Bug 2175184

Summary: neuron fails to build with Python 3.12: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Tomáš Hrnčiar <thrnciar>
Component: neuronAssignee: Ben Beasley <code>
Status: ASSIGNED --- QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: unspecified Docs Contact:
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Version: 39CC: code, mhroncok, neuro-sig, sanjay.ankur, thrnciar
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Description Tomáš Hrnčiar 2023-03-03 13:59:39 UTC
neuron fails to build with Python 3.12.0a5.

+ /usr/bin/python3 setup.py build_ext --build-lib=/builddir/build/BUILD/nrn-8.2.2/redhat-linux-build/lib/python
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/builddir/build/BUILD/nrn-8.2.2/redhat-linux-build/share/lib/python/neuron/rxd/geometry3d/setup.py", line 19, in <module>
    from distutils.core import setup
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'

Remove the distutils package. It was deprecated in Python 3.10 by PEP 632 “Deprecate distutils module”. For projects still using distutils and cannot be updated to something else, the setuptools project can be installed: it still provides distutils. (Contributed by Victor Stinner in gh-92584.)

If your package is listed in [0], you may workaround this issue by BuildRequiring python-setuptools, note that adding such BuildRequires might however hide some transitive dependency problem, if the distutils import comes from a dependency.
Cooperation with upstream is recommended. Additional context [1].

[0] https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/python-devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/6BHNAWHE7M5VY3YQVJLOYHLY4M7KIFFN/

[1] https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/python-devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/thread/N6ITYHLRWIDNYNXGPYG2ZHF3ZLQWZN7L/

https://docs.python.org/3.12/whatsnew/3.12.html

For the build logs, see:
https://copr-be.cloud.fedoraproject.org/results/@python/python3.12/fedora-rawhide-x86_64/05589155-neuron/

For all our attempts to build neuron with Python 3.12, see:
https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/g/python/python3.12/package/neuron/

Testing and mass rebuild of packages is happening in copr. You can follow these instructions to test locally in mock if your package builds with Python 3.12:
https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/g/python/python3.12/

Let us know here if you have any questions.

Python 3.12 is planned to be included in Fedora 39. To make that update smoother, we're building Fedora packages with all pre-releases of Python 3.12.
A build failure prevents us from testing all dependent packages (transitive [Build]Requires), so if this package is required a lot, it's important for us to get it fixed soon.
We'd appreciate help from the people who know this package best, but if you don't want to work on this now, let us know so we can try to work around it on our side.

Comment 1 Ben Beasley 2023-03-10 14:17:24 UTC
Upstream is aware of the need to port away from distutils:

“Porting from Distutils”
https://github.com/neuronsimulator/nrn/issues/2076

“Python packaging after distutils: setuptools.build_meta ?”
https://github.com/neuronsimulator/nrn/issues/2228

What’s confusing me here is that the spec file already BuildRequires python3-setuptools, and yet, in the most recent COPR build, we had:

+ /usr/bin/python3 setup.py build_ext --build-lib=/builddir/build/BUILD/nrn-8.2.2/redhat-linux-build/lib/python
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/builddir/build/BUILD/nrn-8.2.2/redhat-linux-build/share/lib/python/neuron/rxd/geometry3d/setup.py", line 19, in <module>
    from distutils.core import setup
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'

Comment 2 Miro Hrončok 2023-03-10 14:21:37 UTC
[neuron (rawhide %)]$ cd nrn-8.2.2
[nrn-8.2.2 (rpm-build *%)]$ rg SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS
src/neuronmusic/CMakeLists.txt
29:export SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=stdlib
100:export SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=stdlib

share/lib/python/neuron/rxd/geometry3d/CMakeLists.txt
73:export SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=stdlib

docs/changelog.md
23:- SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=stdlib (#1924)

Comment 3 Ben Beasley 2023-03-10 15:25:11 UTC
Reported upstream:

Setting SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=stdlib does not work on Python 3.12
https://github.com/neuronsimulator/nrn/issues/2263

PR to work around:

https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/neuron/pull-request/4

Comment 4 Fedora Release Engineering 2023-08-16 07:10:43 UTC
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora Linux 39 development cycle.
Changing version to 39.