Re: python310 and compiler requirements

[Thomas Klausner <wiz%netbsd.org@localhost>]

Hi!

On Mon, Mar 23, 2026 at 02:35:58PM +0100, nia wrote:
> Revision 1.176 to pyversion.mk by adam on 08-Oct-25 dropped python310
> from PYTHON_VERSION_ACCEPTED. I missed this.

Actually, this commit is unrelated.

Python 3.10 was removed from the default accepted set in this commit:

revision 1.170
date: 2025-07-14 07:51:57 +0200;  author: wiz;  state: Exp;  lines: +5 -9;  commitid: 0VMu2x6owLCnYF2G;
python: remove 3.10 from the list of Python versions built by default

As proposed by gdt@ on tech-pkg

Here's the email thread this commits mentions:

https://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-pkg/2025/07/05/msg031361.html

To summarize, the problem is that many upstream Python modules have
decided not to support Python 3.10 any longer, ahead of the official
EOL for it in October this year.

Due to how Python modules and bulk builds interact, this means that we
have to mark not only those packages as not supporting Python 3.10,
but also all packages that depend on them.

At some point, this becomes a lot of work, and/or breaks bulk builds
often, and then we decide to not bother with this any longer. We did
the same thing for Python 3.9 a while ago before it was officially
EOLed upstream.

> I'm still relying on python310, and will be for the forseeable future.
> I'm also shipping python310 to users. Popular software like yt-dlp
> works absolutely fine and will for a few more years at least.

If you want to keep using Python 3.10, you can add 310 to the ACCEPTED
set. You will probably have to mark some packages as not-for-3.10 if
you're running bulk builds, or will see scan failures.

I think it would be ok to commit changes marking modules as
not-for-3.10 (after the freeze). I don't think 310 should be added to
the default ACCEPTED set again though, as reasoned above.

> It's the last version to build without a C11 compiler. In pkgsrc, this
> is taken to mean every gcc version after 4.8. This excludes all GPLv2
> versions of GCC, including all versions of GCC supported by UnixWare 5 
> (which has active users) and OS X 10.4 (which has active users). It
> also excludes NetBSD 7.
> 
> Since developers keep changing packages to build with meson without
> much thought to compatibility with non-NetBSD platforms, python is
> essential to use pkgsrc.
> 
> Either keep python310, or raise pkgsrc's bootstrap requirement to C11
> and stop pretending. Thanks.

So you're arguing we should keep python310 after its EOL in October?

Will someone take care to backport security fixes to it?

We usually remove Python versions when they become EOL, but we still
have 2.7 around too. I have no particular concern with keeping 3.10
around too if it serves a purpose.
 Thomas