Why do I suddenly need libffi-dev, file, and make?

[josephcsible]

docker run python:3.7.7-alpine3.11 sh -c 'apk --no-cache add gcc libc-dev; pip install --no-cache-dir gevent==1.5.0'

When I run that, it fails, with the important part of the error being fatal error: ffi.h: No such file or directory. I already know the solution for this: install libffi-dev. However, there's one thing I don't know: if I install gevent 1.4.0 instead of 1.5.0, then it works fine even without libffi-dev. What changed in 1.5 such that libffi-dev is now a requirement? If it's in the changelog, I didn't see it.

(And once that error is gone, I get other errors unless I also install file and make, which I similarly didn't need before.)

[jamadden]

Most likely is the explicit inclusion of pyproject.toml in gevent's source distribution (binary distributions aren't permitted for alpine linux, only for distributions based on glibc), which is essentially the modern version of setup_requires. Implicit source dependencies are now explicit.

As for file and make, it just depends on what the third-party configure scripts do. I have no control over that.

[chrisinmtown]

Thanks for opening this issue and listing the new requirements libffi-dev, file, make. My gevent install failed similarly on alpine, altho with python 3.8. Your note let me repair locally in minutes instead of days :)