gh-95299: Stop installing setuptools as a part of ensurepip and venv (#101039)

Remove the bundled setuptools wheel from ensurepip, and stop installing setuptools in environments created by venv.

Co-Authored-by: Hugo van Kemenade <hugovk@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: C.A.M. Gerlach <CAM.Gerlach@Gerlach.CAM>
Co-authored-by: Oleg Iarygin <oleg@arhadthedev.net>

13 files changed, 57 insertions, 48 deletions

diff --git a/.github/workflows/verify-ensurepip-wheels.yml b/.github/workflows/verify-ensurepip-wheels.yml
index d4a2cb6846..17d841f1f1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/verify-ensurepip-wheels.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/verify-ensurepip-wheels.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-name: Verify bundled pip and setuptools
+name: Verify bundled wheels
 
 on:
   workflow_dispatch:
@@ -29,5 +29,5 @@ jobs:
       - uses: actions/setup-python@v4
         with:
           python-version: '3'
-      - name: Compare checksums of bundled pip and setuptools to ones published on PyPI
+      - name: Compare checksum of bundled wheels to the ones published on PyPI
         run: ./Tools/build/verify_ensurepip_wheels.py
diff --git a/Doc/library/venv.rst b/Doc/library/venv.rst
index 240ab13983..52bf99e5bb 100644
--- a/Doc/library/venv.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/venv.rst
@@ -284,11 +284,14 @@ creation according to their needs, the :class:`EnvBuilder` class.
 
     .. method:: upgrade_dependencies(context)
 
-       Upgrades the core venv dependency packages (currently ``pip`` and
-       ``setuptools``) in the environment. This is done by shelling out to the
+       Upgrades the core venv dependency packages (currently ``pip``)
+       in the environment. This is done by shelling out to the
        ``pip`` executable in the environment.
 
        .. versionadded:: 3.9
+       .. versionchanged:: 3.12
+
+          ``setuptools`` is no longer a core venv dependency.
 
     .. method:: post_setup(context)
 
diff --git a/Doc/using/venv-create.inc b/Doc/using/venv-create.inc
index 43ee6b7807..2fc9012648 100644
--- a/Doc/using/venv-create.inc
+++ b/Doc/using/venv-create.inc
@@ -61,12 +61,16 @@ The command, if run with ``-h``, will show the available options::
                             environment (pip is bootstrapped by default)
       --prompt PROMPT       Provides an alternative prompt prefix for this
                             environment.
-      --upgrade-deps        Upgrade core dependencies: pip setuptools to the
+      --upgrade-deps        Upgrade core dependencies (pip) to the
                             latest version in PyPI
 
     Once an environment has been created, you may wish to activate it, e.g. by
     sourcing an activate script in its bin directory.
 
+.. versionchanged:: 3.12
+
+   ``setuptools`` is no longer a core venv dependency.
+
 .. versionchanged:: 3.9
    Add ``--upgrade-deps`` option to upgrade pip + setuptools to the latest on PyPI
 
@@ -104,4 +108,3 @@ invoked to bootstrap ``pip`` into the virtual environment.
 Multiple paths can be given to ``venv``, in which case an identical virtual
 environment will be created, according to the given options, at each provided
 path.
-
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.12.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.12.rst
index 2a371ebf55..bd95bfeea8 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.12.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.12.rst
@@ -731,6 +731,24 @@ Removed
   project can be installed: it still provides ``distutils``.
   (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :gh:`92584`.)
 
+* Remove the bundled setuptools wheel from :mod:`ensurepip`,
+  and stop installing setuptools in environments created by :mod:`venv`.
+
+  ``pip (>= 22.1)`` does not require setuptools to be installed in the
+  environment. ``setuptools``-based (and ``distutils``-based) packages
+  can still be used with ``pip install``, since pip will provide
+  ``setuptools`` in the build environment it uses for building a
+  package.
+
+  ``easy_install``, ``pkg_resources``, ``setuptools`` and ``distutils``
+  are no longer provided by default in environments created with
+  ``venv`` or bootstrapped with ``ensurepip``, since they are part of
+  the ``setuptools`` package. For projects relying on these at runtime,
+  the ``setuptools`` project should be declared as a dependency and
+  installed separately (typically, using pip).
+
+  (Contributed by Pradyun Gedam in :gh:`95299`.)
+
 * Removed many old deprecated :mod:`unittest` features:
 
   - A number of :class:`~unittest.TestCase` method aliases:
diff --git a/Lib/ensurepip/__init__.py b/Lib/ensurepip/__init__.py
index 00e77749e2..69b23de9e0 100644
--- a/Lib/ensurepip/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/ensurepip/__init__.py
@@ -9,11 +9,9 @@ from importlib import resources
 
