versioningit use makes packaging impossible

[mgorny]

The new 0.6.4 release started using versioningit. Unfortunately, this makes packaging hard to impossible for Linux distributions since versioningit refuses to support using GitHub archives (see jwodder/versioningit#45), and this is the only source we can use that includes the test suite.

Could you please consider switching to a more portable alternative such as setuptools-scm?

[bakert]

Oh, that's a shame. I'm not 100% clear on why we added it or what it does for us but I'll look into removing it.

Cc @sarnold who added it in case he has an opinion about this.

[bakert]

@mgorny I read the issue you referenced but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with GitHub archives. Can you elaborate a bit more? Thanks!

[mgorny]

Perhaps the bug is more focused on the "usual" solution that the problem itself. Versioningit doesn't work with GitHub archives:

$ wget -q https://github.com/PennyDreadfulMTG/pystache/archive/v0.6.4.tar.gz
$ tar -xf v0.6.4.tar.gz
$ cd pystache-0.6.4
$ python -m build -w
* Creating virtualenv isolated environment...
* Installing packages in isolated environment... (setuptools>=42, versioningit >= 1.1.1)
* Getting build dependencies for wheel...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/git.py", line 146, in ensure_is_repo
    self.read(
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/git.py", line 178, in read
    return readcmd("git", *args, cwd=str(self.path), **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/util.py", line 71, in readcmd
    s = runcmd(*args, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, text=True, **kwargs).stdout
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/util.py", line 66, in runcmd
    return subprocess.run(arglist, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/subprocess.py", line 571, in run
    raise CalledProcessError(retcode, process.args,
subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['git', 'rev-parse', '--is-inside-work-tree']' returned non-zero exit status 128.

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/core.py", line 257, in run
    description = self.do_vcs()
                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/core.py", line 321, in do_vcs
    description = self.vcs(project_dir=self.project_dir)
                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/methods.py", line 162, in __call__
    return self.method(params=self.params, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/git.py", line 225, in describe_git
    repo.ensure_is_repo()
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/git.py", line 156, in ensure_is_repo
    raise NotVCSError(f"{self.path} is not in a Git repository")
versioningit.errors.NotVCSError: /tmp/pystache-0.6.4 is not in a Git repository

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/core.py", line 539, in get_version_from_pkg_info
    Path(project_dir, "PKG-INFO").read_text(encoding="utf-8")
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/pathlib.py", line 1028, in read_text
    with self.open(mode='r', encoding=encoding, errors=errors) as f:
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/pathlib.py", line 1014, in open
    return io.open(self, mode, buffering, encoding, errors, newline)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/pystache-0.6.4/PKG-INFO'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/hook.py", line 23, in setuptools_finalizer
    report = vgit.run(write=True, fallback=True)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/core.py", line 280, in run
    version=get_version_from_pkg_info(self.project_dir)
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/core.py", line 542, in get_version_from_pkg_info
    raise NotSdistError(f"{project_dir} does not contain a PKG-INFO file")
versioningit.errors.NotSdistError: /tmp/pystache-0.6.4 does not contain a PKG-INFO file

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 353, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 335, in main
    json_out['return_val'] = hook(**hook_input['kwargs'])
                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 118, in get_requires_for_build_wheel
    return hook(config_settings)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 355, in get_requires_for_build_wheel
    return self._get_build_requires(config_settings, requirements=['wheel'])
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 325, in _get_build_requires
    self.run_setup()
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 341, in run_setup
    exec(code, locals())
  File "<string>", line 6, in <module>
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/__init__.py", line 107, in setup
    return distutils.core.setup(**attrs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/core.py", line 147, in setup
    _setup_distribution = dist = klass(attrs)
                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/dist.py", line 485, in __init__
    _Distribution.__init__(
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/dist.py", line 283, in __init__
    self.finalize_options()
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/dist.py", line 926, in finalize_options
    ep(self)
  File "/tmp/build-env-3jknpl1u/lib/python3.12/site-packages/versioningit/hook.py", line 28, in setuptools_finalizer
    raise RuntimeError(
RuntimeError: 
versioningit could not find a version for the project in /tmp/pystache-0.6.4!

You may be installing from a shallow clone, in which case you need to unshallow it first.

Alternatively, you may be installing from a Git archive, which is not supported by default.  Install from a git+https://... URL instead.



ERROR Backend subprocess exited when trying to invoke get_requires_for_build_wheel

This is normal because there's no way it can detect the version from that. Other packages such as setuptools-scm and pdm-backend provide an ability to provide the version externally via an environment variable to support these archives. That's what was requested in the bug.

[bakert]

Fixed by @sarnold in #28

[mgorny]

Thanks!