[BUG] setuptools>=60.0.0 causes virtualenv to create abnormal tree structure on ubuntu 22.04

setuptools version

setuptools 60, 61, 62

59.x was the last version I found to not cause trouble. This also happens to be the default version installed with ubuntu 22.04 via apt.

Python version

Python 3.10

OS

Ubuntu 22.04

Also, I was unable to reproduce this on python:3.10-buster

Additional environment information

No response

Description

Installing setuptools==62.1.0 causes virtualenv venv to create an abnormal directory structure. Uninstalling setuptools solves the problem. This is 100% reproducible in ubuntu:22.04 docker image (ubuntu@sha256:06b5d30fabc1fc574f2ecab87375692299d45f8f190d9b71f512deb494114e1f)

The failure of virtualenv also affects poetry, which has no error checking for venv activate and will attempt to modify system packages when it thinks the venv is activated but it is not.

Without setuptools, venv/bin exists. With setuptools, venv/local/bin exists and no venv/bin dir exists.

Expected behavior

Setuptools does not interfere with virtualenv directory structure.

How to Reproduce

1. Create Dockerfile:

   FROM ubuntu:22.04
   
   RUN apt-get update
   RUN apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip python3-virtualenv tree
   RUN pip install setuptools==62.1.0 ; \
       virtualenv venv ; \
       tree -L 3 venv ; \
       . venv/bin/activate
   

2. Build it.
3. Notice error.

Output

$ cat Dockerfile
FROM ubuntu:22.04

RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip python3-virtualenv tree
RUN pip install setuptools==62.1.0 ; \
    virtualenv venv ; \
    tree -L 3 venv ; \
    . venv/bin/activate
$ docker build -t test1 .
Sending build context to Docker daemon  24.01MB
Step 1/4 : FROM ubuntu:22.04
 ---> f0b07b45d05b
Step 2/4 : RUN apt-get update
 ---> Using cache
 ---> f3a881e3158b
Step 3/4 : RUN apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip python3-virtualenv tree
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 1b02afb3b2a1
Step 4/4 : RUN pip install setuptools==62.1.0 ;     virtualenv venv ;     tree -L 3 venv ;     . venv/bin/activate
 ---> Running in 5a7b54dc3a32
Collecting setuptools==62.1.0
  Downloading setuptools-62.1.0-py3-none-any.whl (1.1 MB)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 1.1/1.1 MB 8.8 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Installing collected packages: setuptools
  Attempting uninstall: setuptools
    Found existing installation: setuptools 59.6.0
    Not uninstalling setuptools at /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages, outside environment /usr
    Can't uninstall 'setuptools'. No files were found to uninstall.
Successfully installed setuptools-62.1.0
WARNING: Running pip as the 'root' user can result in broken permissions and conflicting behaviour with the system package manager. It is recommended to use a virtual environment instead: https://pip.pypa.io/warnings/venv
created virtual environment CPython3.10.4.final.0-64 in 308ms
  creator CPython3Posix(dest=/venv, clear=False, no_vcs_ignore=False, global=False)
  seeder FromAppData(download=False, pip=bundle, setuptools=bundle, wheel=bundle, via=copy, app_data_dir=/root/.local/share/virtualenv)
    added seed packages: pip==22.0.2, setuptools==59.6.0, wheel==0.37.1
  activators BashActivator,CShellActivator,FishActivator,NushellActivator,PowerShellActivator,PythonActivator
venv
|-- lib
|   `-- python3.10
|-- local
|   |-- bin
|   |   |-- activate
|   |   |-- activate.csh
|   |   |-- activate.fish
|   |   |-- activate.nu
|   |   |-- activate.ps1
|   |   |-- activate_this.py
|   |   |-- deactivate.nu
|   |   |-- pip
|   |   |-- pip-3.10
|   |   |-- pip3
|   |   |-- pip3.10
|   |   |-- python -> /usr/bin/python3
|   |   |-- python3 -> python
|   |   |-- python3.10 -> python
|   |   |-- wheel
|   |   |-- wheel-3.10
|   |   |-- wheel3
|   |   `-- wheel3.10
|   `-- lib
|       `-- python3.10
`-- pyvenv.cfg

6 directories, 19 files
/bin/sh: 1: .: cannot open venv/bin/activate: No such file
The command '/bin/sh -c pip install setuptools==62.1.0 ;     virtualenv venv ;     tree -L 3 venv ;     . venv/bin/activate' returned a non-zero code: 2

[epomatti]

Having this issue on WSL Ubuntu 22.04. This export SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=stdlib works around the issue.

[jepler]

I’ve filed a bug with Debian about this problem, since as far as I can tell nobody explicitly informed them that there is a problem: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1022749