 
 __all__ = ["version", "bootstrap"]
-_PACKAGE_NAMES = ('setuptools', 'pip')
-_SETUPTOOLS_VERSION = "65.5.0"
+_PACKAGE_NAMES = ('pip',)
 _PIP_VERSION = "23.0.1"
 _PROJECTS = [
-    ("setuptools", _SETUPTOOLS_VERSION, "py3"),
     ("pip", _PIP_VERSION, "py3"),
 ]
 
@@ -153,17 +151,17 @@ def _bootstrap(*, root=None, upgrade=False, user=False,
 
     _disable_pip_configuration_settings()
 
-    # By default, installing pip and setuptools installs all of the
+    # By default, installing pip installs all of the
     # following scripts (X.Y == running Python version):
     #
-    #   pip, pipX, pipX.Y, easy_install, easy_install-X.Y
+    #   pip, pipX, pipX.Y
     #
     # pip 1.5+ allows ensurepip to request that some of those be left out
     if altinstall:
-        # omit pip, pipX and easy_install
+        # omit pip, pipX
         os.environ["ENSUREPIP_OPTIONS"] = "altinstall"
     elif not default_pip:
-        # omit pip and easy_install
+        # omit pip
         os.environ["ENSUREPIP_OPTIONS"] = "install"
 
     with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmpdir:
@@ -271,14 +269,14 @@ def _main(argv=None):
         action="store_true",
         default=False,
         help=("Make an alternate install, installing only the X.Y versioned "
-              "scripts (Default: pipX, pipX.Y, easy_install-X.Y)."),
+              "scripts (Default: pipX, pipX.Y)."),
     )
     parser.add_argument(
         "--default-pip",
         action="store_true",
         default=False,
         help=("Make a default pip install, installing the unqualified pip "
-              "and easy_install in addition to the versioned scripts."),
+              "in addition to the versioned scripts."),
     )
 
     args = parser.parse_args(argv)
diff --git a/Lib/ensurepip/_bundled/setuptools-65.5.0-py3-none-any.whl b/Lib/ensurepip/_bundled/setuptools-65.5.0-py3-none-any.whl
deleted file mode 100644
index 123a13e2c6..0000000000
--- a/Lib/ensurepip/_bundled/setuptools-65.5.0-py3-none-any.whl
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_ensurepip.py b/Lib/test/test_ensurepip.py
index bfca0cd7fb..69ab2a4fea 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_ensurepip.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_ensurepip.py
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ class TestPackages(unittest.TestCase):
         # Test version()
         with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmpdir:
             self.touch(tmpdir, "pip-1.2.3b1-py2.py3-none-any.whl")
-            self.touch(tmpdir, "setuptools-49.1.3-py3-none-any.whl")
             with (unittest.mock.patch.object(ensurepip, '_PACKAGES', None),
                   unittest.mock.patch.object(ensurepip, '_WHEEL_PKG_DIR', tmpdir)):
                 self.assertEqual(ensurepip.version(), '1.2.3b1')
@@ -36,15 +35,12 @@ class TestPackages(unittest.TestCase):
 
         # use bundled wheel packages
         self.assertIsNotNone(packages['pip'].wheel_name)
-        self.assertIsNotNone(packages['setuptools'].wheel_name)
 
     def test_get_packages_with_dir(self):
         # Test _get_packages() with a wheel package directory
-        setuptools_filename = "setuptools-49.1.3-py3-none-any.whl"
         pip_filename = "pip-20.2.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl"
 
         with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmpdir:
-            self.touch(tmpdir, setuptools_filename)
             self.touch(tmpdir, pip_filename)
             # not used, make sure that it's ignored
             self.touch(tmpdir, "wheel-0.34.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl")
@@ -53,15 +49,12 @@ class TestPackages(unittest.TestCase):
                   unittest.mock.patch.object(ensurepip, '_WHEEL_PKG_DIR', tmpdir)):
                 packages = ensurepip._get_packages()
 
-            self.assertEqual(packages['setuptools'].version, '49.1.3')
-            self.assertEqual(packages['setuptools'].wheel_path,
-                             os.path.join(tmpdir, setuptools_filename))
             self.assertEqual(packages['pip'].version, '20.2.2')
             self.assertEqual(packages['pip'].wheel_path,
                              os.path.join(tmpdir, pip_filename))
 
