Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Updated: python packages

[Ken Brown <kbrown@cornell.edu>]

On 3/7/2021 2:34 PM, Marco Atzeri via Cygwin wrote:
> On 07.03.2021 17:58, Ken Brown via Cygwin wrote:
> 
>>> I have a CI job which runs 'setup -q -P python3,python3-lxml'.  It's 
>>> nice if that gets me something where "python3 -c 'import lxml'" 
>>> works, and doesn't require changing every time the default python 
>>> version is updated.
>>
>> Currently python3 is a meta-package whose main purpose is to require 
>> the default python version (currently python38).  Marco, couldn't you 
>> just make python3-foo a meta-package that requires the corresponding 
>> python*-foo (currently python38-foo)?
>>
>> Ken
> 
> 
> the issue is that Cygport creates the "obsolete" python3-foo
> that is replaced by python36-foo automatically.
> 
> we should change cygport to use python38 instead
> ---------------------------------------------------
> $ cat python3-lxml/python3-lxml-4.6.2-1.hint
> category: _obsolete
> requires: python36-lxml
> sdesc: "Obsoleted by python36-lxml"
> ldesc: "The python3-lxml package is obsolete.  Selecting this package for
> installation will cause the python36-lxml package, which replaces this
> one, to be installed instead."
> external-source: python-lxml
> ---------------------------------------------------

As long as you have to patch cygport anyway, maybe it would be better to 
have cygport create an empty (but not obsolete) package.  I think users 
might find it confusing that they have to install an obsolete package to 
get what they want.  Also, obsolete packages are normally hidden in the 
setup UI.

Ken