Right now, test_venv fails without distutils, because pip fails on importing the distutils module in pip/_internal/locations/_distutils.py

I reported this issue to pip: pypa/pip#11103

The distutils package was deprecated by the issue #85454.

PEP 632 "Deprecate distutils module": https://peps.python.org/pep-0632/

That seems like a good plan. Thanks.

My fear with renaming it is that it lingers indefinitely, and diverging in subtle ways from pypa/distutils. Why not address the dependencies and fully remove the functionality?

Regardless, I agree renaming is preferable to not removing the module at all.

Why not address the dependencies and fully remove the functionality?

Someone has to modify Python to no longer depend on distutils. The issue description lists code using it. It doesn't seem trivial.

Would it be reasonable to keep it around in the repo while we don't drop the dependency but not ship it as part of Python installations?

Would it be reasonable to keep it around in the repo while we don't drop the dependency but not ship it as part of Python installations?

With my PR, the Lib/_distutils/ directory is not installed by make install.

Do note that we have buildbots that run from an installed Python. The tests would need to also be modified to fail gracefully
(or skip) when _distutils is not available.

Do note that we have buildbots that run from an installed Python. The tests would need to also be modified to fail gracefully (or skip) when _distutils is not available.

I propose skipping tests relying on _distutils if _distutils is not available.

I wrote two PRs to avoid the deprecated distutils module in two tests:

• #92639: test_cppext uses setuptools
• #92640: test_decimal uses shutil.which() -- IMO an uncontroversial change