             # wheel package is ignored
-            self.assertEqual(sorted(packages), ['pip', 'setuptools'])
+            self.assertEqual(sorted(packages), ['pip'])
 
 
 class EnsurepipMixin:
@@ -92,13 +85,13 @@ class TestBootstrap(EnsurepipMixin, unittest.TestCase):
         self.run_pip.assert_called_once_with(
             [
                 "install", "--no-cache-dir", "--no-index", "--find-links",
-                unittest.mock.ANY, "setuptools", "pip",
+                unittest.mock.ANY, "pip",
             ],
             unittest.mock.ANY,
         )
 
         additional_paths = self.run_pip.call_args[0][1]
-        self.assertEqual(len(additional_paths), 2)
+        self.assertEqual(len(additional_paths), 1)
 
     def test_bootstrapping_with_root(self):
         ensurepip.bootstrap(root="/foo/bar/")
@@ -107,7 +100,7 @@ class TestBootstrap(EnsurepipMixin, unittest.TestCase):
             [
                 "install", "--no-cache-dir", "--no-index", "--find-links",
                 unittest.mock.ANY, "--root", "/foo/bar/",
-                "setuptools", "pip",
+                "pip",
             ],
             unittest.mock.ANY,
         )
@@ -118,7 +111,7 @@ class TestBootstrap(EnsurepipMixin, unittest.TestCase):
         self.run_pip.assert_called_once_with(
             [
                 "install", "--no-cache-dir", "--no-index", "--find-links",
-                unittest.mock.ANY, "--user", "setuptools", "pip",
+                unittest.mock.ANY, "--user", "pip",
             ],
             unittest.mock.ANY,
         )
@@ -129,7 +122,7 @@ class TestBootstrap(EnsurepipMixin, unittest.TestCase):
         self.run_pip.assert_called_once_with(
             [
                 "install", "--no-cache-dir", "--no-index", "--find-links",
-                unittest.mock.ANY, "--upgrade", "setuptools", "pip",
+                unittest.mock.ANY, "--upgrade", "pip",
             ],
             unittest.mock.ANY,
         )
@@ -140,7 +133,7 @@ class TestBootstrap(EnsurepipMixin, unittest.TestCase):
         self.run_pip.assert_called_once_with(
             [
                 "install", "--no-cache-dir", "--no-index", "--find-links",
-                unittest.mock.ANY, "-v", "setuptools", "pip",
+                unittest.mock.ANY, "-v", "pip",
             ],
             unittest.mock.ANY,
         )
@@ -151,7 +144,7 @@ class TestBootstrap(EnsurepipMixin, unittest.TestCase):
         self.run_pip.assert_called_once_with(
             [
                 "install", "--no-cache-dir", "--no-index", "--find-links",
-                unittest.mock.ANY, "-vv", "setuptools", "pip",
+                unittest.mock.ANY, "-vv", "pip",
             ],
             unittest.mock.ANY,
         )
@@ -162,7 +155,7 @@ class TestBootstrap(EnsurepipMixin, unittest.TestCase):
         self.run_pip.assert_called_once_with(
             [
                 "install", "--no-cache-dir", "--no-index", "--find-links",
-                unittest.mock.ANY, "-vvv", "setuptools", "pip",
+                unittest.mock.ANY, "-vvv", "pip",
             ],
             unittest.mock.ANY,
         )
@@ -239,7 +232,6 @@ class TestUninstall(EnsurepipMixin, unittest.TestCase):
         self.run_pip.assert_called_once_with(
             [
                 "uninstall", "-y", "--disable-pip-version-check", "pip",
-                "setuptools",
             ]
         )
 
@@ -250,7 +242,6 @@ class TestUninstall(EnsurepipMixin, unittest.TestCase):
         self.run_pip.assert_called_once_with(
             [
                 "uninstall", "-y", "--disable-pip-version-check", "-v", "pip",
-                "setuptools",
             ]
         )
 
@@ -261,7 +252,6 @@ class TestUninstall(EnsurepipMixin, unittest.TestCase):
         self.run_pip.assert_called_once_with(
             [
                 "uninstall", "-y", "--disable-pip-version-check", "-vv", "pip",
-                "setuptools",
             ]
         )
 
@@ -272,7 +262,7 @@ class TestUninstall(EnsurepipMixin, unittest.TestCase):
         self.run_pip.assert_called_once_with(
             [
                 "uninstall", "-y", "--disable-pip-version-check", "-vvv",
-                "pip", "setuptools",
+                "pip"
             ]
         )
 
@@ -312,13 +302,13 @@ class TestBootstrappingMainFunction(EnsurepipMixin, unittest.TestCase):
         self.run_pip.assert_called_once_with(
             [
                 "install", "--no-cache-dir", "--no-index", "--find-links",
-                unittest.mock.ANY, "setuptools", "pip",
+                unittest.mock.ANY, "pip",
             ],
             unittest.mock.ANY,
         )
 
         additional_paths = self.run_pip.call_args[0][1]
-        self.assertEqual(len(additional_paths), 2)
+        self.assertEqual(len(additional_paths), 1)
         self.assertEqual(exit_code, 0)
 
     def test_bootstrapping_error_code(self):
@@ -344,7 +334,6 @@ class TestUninstallationMainFunction(EnsurepipMixin, unittest.TestCase):
         self.run_pip.assert_called_once_with(
             [
                 "uninstall", "-y", "--disable-pip-version-check", "pip",
-                "setuptools",
             ]
         )
 
