Python
Python on Ubuntu
Here is everything you ever wanted to know about Python on Ubuntu <wink>. Well, probably not, but let me know what essential information you think is missing and I'll work on updating it here. Or, since this is a wiki, you too can contribute!
The best thing to do is to start with the Python on Debian wiki page, since we inherit as much as possible from Debian, and we strongly encourage working with the great Debian Python teams to push our changes upstream. A useful way to look at it is this: because Ubuntu and Debian have different release cycles, namely that Ubuntu uses timed releases and Debian uses release-when-ready, we can use these to our advantage. Often, we can initiate big changes in Ubuntu first, using it to blaze a trail, and then systematically push those changes up into Debian, so that we can eventually remove as much of the delta from Ubuntu as possible. This was an effective model for both the Python 2.7 transition and the dh_python2 helper transition.
Deltas from Debian
The above wiki already describes where Debian deviates from upstream Python, and this section will outline how Ubuntu deviates from Debian. Hopefully, these deltas are even smaller.
- In Ubuntu python-minimal is an Essential package. In Debian it is not. This is a long term delta.
- Python 2.7 and Python 3.2 only in Ubuntu 12.04. With Precise Pangolin, we have dropped Python 2.6.
Bugs
Open bugs on Python packages in the archive: https://bugs.launchpad.net/~pythonistas/+packagebugs
Plans for 12.04
The goal of this spec is to convert at least one, if not more, desktop applications from Python 2 to Python 3. In doing so, we'll begin the process of drilling down and porting each of those application's stack of dependencies. We'll claim some CD space for Python 3 (mitigated by the removal of Python 2.6 from Precise), and we'll begin to learn what we don't know. So while the title sounds (too) ambitious, the goals are actually fairly modest but critically important for future plans.
The goal of this wiki is to improve support for both Python 2 and Python 3 in debhelper. We want to get dh_auto_test to automatically support standards for running Python test suites, and we want to develop and promote python-multibuild for support of Python 3.
This was mostly a placeholder blueprint for discussion at UDS-P. During the session it was fairly clear (to me at least) that there isn't much we can do other than what we've already done. Projecting ahead with Python 3.3's current release schedule, and a typical 18 months between upstream Python releases, we'll probably see Python 3.4 around the time of Ubuntu 14.04's release. There's no way to tell what that transition might look like, so we just need to keep it in mind as we do our other Python work in Ubuntu and Debian.
Longer term plans (e.g. 14.04)
- Python 3 only on the ISO images. Yes, this means migrating everything in the default install to Python 3. We will never fully get rid of Python 2.7, but since there will also never be a Python 2.8, and Python 2.7 will be nearly 4 years old by the time of the 14.04 LTS release, it is time to relegate Python 2 to universe. Although it is too early to know right now, but we expect Python 3.4 to be the current release by the time of the 14.04 LTS.