[BUG] Installation error importlib_metadata has no attribute 'EntryPoints

[pozos1096]

setuptools version

71.0.0

Python version

Python version: 3.8.10

OS

Linux

Additional environment information

• Fossology version: 4.4.0
• Python version: 3.8.10
• importlib_metadata version: 1.5.0
• setuptools version: 71.0.0

Description

Hi everyone,
I'm having trouble running the post-installation script for Fossology as outlined in the installation guide.

Expected behavior

Installation finished correctly.

How to Reproduce

When I execute the script with the following command:

sudo /usr/local/lib/fossology/fo-postinstall


### Output

```console
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
     command: /usr/bin/python3 -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'/tmp/pip-install-paao6nic/progress/setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'/tmp/pip-install-paao6nic/progress/setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' egg_info --egg-base /tmp/pip-install-paao6nic/progress/pip-egg-info
cwd: /tmp/pip-install-paao6nic/progress/
Complete output (9 lines):
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/home/fossy/pythondeps/setuptools/__init__.py", line 21, in <module>
        from .dist import Distribution
      File "/home/fossy/pythondeps/setuptools/dist.py", line 29, in <module>
        from . import _entry_points
      File "/home/fossy/pythondeps/setuptools/_entry_points.py", line 44, in <module>
        def validate(eps: metadata.EntryPoints):
    AttributeError: module 'importlib_metadata' has no attribute 'EntryPoints'
----------------------------------------
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: python setup.py egg_info Check the logs for full command output.

[abravalheri]

Hi @pozos1096, quick question: I don't know if it is possible for you to check in your setup, but if we add the from __future__ import annotations statement at the top of the setuptools/_entry_points.py file, would that solve the problem?

If that solves the problem, we can create a PR with that change.

Otherwise, if that is not enough, it would seem to me that the version of importlib_metadata that you have installed is too old, and it would be necessary to update it (probably to 4.6 or more recent).

/cc @jaraco might have better information about that.

[jaraco]

importlib_metadata >= 6 is what's stipulated in the setuptools[core] dependencies, so that's what's needed. If that can't be installed, is it possible to uninstall the version of importlib_metadata you have installed (such that setuptools will fall back to the vendored version)?

This issue was (somewhat intentionally) introduced in the 71 release where setuptools starts using libraries in the environment instead of bundling its own, which has pushed the onus on users and system integrators to make sure that the installed versions of the dependencies are compatible.

I wonder if Setuptools should simply fail fast whenever its core dependencies are not satisfied.

[pozos1096]

Thank you for your feedback @jaraco. After updating this dependencies (as indicated in the link below) I was able to succesfully installed the tool: #4478 (comment)