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_venv.py b/Lib/test/test_venv.py
index 7cccbe84f4..333b97688a 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_venv.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_venv.py
@@ -227,7 +227,6 @@ class BasicTest(BaseTest):
                         'install',
                         '--upgrade',
                         'pip',
-                        'setuptools'
                     ]
                 )
 
@@ -745,7 +744,6 @@ class EnsurePipTest(BaseTest):
         # future pip versions, this test can likely be relaxed further.
         out = out.decode("latin-1") # Force to text, prevent decoding errors
         self.assertIn("Successfully uninstalled pip", out)
-        self.assertIn("Successfully uninstalled setuptools", out)
         # Check pip is now gone from the virtual environment. This only
         # applies in the system_site_packages=False case, because in the
         # other case, pip may still be available in the system site-packages
diff --git a/Lib/venv/__init__.py b/Lib/venv/__init__.py
index 2f87c62ccb..2173c9b13e 100644
--- a/Lib/venv/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/venv/__init__.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ import sysconfig
 import types
 
 
-CORE_VENV_DEPS = ('pip', 'setuptools')
+CORE_VENV_DEPS = ('pip',)
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
@@ -523,7 +523,7 @@ def main(args=None):
                              'this environment.')
     parser.add_argument('--upgrade-deps', default=False, action='store_true',
                         dest='upgrade_deps',
-                        help=f'Upgrade core dependencies: {", ".join(CORE_VENV_DEPS)} '
+                        help=f'Upgrade core dependencies ({", ".join(CORE_VENV_DEPS)}) '
                              'to the latest version in PyPI')
     options = parser.parse_args(args)
     if options.upgrade and options.clear:
diff --git a/Mac/BuildScript/scripts/postflight.ensurepip b/Mac/BuildScript/scripts/postflight.ensurepip
index 36d05945b6..ce3c6c1c2b 100755
--- a/Mac/BuildScript/scripts/postflight.ensurepip
+++ b/Mac/BuildScript/scripts/postflight.ensurepip
@@ -56,19 +56,19 @@ if [ -d /usr/local/bin ] ; then
 
         cd /usr/local/bin
 
-        # Create pipx.y and easy_install-x.y links if /usr/local/bin/pythonx.y
+        # Create pipx.y links if /usr/local/bin/pythonx.y
         #   is linked to this framework version
         install_links_if_our_fw "python${PYVER}" \
-                                    "pip${PYVER}" "easy_install-${PYVER}"
+                                    "pip${PYVER}"
 
         # Create pipx link if /usr/local/bin/pythonx is linked to this version
         install_links_if_our_fw "python${PYMAJOR}" \
                                     "pip${PYMAJOR}"
 
-        # Create pip and easy_install link if /usr/local/bin/python
+        # Create pip link if /usr/local/bin/python
         #   is linked to this version
         install_links_if_our_fw "python" \
-                                    "pip" "easy_install"
+                                    "pip"
     )
 fi
 exit 0
diff --git a/Mac/Makefile.in b/Mac/Makefile.in
index f969128841..69ab419898 100644
--- a/Mac/Makefile.in
+++ b/Mac/Makefile.in
@@ -166,7 +166,6 @@ altinstallunixtools:
 	-if test "x$(ENSUREPIP)" != "xno"  ; then \
 		cd "$(DESTDIR)$(FRAMEWORKUNIXTOOLSPREFIX)/bin" && \
 		for fn in \
-				easy_install-$(VERSION) \
 				pip$(VERSION) \
 				; \
 		do \
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2023-01-14-17-54-56.gh-issue-95299.vUhpKz.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2023-01-14-17-54-56.gh-issue-95299.vUhpKz.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..29c30848e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2023-01-14-17-54-56.gh-issue-95299.vUhpKz.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Remove the bundled setuptools wheel from ``ensurepip``, and stop installing setuptools in environments created by ``venv``.
diff --git a/Tools/build/verify_ensurepip_wheels.py b/Tools/build/verify_ensurepip_wheels.py
index 044d1fd6b3..09fd5d9e31 100755
--- a/Tools/build/verify_ensurepip_wheels.py
+++ b/Tools/build/verify_ensurepip_wheels.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ import re
 from pathlib import Path
 from urllib.request import urlopen
 
-PACKAGE_NAMES = ("pip", "setuptools")
+PACKAGE_NAMES = ("pip",)
 ENSURE_PIP_ROOT = Path(__file__).parent.parent.parent / "Lib/ensurepip"
 WHEEL_DIR = ENSURE_PIP_ROOT / "_bundled"
 ENSURE_PIP_INIT_PY_TEXT = (ENSURE_PIP_ROOT / "__init__.py").read_text(encoding="utf-8")