First we need to decide what dependencies from platform-python to drop (if any):
- 1.9M    platform-python-pip-9.0.3-15.el8.noarch.rpm
- 632K    platform-python-setuptools-39.2.0-5.el8.noarch.rpm

pip seems like an obvious candidate, as there are not that many packages that could possibly rely on it, and it's much larger. With setuptools I'd be hesitant.


And if we decide to drop dependencies, we should do it as soon as `rhel-8.2.0` branches are created and send a heads-up to rhel-devel mailing list, to give everyone plenty of time to react.

If we are worried about RPM packages which BuildRequire pip or setuptools but are not declaring that, this has a solution:

https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/python3/pull-request/128

(In reply to Miro Hrončok from comment #2)
> If we are worried about RPM packages which BuildRequire pip or setuptools
> but are not declaring that, this has a solution:
> 
> https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/python3/pull-request/128

I would say we're worried both that:
- the BuildRequires won't be there which will change the build, but the devel won't notice it (however, thanks to RPM diff, I think this is not as pressing)
- the Requires isn't there and the package will crash / miss-behave when used by the customer - this is the bigger issue, I think.

(In reply to Tomas Orsava from comment #3)
> - the BuildRequires won't be there which will change the build, but the
> devel won't notice it (however, thanks to RPM diff, I think this is not as
> pressing)
> - the Requires isn't there and the package will crash / miss-behave when
> used by the customer - this is the bigger issue, I think.

To clarify, https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/python3/pull-request/128 only solves the BuildRequires case.

From the python3 SPEC file:

RHEL8 was forked from F28 and thus required python3-setuptools/pip here
for the rewheel module to work. We've since backported the use of RPM
prepared wheels from F29+ into RHEL8, and thus this dependency isn't
strictly needed.

However, it is possible, that some packages in BaseOS actually depend on
setuptools/pip without declaring the dependency in their spec file. Thus
we're keeping these dependencies here to avoid the possibility of breaking
them.

It's a good change, but I think it'd be better to drop even the Recommends unless there is system functionality that is enhanced/enabled by having this package present.  Seems like the packages actually depending upon this one should just Require it themselves.  Installed, it is 7.4 M on disk.

Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2020:1764