Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH] scripts: Support building with Python 3

[Markus Armbruster]

"Daniel P. Berrange" <address@hidden> writes:

> On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 11:55:18AM +0100, Peter Maydell wrote:
>> On 31 August 2017 at 11:47, Daniel P. Berrange <address@hidden> wrote:
>> > If we can update to python 2.7 as our minimum, then supporting py2
>> > and py3 gets simpler, avoiding some of the nastier hacks, even
>> > without that though it isn't too hard.
>> 
>> Unfortunately RHEL6 is what's holding us to retaining 2.6
>> support, and googling suggests that doesn't go EOL until 2020...
>
> Who is actually requiring that we support RHEL6 until EOL though ?
>
> AFAIK, from Red Hat side, we don't need QEMU git master to be buildable
> on RHEL-6 machines anymore, since QEMU there is long since in bug-fix
> only mode, no rebases or feature backports.

Even in the unlikely case that a bug fix involves backporting some
Python, having to port just those bits to RHEL-6's version of Python
would be less work than making *all* upstream Python code work with both
Python dialects.

> I assume there's probably some community interest in building git master
> on RHEL-6, but I think it is reasonable for us to say no at some point,
> rather than waiting until final EOL (2020 for normal subscribers, 2024
> for people who paid for extended lifetime).

"Interest" by itself doesn't pay bills or write code.

If you have to have upstream QEMU on RHEL-6, and you're fine with
getting it by building it yourself (there being no other way), then you
should also be fine with getting its build requirements.  Python 3.4 is
in EPEL.