Hi,

I propose to drop the Solaris support in Python to reduce the Python
maintenance burden:

   https://bugs.python.org/issue42173

I wrote a draft PR to show how much code could be removed (around 700
lines in 65 files):

   https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/23002/files

In 2016, I asked if we still wanted to maintain the Solaris support in
Python, because Solaris buildbots were failing for longer than 6
months and nobody was able to fix them. It was requested to find a
core developer volunteer to fix Solaris issues and to set up a Solaris
buildbot.

https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/thread/NOT2RORSNX72ZLUHK2UUGBD4GTPNKBUS/#NOT2RORSNX72ZLUHK2UUGBD4GTPNKBUS

Four years later, nothing has happened. Moreover, in 2018, Oracle laid
off the Solaris development engineering staff. There are around 25
open Python bugs specific to Solaris.

I see 3 options:

* Current best effort support (no change): changes only happen if a
core dev volunteers to review and merge a change written by a
contributor.

* Schedule the removal in 2 Python releases (Python 3.12) and start to
announce that Solaris support is going to be removed

* Remove the Solaris code right now (my proposition): Solaris code
will have to be maintained outside the official Python code base, as
"downstream patches"


Solaris has a few specific features visible at the Python level:
select.devpoll, os.stat().st_fstype and stat.S_ISDOOR().

While it's unclear to me if Oracle still actively maintains Solaris
(latest release in 2018, no major update since 2018), Illumos and
OpenSolaris (variants or "forks") still seem to be active.

In 2019, a Solaris blog post explains that Solaris 11.4 still uses
Python 2.7 but plans to migrate to Python 3, and Python 3.4 is also
available. These two Python versions are no longer supported.

https://blogs.oracle.com/solaris/future-of-python-on-solaris

The question is if the Python project has to maintain the Solaris
specific code or if this code should now be maintained outside Python.

What do you think? Should we wait 5 more years? Should we expect a
company will offer to maintain the Solaris support? Is there a
motivated core developer to fix Solaris issue? As I wrote, nothing has
happened in the last 4 years...

Victor
--
Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death.
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