to do the removal
without an advance warning.

A notice is, IMO required before the next release.

Thanks,
Günter