Michał Górny wrote:
> I'm seriously wondering why I'm wasting so much effort on open source.

Open source only ever works when taking responsibility for one's problems.


> I don't see a good way out of it.

I see a couple. Of course all require some effort.

One was already mentioned; move Gentoo package management from Python
to some compiled language. High effort but maximum independence/reward.

Another option, less effort and less reward, is to investigate how much
CPython portage in fact requires, and make that a special package in Gentoo.

This essentially means a special-purpose fork of CPython, only for running
portage. Obviously portage development must then be comfortable without
using the latest shiny Python language stuff that only future RustPython
will offer. I guess that's not a problem.

Yet another is a variant on the previous, but even less effort and
much less reward; freeze what language stuff is allowed in portage code
and always run portage with some chosen existing/later CPython version.


Like libressl and gtk2 this thread also converges on the common point in
my argumentation: it's not per se bad, and sometimes supremely wise, to
quit chasing the latest version, and rest on a known platform.

Coupled with independent efforts to place security-relevant parts in
isolated environments (see sandbox) - ongoing effort regardless of Python -
I don't see why portage couldn't depend on a CPython interpreter of its own,
some last version that works well and is then copied and renamed.

It seems like that would be rather straightforward.

It might also be a good thing to take portage out of the overall Gentoo
Python picture? I don't know here - this bit is just a guess.


> arrogant zealots who want to destroy everything in their path

LOL, priceless.


> The first big blocker we're going to hit is trustme [3] package that
> relies on cryptography API pretty heavily to generate TLS certs for
> testing.

For which testing? Could it be changed to generate certs differently?

CAs aren't magic. Attached is a basic script of mine.


//Peter

Attachment: mkca.sh
Description: Bourne shell script

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