914372 - Provide more info to help with installing Python

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox Build System :: General, defect)

Description

[Gregory Szorc [:gps]]

As we up our Python build requirements and start requiring more modern Python releases, it's apparent that not all operating systems and distros are shipping a Python as modern as we would like. I think the boostrapper should gain the ability to install Python from source.

A rational concern here is "we don't want the bootstrapper to turn into a package manager." I agree. Fortunately, many people have had this problem and solutions exist. I propose we should hook up https://github.com/yyuu/pyenv or https://github.com/collective/buildout.python to the boostrapper. AFAIK both of these solutions are generic and work on multiple operating systems and distros.

We established ~/.mozbuild (or whatever path is in $MOZBUILD_STATE_PATH) as reserved for global Firefox build system state. I propose we install a custom built Python there (if needed) and ensure it's /bin is on $PATH.

Comment 1

[Gregory Szorc [:gps]]

Attachment: Provide more info to help with installing Python

After thinking about this for a bit, I think being lazy is the best
course of action for the moment. Someone (likely me) could spend a
significant amount of effort writing code to install Python via pyenv,
etc. Or, we could just tell the user what to do. I'm inclined to do the
latter because I don't think many people will run into older, outdated
Pythons. Those who do will likely be on Linux (as opposed to OS X or
Windows) and thus will likely have neckbeards and can figure out how to
install Python through one of the linked tools.

Comment 2

[Michael Shal [:mshal]]

Comment on attachment 805678 [details] [diff] [review]
Provide more info to help with installing Python

Hooray for simplicity :)

Comment 3

[Gregory Szorc [:gps]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/d407fe528653

Comment 4

[Ed Morley [:emorley]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/d407fe528653

Comment 5

[Gary Kwong [:gkw] [:nth10sd] (NOT official MoCo now)]

Adjusting summary to better reflect what was actually landed.