[Python-buildbots] OpenSSL and OS updates

[Ned Deily]

As we get close to the Python 3.7.0 release, I have been paying more attention to the buildbots and I have noticed that quite a few are currently skipping building some of the standard library modules due to version incompatibilities, i.e Python now needs a newer version than a older OS version provides.  This is particularly true for OpenSSL, which as of 3.7.0, now requires OpenSSL 1.0.2 or 1.1.x.  These days it's pretty critical that we be building and testing ssl support as network best practices have changed pretty rapidly and dramatically.

Along with that, there have been some major LTS support releases over the past year or so that provide these newer versions of OpenSSL.  In particular, Debian has released Debian 9 (stretch) as the current stable release.  And the latest Ubuntu LTS release is 18.04 (bionic beaver).  Both of these have suitable OpenSSL's and more.  If you are hosting a buildbot on a Debian or Ubuntu system, it would be great if you could consider upgrading.

And for all buildbot owners, if you do happen to notice that key modules are not getting built, like _ssl, let us know and we can try to resolve the problem.  (Depending on the release branch, there will be a few that are not expected to build on many platforms like "ossaudiodev" and "spwd".  These can be ignored.)

From the release team, a very big thank you for your generosity in hosting the Python buildbots in your environments!  The feedback they provide helps to ensure that Python continues to work on the amazingly broad range of platforms our users expect.

https://docs.python.org/3.7/whatsnew/3.7.html#ssl

--
  Ned Deily
  nad at python.org -- []