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[Platform independent] Drop Python 2.x support #2014

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auvipy opened this issue Nov 10, 2021 · 2 comments
Closed

[Platform independent] Drop Python 2.x support #2014

auvipy opened this issue Nov 10, 2021 · 2 comments

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@auvipy
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auvipy commented Nov 10, 2021

Summary

  • OS: { type-or-version }
  • Type: { Code }

Description

Python 2.6 & 2.7 is EOL for long. lets drop support for python 2.x and modernize the codebase with 3.6/3.7+ only.

@giampaolo
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2.6 can probably go. 2.7... not a chance, for many years to come. It currently represents 7-10% of total downloads, aka around 70k /100k downloads per day: https://pypistats.org/packages/psutil

@auvipy
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auvipy commented Nov 16, 2021

ok then python 2.6

giampaolo added a commit that referenced this issue Dec 20, 2024
About dropping Python 2.7 support, 3 years ago [I stated](#2014 (comment)):

>  [...] not a chance, for many years to come. [Python 2.7] currently represents 7-10% of total downloads, aka around 70k /100k downloads per day

3 years later (and to my surprise) **downloads for Python 2.7 dropped to 0.36%**. These are downloads per month:

```
$ pypinfo --percent psutil pyversion
Served from cache: False
Data processed: 4.65 GiB
Data billed: 4.65 GiB
Estimated cost: $0.03

| python_version | percent | download_count |
| -------------- | ------- | -------------- |
| 3.10           |  23.84% |     26,354,506 |
| 3.8            |  18.87% |     20,862,015 |
| 3.7            |  17.38% |     19,217,960 |
| 3.9            |  17.00% |     18,798,843 |
| 3.11           |  13.63% |     15,066,706 |
| 3.12           |   7.01% |      7,754,751 |
| 3.13           |   1.15% |      1,267,008 |
| 3.6            |   0.73% |        803,189 |
| 2.7            |   0.36% |        402,111 |
| 3.5            |   0.03% |         28,656 |
| Total          |         |    110,555,745 |
```

According to [pypistats.org](https://archive.is/wip/knzql) it's 0.28% of the total, and around 15.000 downloads per day.

Maintaining 2.7 support has become increasingly difficult, but still possible. E.g. we can still run tests by using [old PYPI backports](https://github.com/giampaolo/psutil/blob/fbb6d9ce98f930d3d101b7df5a4f4d0f1d2b35a3/setup.py#L76-L85). GitHub Actions can still be [tweaked](https://github.com/giampaolo/psutil/blob/fbb6d9ce98f930d3d101b7df5a4f4d0f1d2b35a3/.github/workflows/build.yml#L77-L112) to run tests and produce wheels on Linux and macOS. Not Windows though, for which we have to use a separate service (Appveyor). 

Still, the amount of hacks in psutil source code necessary to support Python 2.7 piled up over the years, and became quite big. Some disadvantages that come to mind:

* (high) having to maintain various python compatibility layers (e.g. [psutil/_compat.py](https://github.com/giampaolo/psutil/blob/fbb6d9ce98f930d3d101b7df5a4f4d0f1d2b35a3/psutil/_compat.py#L1)) + all the compromises that come with it (extra imports, extra code, str vs. unicode differences, etc.)
* (medium) having to maintain a C compatibility layer (`#if PY_MAJOR_VERSION <= 3`, etc.)
* (medium) inability to use modern language features, especially f-strings
* (low) inability to freely use `enum`s, which creates a difference on how CONSTANTS are exposed in terms of API
* (medium) having to install a specific version of pip and other (outdated) [deps](https://github.com/giampaolo/psutil/blob/fbb6d9ce98f930d3d101b7df5a4f4d0f1d2b35a3/setup.py#L76-L85)
* (high) relying on third-party Appveyor CI service, just to run tests on python 2.7 and produce wheels, when we could rely on a single CI service instead (GitHub)
  * (high) soon I want to distribute wheels via GitHub instead of manually via `twine`, so that'll be a problem (CC @potiuk)
* (high) gradual lack of support from third-party libraries and services
* (medium) 4 extra CI jobs which are run on every commit (Linux, macOS, Windows 32-bit, Windows 64-bit) 
* (medium) the distribution of 7 wheels specific for Python 2.7. From last release: 
  * psutil-6.1.1-cp27-cp27m-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl
  * psutil-6.1.1-cp27-none-win32.whl
  * psutil-6.1.1-cp27-none-win_amd64.whl
  * psutil-6.1.1-cp27-cp27m-manylinux2010_i686.whl                                                                          
  * psutil-6.1.1-cp27-cp27m-manylinux2010_x86_64.whl                                                                        
  * psutil-6.1.1-cp27-cp27mu-manylinux2010_i686.whl                                                                         
  * psutil-6.1.1-cp27-cp27mu-manylinux2010_x86_64.whl                                                                       
* etc. 

As such I decided to finally **drop support for Python 2.7**. Current psutil 6.1.1 release will still support Python 2.7, but next 7.0.0 will not. 

We can still make a promise that the 6.1.* line (EDIT: see [python2 branch](https://github.com/giampaolo/psutil/tree/python2)) will keep supporting Python 2.7 and will **receive critical bug-fixes only** (no new features).

In 7.0.0 we can keep the [setup.py](https://github.com/giampaolo/psutil/blob/fbb6d9ce98f930d3d101b7df5a4f4d0f1d2b35a3/setup.py) script compatible with Python 2.7 in terms of syntax, so that it can emit an informative error message on pip install. E.g. the user  will see something like this:

```
$ pip2 install psutil
As of version 7.0.0 psutil no longer supports Python 2.7. 
Latest version supporting Python 2.7 is psutil 6.1.X.  
Install it with: "pip2 install psutil==6.1.*".
```

Related tickets:
* 2017-06: #1053
* 2022-04: #2099
* 2023-04: #2246
* giampaolo/pyftpdlib#635
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