fix: replace removed distutils.spawn with shutil.which (Python 3.12+)

[JarbasAl]

Problem

distutils was removed from the Python standard library in 3.12. This breaks import of two modules that still use it:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'

Affected modules:

• ovos_utils.sound — uses distutils.spawn.find_executable to locate audio players (play, ogg123, pw-play, paplay, aplay, mpg123) and media probes (ffprobe, mediainfo)
• ovos_utils.device_input — uses distutils.spawn.find_executable to locate libinput/xinput

Both modules fail to import at all on Python 3.12+.

Fix

Replace from distutils.spawn import find_executable with from shutil import which, and every find_executable(...) call with which(...). shutil.which is the stdlib replacement recommended for this exact use case (same signature/behavior: returns the resolved path or None).

Existing unit tests (test/unittests/test_sound.py, test/unittests/test_device_input.py) patched find_executable by name, so those mock targets were updated to which as well. No behavior changes.

Test plan

• ast.parse sanity check on both edited modules
• grep -r distutils ovos_utils/ returns nothing
• pytest test/unittests/test_sound.py test/unittests/test_device_input.py — 39 passed

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This fix was authored with Claude Code.

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Review details

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Run ID: 90ba71df-61b8-4d0a-a3f0-662ecbff0bd0

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 2bae79c and c9f950a.

📒 Files selected for processing (4)

• ovos_utils/device_input.py
• ovos_utils/sound.py
• test/unittests/test_device_input.py
• test/unittests/test_sound.py

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🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch fix/remove-distutils

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❌ ruff: issues found — see job log

🏷️ Release Preview

The release train is fueling up! 🚂

Current: 0.13.6a1 → Next: 0.13.7a1

Signal	Value
Label	(none)
PR title	fix: replace removed distutils.spawn with shutil.which (Python 3.12+)
Bump	build

✅ PR title follows conventional commit format.

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🚀 Release Channel Compatibility

Predicted next version: 0.13.7a1

Channel	Status	Note	Current Constraint
Stable	❌	Too new (must be <0.9.0)	ovos-utils>=0.8.1,<0.9.0
Testing	❌	Too new (must be <0.8.5)	ovos-utils>=0.8.4,<0.8.5
Alpha	✅	Compatible	ovos-utils>=0.13.6a1

⚖️ License Check

I've checked the licenses of all dev-dependencies too. 🛠️

✅ No license violations found.

Policy: Apache 2.0 (universal donor). StrongCopyleft / NetworkCopyleft / WeakCopyleft / Other / Error categories fail. MPL allowed.

🔒 Security (pip-audit)

The security scan is now complete. 🏁

✅ No known vulnerabilities found (47 packages scanned).

📊 Coverage

A forensic look at what's being executed. 🔎

✅ 85.2% total coverage

Files below 80% coverage (5 files)

File	Coverage	Missing lines
ovos_utils/log_parser.py	48.4%	225
ovos_utils/__init__.py	63.6%	16
ovos_utils/file_utils.py	73.3%	55
ovos_utils/thread_utils.py	76.9%	12
ovos_utils/geolocation.py	78.4%	22

Full report: download the coverage-report artifact.

📋 Repo Health

Checking if we're following maintenance best practices. 📏

✅ All required files present.

Latest Version: 0.13.6a1

✅ ovos_utils/version.py — Version file
✅ README.md — README
✅ LICENSE — License file
✅ pyproject.toml — pyproject.toml
⚠️ setup.py — setup.py
✅ CHANGELOG.md — Changelog
✅ ovos_utils/version.py has valid version block markers

🔨 Build Tests

The build pipeline has finished its work. 🏁

✅ All versions pass

Python	Build	Install	Tests
3.10	✅	✅	✅
3.11	✅	✅	✅
3.12	✅	✅	✅
3.13	✅	✅	✅
3.14	✅	✅	✅

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