Re: The uv project is working on a new PEP517 backend that may negatively impact Python packaging for distros

On Sat, Dec 21, 2024 at 8:12=E2=80=AFAM Micha=C5=82 G=C3=B3rny <mgorny@gent=
oo.org> wrote:
>
> Hello, everyone.
>
> I've learned that the uv project is currently working on starting to
> provide their own PEP 517 build backend [1].  I am significantly worried
> that it will negatively impact our ability to package Python software in
> Gentoo, and I think other distributions that do not use wheels will also
> be impacted.
>
> Just to make things clear, I'm not opposed to uv itself at all.  I think
> it's a great packaging tool, and I use it when I can.  However, this has
> a flip side that once it starts providing its own build backend, it will
> become immensely popular and people will be using it for pure Python
> projects.  This will mean that -- unless we resort to some kind of
> downstream patching or workarounds -- building wheels for these packages
> will also require installing uv, and therefore the portability of pure
> Python packages using the backend will be severely limited.
>
> The way I see it, if the backend starts being officially recommended,
> things are going to become much more painful for us.  If anything,
> Gentoo will probably have to resort to downstream patching the packages
> to use a pure Python backend instead to retain compatibility with all
> the targets we support.
>
> [1] https://github.com/astral-sh/uv/issues/3957
>

I agree with your assessment, and I've given some color as a Fedora
Linux package maintainer. Hopefully it helps...


--=20
Neal Gompa (FAS: ngompa)