Prefer importing build_py and sdist from setuptools

[grlee77]

Description

closes #6006

This PR updates some imports to use setuptools own versions rather than the ones from distutils. This is needed for compatibility with recent setuptools (>58.5.0) which made this breaking change: pypa/setuptools@2e66eb7

Checklist

• Docstrings for all functions
• Gallery example in ./doc/examples (new features only)
• Benchmark in ./benchmarks, if your changes aren't covered by an
  existing benchmark
• Unit tests
• Clean style in the spirit of PEP8
• Descriptive commit messages (see below)

For reviewers

• Check that the PR title is short, concise, and will make sense 1 year
  later.
• Check that new functions are imported in corresponding __init__.py.
• Check that new features, API changes, and deprecations are mentioned in
  doc/release/release_dev.rst.

[grlee77]

Upstream issue: pypa/setuptools#2849

[grlee77]

This may end up being resolved upstream in which case we can just disallow 58.5.0 and 58.5.1. We may still want to make this change, though?

[abravalheri]

This may end up being resolved upstream in which case we can just disallow 58.5.0 and 58.5.1. We may still want to make this change, though?

The support for commands inheriting directly from distutils is considered deprecated by setuptools (and distutils itself will be removed from Python as per PEP 632), so I think this is a positive change :)

[hmaarrfk]

do we need the try statement? i feel like with distutils being deprecated we should move away from it completely.

[grlee77]

Not sure. I hadn't checked if these are present in our oldest supported setuptools.

[rfezzani]

Thank you @grlee77

[grlee77]

Do we need the try statement? i feel like with distutils being deprecated we should move away from it completely.

It works without the try/except for setuptools 0.45, so I have removed it. I'm not sure about how to best avoid importing the CompileError or LinkError classes from distutils. As far as I could tell those are not in the public API of setuptools (they are under setuptools._distutils.errors).

[abravalheri]

I'm not sure about how to best avoid importing the CompileError or SetupError classes from distutils. As far as I could tell those are not in the public API of setuptools (they are under setuptools._distutils.errors).

Maybe the best is to open an issue to setuptools asking for suggestions? They might think the best is to expose these in the public API.

[grlee77]

Maybe the best is to open an issue to setuptools asking for suggestions? They might think the best is to expose these in the public API.

Just found this issue that seems to cover it already: pypa/setuptools#2698

[abravalheri]

Ok, it should be a matter of PR then. I am sure the folks in setuptools would find it reasonable, or at least provide a clear alternate path.

Maybe this part can be addressed in the future, when it is available (aka TODO)?

[grlee77]

Agreed. I will merge this as is today once the CI completes.

[abravalheri]

@grlee77, there you go: pypa/setuptools#2858.

It should be available soon in a release 😄