Samba 5.0 for a pure Python3 (ouside waf) release? (was: Re: Samba 4.10 or 5.0)

[Andrew Bartlett]

On Tue, 2018-07-10 at 09:37 -0700, Jeremy Allison via samba-technical
wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 10, 2018 at 09:22:41AM +0200, Stefan Metzmacher via samba-technical wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > we're going to branch 4.9.0rc1 soon.
> > 
> > We should decide if we want to continue with 4.10 or 5.0?
> > 
> > I think we should not put too much into version number,
> > similar to the linux kernel and just have a limit on the minor
> > version and handle a major version just as a number change.
> > 
> > So I'd propose with 5.0.
> > 
> > What does others think?
> 
> Everyone else seems to like it :-). I'm old enough
> to remember moving a major version only when we had
> significant new features, but I guess that makes me
> the old fuddy-duddy :-).
> 
> But if it's a vote, -1 from me :-).

I would like to make it 5.0, if we can use it as the excuse to go pure
Python 3.6 for the release, (outside waf use). 

On current progress we are likely to get to having Samba operate fully
with Python3, but maintaining support for both that and 2.7 will be a
big drain on limited resources, require that many libraries and I
suspect eventually even binaries to be built twice.  Many tests will
need to be run twice.

We will also continue to hit issues like 
https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13525

Those who I've spoke to for advise on doing the python2->3 transition
suggest that we should cut over once the work is complete, and not
attempt to maintain a dual-mode release over time.

I'm also don't think we will really get a complete coverage of python3
until we finally switch everything.

Naturally, pure file-server use cases will be able to build --without-
python (which is why I supported that effort), and I don't mind of ldb
and talloc continue to produce python2 bindings, but I don't want that
for the main Samba build.

My suggestion is by the time Samba 5.0 is released there will be
RHEL/CentOS 8 with Python3 in the default build (otherwise available
from 'software collections') and that users backporting the latest AD
DC to older platforms can install a package form their or Rackspace's 
IUS repo.

This has been signalled: 
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/7.5_release_notes/chap-red_hat_enterprise_linux-7.5_release_notes-deprecated_functionality

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=RHEL-8-No-Python-2

We would also need sn-devel updated. 

What do others think?

Andrew Bartlett

-- 
Andrew Bartlett
https://samba.org/~abartlet/
Authentication Developer, Samba Team         https://samba.org
Samba Development and Support, Catalyst IT   
https://catalyst.net.nz/services/samba