Advice to update Mercurial in a shared hosting?

[Manuel Jacob]

On 12/07/2022 07.30, Manuel Jacob wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> On 11/07/2022 21.38, Marcos Cruz wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I want to install hgweb.cgi for the first time. I have read the wiki
>> article (https://www.mercurial-scm.org/wiki/PublishingRepositories) and
>> have prepared a subdomain of mine with CGI support.
>>
>> I have the following versions installed:
>>
>> - The server has Mercurial 3.7.3, Python 2.6.6 and 3.4.3.
>>
>> - My local system (Debian 10.12) has Mercurial 6.1.4, Python 2.7.16 and
>>    3.7.3.
>>
>> I suppose those distant versions of Mercurial must be incompatible in
>> this case, right?
> 
> The basic protocol should be compatible even if the difference in 
> versions is large. However, if one of the peers is using an old version 
> of Mercurial, some features or performance optimizations can’t be used.
> 
>> My hosting is shared: I can not install anything on the server except in
>> my home directory. I tried the following: I uploaded the tar.gz of
>> Mercurial 6.1.4 to the server by FTP. Then, through SSH, I unpacked it
>> and did `make local`. It failed immediately with the following message:
>>
>> ```
>> python3 setup.py  \
>>            build_py -c -d . 
>> \                                                                           
>> build_ext  -i \
>>            build_hgexe  -i \
>>            build_mo
>> Traceback (most recent call last):
>>    File "setup.py", line 455, in <module>
>>      b'version = b"%s"\n' % versionb,
>> TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for %: 'bytes' and 'bytes'
>> make: *** [local] Error 1
>> ```
>>
>> Could it be an incompatibility between Python 3.4.3 and 3.7.3? I'm not a
>> Python programmer, I'm just guessing.
> 
> Mercurial 6.1.x requires Python 2.7.x or Python >= 3.5. Your Python 3 
> version is so old that setup.py (which is required to build Mercurial) 
> can’t execute at all. With never versions of Python 3 and setuptools, 
> there should be a better error.
> 
> Mercurial >= 6.2 requires Python >= 3.6.
> 
> If you’re fine with staying on Mercurial 6.1.4, you can try building it 
> with Python 2.7:

Sorry, when looking for the Python version installed on your server, I 
was reading the wrong line. For older Python versions, see 
https://www.mercurial-scm.org/wiki/SupportedPythonVersions.

> PYTHON=python2 make local
> 
>> I've found some instructions to update Python on a shared hosting and
>> they seem quite simple, but I prefer to ask for some advice first. What
>> do you recommend?
> 
> To be clear, which instructions are you referring to?
> 
> In general, I would recommend trying to install a newer version of 
> Mercurial via the distribution’s official package manager. That advise 
> is not applicable in your case, of course. Other ways depend on the 
> installation on your particular server and your security requirements.
> 
> To build Mercurial without installing it, running `make local` should 
> work on the right Python version, as described above.

I do not know if the following works with Python 2.6. In any case, since 
security support for Python 2.6 ran out almost nine years ago, it’s 
unlikely that the hoster maintains security patches for it, so I would 
recommend installing a newer version of Python first (Python >= 3.6 
supports the latest Mercurial release) or switching the hoster.

> If you want to install the Python package, you can install it in the 
> user site-packages directory. For example:
> 
> 1) Install Mercurial via pip. Whether it’s available and how the 
> executable is called to make it run on the intended Python version 
> depends on the installation on your particular server. In the following, 
> replace `pip` by the correct executable.
> 1a) `pip install --user mercurial` should hopefully select the right 
> Mercurial version that works on the Python version it’s running with.
> 1b) `pip install --user .` in the unpacked Mercurial source
> 2) Run `python2 setup.py install --user` in the unpacked Mercurial 
> source. If you want to use another Python version, replace `python2`.
> 
>> Thank you in advance.
>>
>