550959 - end-of-life Python 2.4 for build support

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox Build System :: General, defect)

Description

[Mike Taylor [:bear]]

Now that 2.4.* is a source only build with no feature work or security patches, should we consider removing it from the supported list of Python's.

also note that 2.4.6 was last touched in December 2008 so it has missed a number of security fixes in the past 2 years

See http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.4.6/ for details

Comment 1

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Several of the Linux distros we still support (RHEL variants) still ship with 2.4 as their default or perhaps only version of python. Until a compelling reason to drop support comes along I really don't want to do it just because.

Comment 2

[Mike Taylor [:bear]]

It wasn't a complete "just because" (tho yes, it's close) - I was thinking more of the coming soon battle between Python 2.6 (and 2.7) syntax differences.

Should I close as INVALID or WONTFIX?

Comment 3

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

No, but you could point out compelling reasons why 2.5 is a better baseline than 2.4. :)

Comment 4

[Jonas Sicking (:sicking) No longer reading bugmail consistently]

Attachment: Patch to fix

I need python 2.5 over in bug 546857 to be able to automatically generate the permissions.sqlite database.

Comment 5

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

Comment on attachment 466695 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch to fix

Yeah, let's do it.

Comment 6

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Requiring python 2.6 would be even nicer, see e.g. bug 450645

Comment 7

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

bug 460052, rather

Comment 8

[Kyle Huey (Exited; not receiving bugmail, old account, do not use)]

I'd love to go straight to 2.6 to be able to use relpath.

Comment 9

[Jonas Sicking (:sicking) No longer reading bugmail consistently]

I'll let Ted make the call. I'm happy to update the patch if everyone agrees it's the right thing to do.

Comment 10

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

Let's take that to a different bug, this immediately blocks sicking's work and 2.6 is a different argument.

Comment 11

[Jonas Sicking (:sicking) No longer reading bugmail consistently]

This blocks a blocker so marking approved

Comment 12

[Jonas Sicking (:sicking) No longer reading bugmail consistently]

http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/bb200e1f52b4

Checked in. Thanks for the quick review!

Comment 13

[[e-mail]]

(In reply to comment #4)
> I need python 2.5 over in bug 546857 to be able to automatically generate the
> permissions.sqlite database.
Actually, this is totally untrue, since you can generate hostperm.1 instead.

Comment 14

[Jonas Sicking (:sicking) No longer reading bugmail consistently]

What is hostperm.1? And is that beneficial to permissions.sqlite?