{Extension}: drop distutils.sysconfig, deprecated

[bluca]

Python is breaking backward compatibility by removing distutils.sysconfig
without providing an alternative. For now, hard-code the dist-packages
path until they provide a different solution.

[yonzhan]

Extension

[jiasli]

The PR looks good to me.

Python is breaking backward compatibility

I think Python does provide an alternative sysconfig.get_path. It is just that Debian hasn't released their customized Python 3.10 with sysconfig.get_path patched for dist-packages.

Here is the output from official Python docker image (which is also built on Debian):

> docker run -it --rm python:3.10
Python 3.10.0 (default, Nov 17 2021, 15:26:39) [GCC 10.2.1 20210110] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>> import distutils.sysconfig
<stdin>:1: DeprecationWarning: The distutils package is deprecated and slated for removal in Python 3.12. Use setuptools or check PEP 632 for potential alternatives
<stdin>:1: DeprecationWarning: The distutils.sysconfig module is deprecated, use sysconfig instead
>>> import sysconfig
>>> distutils.sysconfig.get_python_lib()
'/usr/local/lib/python3.10/site-packages'
>>> sysconfig.get_path('purelib')
'/usr/local/lib/python3.10/site-packages'

The results of distutils.sysconfig.get_python_lib() and sysconfig.get_path('purelib') are the same.

[jiasli]

Wait. Hard-coding it will break #12856 which depends on distutils.sysconfig.get_python_lib().

The only solution I can think of is for Debian to support their customized sysconfig.get_path.

[bluca]

Wait. Hard-coding it will break #12856 which depends on distutils.sysconfig.get_python_lib().

The only solution I can think of is for Debian to support their customized sysconfig.get_path.

ok, closing for now

[bebound]

Wait. Hard-coding it will break #12856 which depends on distutils.sysconfig.get_python_lib().

The only solution I can think of is for Debian to support their customized sysconfig.get_path.

distutils is dropped in 3.12, we need to reconsider this.

AFAIS, sysconfig.get_path works well.

[jiasli]

With the official Azure CLI MSI package, distutils.sysconfig.get_python_lib() on Windows returns C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\CLI2\Lib\site-packages:

> & "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\CLI2\python.exe" -c "import distutils.sysconfig; print(distutils.sysconfig.get_python_lib())"
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\CLI2\Lib\site-packages

With the official Azure CLI ZIP package, distutils.sysconfig.get_python_lib() returns something like D:\tools\azure-cli\Lib\site-packages:

> D:\tools\azure-cli\python.exe -c "import distutils.sysconfig; print(distutils.sysconfig.get_python_lib())"
D:\tools\azure-cli\Lib\site-packages

With the official Azure CLI DEB package, distutils.sysconfig.get_python_lib() on Ubuntu/Debian returns /opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages.

$ /opt/az/bin/python3 -c "import distutils.sysconfig; print(distutils.sysconfig.get_python_lib())"
/opt/az/lib/python3.11/site-packages

Hard-coding it to /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages breaks all Azure CLI packages.