[BUG] Version 78.0.1 breaks install of ansible-vault package

[andy-maier]

setuptools version

78.0.1

Python version

3.11

OS

Ubuntu

Additional environment information

No response

Description

When installing the "ansible-vault" package, setuptools raises this exception:

$ pip install ansible-vault --upgrade
Collecting ansible-vault
  Using cached ansible-vault-2.1.0.tar.gz (3.5 kB)
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error
  
  × Getting requirements to build wheel did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [34 lines of output]
      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "/Users/maiera/virtualenvs/vpcauto311/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 389, in <module>
          main()
        File "/Users/maiera/virtualenvs/vpcauto311/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 373, in main
          json_out["return_val"] = hook(**hook_input["kwargs"])
                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/Users/maiera/virtualenvs/vpcauto311/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 143, in get_requires_for_build_wheel
          return hook(config_settings)
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/private/var/folders/tg/fy7jbcg96lv1_hvlmcv263kr0000gn/T/pip-build-env-1hnvit19/overlay/lib/python3.11/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 334, in get_requires_for_build_wheel
          return self._get_build_requires(config_settings, requirements=[])
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/private/var/folders/tg/fy7jbcg96lv1_hvlmcv263kr0000gn/T/pip-build-env-1hnvit19/overlay/lib/python3.11/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 304, in _get_build_requires
          self.run_setup()
        File "/private/var/folders/tg/fy7jbcg96lv1_hvlmcv263kr0000gn/T/pip-build-env-1hnvit19/overlay/lib/python3.11/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 522, in run_setup
          super().run_setup(setup_script=setup_script)
        File "/private/var/folders/tg/fy7jbcg96lv1_hvlmcv263kr0000gn/T/pip-build-env-1hnvit19/overlay/lib/python3.11/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 320, in run_setup
          exec(code, locals())
        File "<string>", line 11, in <module>
        File "/private/var/folders/tg/fy7jbcg96lv1_hvlmcv263kr0000gn/T/pip-build-env-1hnvit19/overlay/lib/python3.11/site-packages/setuptools/__init__.py", line 116, in setup
          _install_setup_requires(attrs)
        File "/private/var/folders/tg/fy7jbcg96lv1_hvlmcv263kr0000gn/T/pip-build-env-1hnvit19/overlay/lib/python3.11/site-packages/setuptools/__init__.py", line 87, in _install_setup_requires
          dist.parse_config_files(ignore_option_errors=True)
        File "/Users/maiera/virtualenvs/vpcauto311/lib/python3.11/site-packages/_virtualenv.py", line 22, in parse_config_files
          result = old_parse_config_files(self, *args, **kwargs)
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/private/var/folders/tg/fy7jbcg96lv1_hvlmcv263kr0000gn/T/pip-build-env-1hnvit19/overlay/lib/python3.11/site-packages/setuptools/dist.py", line 730, in parse_config_files
          self._parse_config_files(filenames=inifiles)
        File "/private/var/folders/tg/fy7jbcg96lv1_hvlmcv263kr0000gn/T/pip-build-env-1hnvit19/overlay/lib/python3.11/site-packages/setuptools/dist.py", line 599, in _parse_config_files
          opt = self._enforce_underscore(opt, section)
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/private/var/folders/tg/fy7jbcg96lv1_hvlmcv263kr0000gn/T/pip-build-env-1hnvit19/overlay/lib/python3.11/site-packages/setuptools/dist.py", line 629, in _enforce_underscore
          raise InvalidConfigError(
      setuptools.errors.InvalidConfigError: Invalid dash-separated key 'description-file' in 'metadata' (setup.cfg), please use the underscore name 'description_file' instead.
      [end of output]
  
  note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
error: subprocess-exited-with-error

× Getting requirements to build wheel did not run successfully.
│ exit code: 1
╰─> See above for output.

note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.

Expected behavior

ansible-vault has not changed since 2021 and should install as before.

How to Reproduce

1. Create and activate a fresh Pyhton virtual env, using Python 3.11:

mkvirtualenv test -p python3.11

2. Install version 78.0.1 of setuptools

pip install setuptools==78.0.1

3. Install ansible-vault

pip install ansible-vault

Output

See above

[andy-maier]

We are circumventing this by excluding setuptools 78.0.1.

Update: That was a thought, but it does not work reliably. See the discussion below.

[twratl]

Seeing this for other packages as well.

[abravalheri]

Hi @andy-maier, please contact the package developers and inform about the problem highlighted in the error message:

  setuptools.errors.InvalidConfigError: Invalid dash-separated key 'description-file' in 'metadata' (setup.cfg), please use the underscore name 'description_file' instead.

This has been deprecated in 2021.

[lindycoder]

Hello, having the same issue with https://pypi.org/project/opentracing/ where the project is not maintained anymore, we'll try to get rid of it, but would be great to keep it backward compatible, if possible :)

Thank you!

[andy-maier]

@abravalheri I can do that, but I do not understand why this issue comes up now, just 30min after 78.0.1 was released, and the same packages worked before. There must have been some change that "activated" that check only now.

[abravalheri]

There must have been some change that "activated" that check only now.

You are absolutely correct, there was.
We bumped the major version of setuptools from 77.0.3 to 78.0.0 to indicate an intentional breaking change, namely the removal for the deprecated handling of --separated options in setup.cfg. They are described in this section: https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/history.html#deprecations-and-removals.

[andy-maier]

Update: Downgrading setuptools to below 78.0.1 does not make the error go away. That is consistent with @abravalheri stating that the check was introduced in 2021. So it must be something else. Any idea where to look?

[emil-peters]

We had the same issue with pysdf which is also no longer maintained, but used by us.
Downgrading to setuptools==77.0.3 seems to fix the issue for us

Had to manually run pip install setuptools==77.0.3 before pip install -r requirements.txt to make it work though