Re: [meta-virtualization][RFC][PATCH 1/5] vcontainer-bbmask.inc: add python3-pexpect,-ptyprocess

On Tue, Jul 28, 2026 at 10:47:14AM -0700, Bruce Ashfield wrote:
> Thanks Tim. I'm taking 2/5 through 5/5 directly (verified 2/5 against
> image-oci.bbclass — the auto-fold of OCI_LAYERS `packages:` entries
> into IMAGE_INSTALL at line ~389 is exactly the duplication this drops,
> so it's a clean removal). 3/5's added deps all trace to concrete
> failures documented in 5/5, which is a great artifact.
> 
> One question before I take this one:
> 
> The commit says python3-pexpect is needed "during run-time testing
> with the bitbake-setup workflow." What in the built container actually

This was a mistake on my part, not capturing the original reason.

It was a build-time error satisfying the RDEPENDS for
packagegroup-yocto-build-extras which I am fairly certain you added
because you were trying to satisfy "Build Host Packages" [1] or
similar.

Ignoring the yocto-docs history, looking purely at openembedded-core
the only place I found an obvious import is in the SerialConnection
class in [2]. However, for a fully functional container-yocto-builder
built with mc:container-* multiconfig, we would still need this.

I have updated the commit message and added a comment in v2.

I have also updated docs/container-yocto-builder.md to better reflect
this reason and will also send a v2 for that patch.

> imports/exec's pexpect at runtime? If it's the vcontainer test suite
> driving the container from outside, pexpect belongs on the test host,
> not baked into the image. If it's something inside the container —
> bitbake-setup itself, a Yocto tool, or a test harness that runs
> in-container — that's legitimate, but a one-line note in the commit
> message naming the caller would help future readers understand why
> we're carving a hole in the meta-python mask.
> 
> If it's just needed for our own vcontainer test runner and not by
> anything the container itself invokes, I'd rather leave the meta-python
> mask intact and put pexpect on the host that runs the tests.
> 
> Bruce
> 

[1] https://docs.yoctoproject.org/brief-yoctoprojectqs/index.html#build-host-packages
[2] https://git.openembedded.org/openembedded-core/tree/meta/lib/oeqa/core/target/serial.py#n258