Re: Missing Python dependencies for venv standard library module

[Jon Turney <jon.turney@dronecode.org.uk>]

On 08/11/2023 16:17, Adam Dinwoodie via Cygwin wrote:
> Hullo,
> 
> It looks like the python39 package is missing dependencies on
> python-setuptools-wheel and python-pip-wheel.  I've not checked, but I
> suspect earlier Python versions are missing the same dependencies.
> Without these, the Python built-in venv module doesn't work:
> 
>      $ python3 -m venv v
>      Error: Command '['/home/WDAGUtilityAccount/v/bin/python3', '-Im', 'ensurepip', '--upgrade', '--default-pip']' returned non-zero exit status 1.
> 
> Compare when the both python-setuptools-wheel and python-pip-wheel are
> installed:
> 
>      $ python3 -m venv v
>      $ . v/bin/activate
>      (v) $ python3 -c 'import sys; print(sys.path)'
>      ['', '/usr/lib/python39.zip', '/usr/lib/python3.9', '/usr/lib/python3.9/lib-dynload', '/home/WDAGUtilityAccount/v/lib/python3.9/site-packages']
>      (v) $ deactivate
> 
> I've attached cygcheck files from sandbox VMs for both the broken and
> working cases.  I'm not sure what the correct fix is here -- possibly
> adding dependencies, possibly changing how things are packaged -- but
> I'd expect Python standard library modules to either work or to give an
> error message that makes it clearer what additional packages are
> required to make them work.

Yeah. I have a vague recollection there was some other case recently 
where one these being missing was causing some confusion.

I think the easiest way to convince me that this is a historical 
oversight would be to look how other distros do this: If they have 
python depend on python-setuptools and python-wheel, then we probably 
should as well...