GRF maker?

[leifbk]

I apologise for the necro-posting, but I'm recently getting the following message when I update my Gentoo Linux system:

Code: Select all

!!! The following installed packages are masked:
- dev-python/chameleon-2.25::gentoo (masked by: package.mask)
/usr/portage/profiles/package.mask:
# Michał Górny <mgorny@gentoo.org> (2020-03-07)
# The following packages are stuck on Python 3.6, and have no reverse
# dependencies.  Please let the Python team know if you find some
# of them still useful.
# Removal in 30 days.  Bug #711808.

See also: https://bugs.gentoo.org/711808

If the Chameleon package is still needed for GRF building, this should be regarded as a wake-up call.

[planetmaker]

Hi,

I apologise for the necro-posting, but I'm recently getting the following message when I update my Gentoo Linux system:
(...)
If the Chameleon package is still needed for GRF building, this should be regarded as a wake-up call.

what package are you referring to?

Chameleon allows to build documentation from source, so it will not be required to build a NewGRF; it is used to build documentation by some projects.

[leifbk]

what package are you referring to?

It's the same package that you referred to in a previous post here:

15:47 <@planetmaker> apt-get install python-chameleon

It's been a long time since I fooled around compiling GRFs for myself, but I remember that I had to install this package to build some GRF or other. It may have been my own custom version of FIRS.

Whether it's required or not, I don't know. If it is, I guess that somebody should check out if the package is unmaintained.

[andythenorth]

Thanks for reporting.

Cursory glance at https://pypi.org/project/Chameleon/ shows it's maintained.

Works for me with Python 3.6, 3.7, 3.8 and pypy.

I don't understand the world of packaging, so possibly there's a problem, but it seems unlikely anyone would investigate this one further?

[leifbk]

Thanks for reporting.

Cursory glance at https://pypi.org/project/Chameleon/ shows it's maintained.

Works for me with Python 3.6, 3.7, 3.8 and pypy.

I don't understand the world of packaging, so possibly there's a problem, but it seems unlikely anyone would investigate this one further?

Perhaps this package has just been ignored in Gentoo, not many seems to use it. I hope that other distros keep it maintained a little better. Version 2.25 is ancient, and I've requested an upgrade to current version 3.6.2. See https://bugs.gentoo.org/711808#c33

[andythenorth]

Thanks for that

Yup, Chameleon is a relatively niche template library It's probably not a priority for distros. The common use case for it would be 'pip install' or similar, whilst developing / deploying a web application (rather than relying on the distro to provide it)

[leifbk]

The package has been upgraded to version 3.6.2 in Gentoo, and the announced removal has probably been called off.

Thanks Andy for the link to the project page. That started me thinking about how to rescue it.