Re: [Qemu-devel] [RFC] Require Python 3 for building QEMU

[Christian Borntraeger]

On 10/15/2018 08:33 PM, Eduardo Habkost wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 15, 2018 at 08:19:18PM +0200, Christian Borntraeger wrote:
[...]

>>>>
>>>> It's easier to port stuff to Python 3 though than making them work with
>>>> both. I think Eduardo's RFC is in part motivated by a patch from
>>>> Philippe that converted something in iotests to work with Python 3,
>>>> passed review and then turned out to break Python 2.
>>>
>>> Seconded.  This is not about the cost of maintaining existing
>>> compatibility gunk, it's about the extra effort to first get the
>>> remainder to work with 2 and 3, only to throw away 2 a few months later.
>>>
>>> I propose we permit ourselves to port stuff that isn't essential to
>>> building QEMU straight to 3 instead.  This includes iotests.
>>>
>>>> Having to test every iotests patch twice with different Python versions
>>>> isn't something I would like to do for extended periods of time.
>>>
>>> It's worth doing only if the benefits of doing it outweigh the costs.  I
>>> don't think they do.
>>
>> FWIW, I do not care about python 2 vs 3. I just want to emphasize that I 
>> consider the qemu iotest a very valuable part of the qemu test suite as it
>> has detected a lot of regressions over the past years. So as long as we keep
>> that running I am fine.
> 
> It depends where exactly one needs to keep them running.  Does
> anybody need to run iotests for QEMU 3.0+ builds in systems where
> it's impossible to install Python 3?

I run that as a regression package. Most distros seems to be fine,
with RHEL7 being the problematic case. But for upstream testing on a redhat
like distro fedora is good enough. 
> 
> If somebody really needs that, then I'd kindly ask them to
> volunteer to do the extra work to make iotests compatible with
> both Python 2 and 3.

As I said. As long as things continue to work on a resonably new distro
things are ok.