setuptools 60.0.0 breaking change

[vpipkt]

install_requires should avoid setuptools>=60 as it results in (apparently) a ModuleNotFound error. We encountered this in GitHub actions calls to gcloud tools.

Environment details

• OS type and version: Ubuntu (Github Actions ubuntu 2004)
• Python version: 3.7.12
• pip version: 20.0.2
• google-api-core 2.3.2
• setuptools 60.0.0

Steps to reproduce

1. pip install google-api-core with eager upgrade strategy
2. make call to gcloud

Code example

$ pip install --upgrade --upgrade-strategy eager  "google-api-python-client>=1.0.0"
$ gcloud container images list-tags
ERROR: gcloud failed to load (gcloud.container.images.list_tags): Problem loading gcloud.container.images.list_tags: No module named 'setuptools._distutils'.

# then try
$ pip install --upgrade --upgrade-strategy eager  "setuptools<60" "google-api-python-client>=1.0.0"
$ gcloud container images list-tags
ERROR: (gcloud.container.images.list-tags) argument IMAGE_NAME: Must be specified.
# This is the expected result .... 

CLI output in failure case

ERROR: gcloud failed to load (gcloud.container.images.list_tags): Problem loading gcloud.container.images.list_tags: No module named 'setuptools._distutils'.

This usually indicates corruption in your gcloud installation or problems with your Python interpreter.

Please verify that the following is the path to a working Python 2.7 or 3.5+ executable:
    /Users/jason.brown/.virtualenvs/dgx/bin/python3
If it is not, please set the CLOUDSDK_PYTHON environment variable to point to a working Python 2.7 or 3.5+ executable.

If you are still experiencing problems, please run the following command to reinstall:
    $ gcloud components reinstall

If that command fails, please reinstall the Cloud SDK using the instructions here:
    https://cloud.google.com/sdk/

[parthea]

Hi @vpipkt,

Thanks for reporting this issue. I've reached out to the gcloud sdk team. I'll update this issue once I hear back. Googlers see b/211562528.

[0-wiz-0]

On the same topic: setup.py has setuptools in its dependencies, but I don't see how it's used in the code (there is no import setuptools). Should this really be there?

[parthea]

Hi @0-wiz-0 ,

setuptools is used here.

[parthea]

b/211562528 has been resolved. I'll keep this issue open until a new release is published and docs are updated.

[parthea]

I'm going to bump this to P2 as there is a workaround.

[parthea]

A new version of the gcloud SDK 368.0.0 was published yesterday which should fix this issue. Please feel free to re-open this issue if the new version of gcloud SDK doesn't resolve the issue.