Create 2024-01-19-eopkg-is-dead.md

devlog/2024-01-19-eopkg-is-dead.md

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+---
+title: `eopkg` is dead, long live `eopkg`
+description: Welcome to the Solus Development Log.
+slug: eopkg-is-dead-long-live-eopkg
+authors:
+  - name: David Harder
+    title: Solus Staff
+    url: https://github.com/davidjharder
+    image_url: https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/23007135?v=4
+tags: [eopkg, devlog, moss, solus]
+hide_table_of_contents: false
+---
+
+Close watchers of our [packages repository](https://github.com/getsolus/packages) may have noticed some strange looking items:
+
+- [Initial inclusion of eopkg4-bin](https://github.com/getsolus/packages/pull/1305)
+- [Testing the eopkg4-bin package](https://github.com/getsolus/packages/issues/1316) Warning: Minions GIF
+
+It's a long story.
+
+Our package manager `eopkg` is written in Python2. Python2 was originally planned to hit end-of-life all the way back in 2015! So Solus contributors past and present have wrestled with three thorny issues:
+
+- Do we really want to just port `eopkg` to python3? Surely we could build something newer and shinier.
+- How exactly do we want to port `eopkg` to Python3? (We'll call this ported version `eopkg3` for short)
+- How do make sure `eopkg3` works even if something goes wrong with the Python3 libraries on someone's machine?
+
+Here's the plan to solve this: Ikey and friends over at Serpent OS are actively building a new package manager ([moss](https://github.com/serpent-os/moss)) that we are excited about. And they're building it with Solus in mind as an eventual user. This will be our shiny new package manager. In the meantime, we're taking a pragmatic approach to the last two issues so that (frankly) we can do more exciting things. 
+
+Sheepman, Livingsilver, and others, completed a [direct Python3 port](https://github.com/getsolus/eopkg/commits/python3), which we never expect our users to actually run directly like a traditional Python program. Instead, that port will be compiled into a *binary* using (nuitka)[https://nuitka.net/doc/download.html]. We're calling this compiled `eopkg3` binary `eopkg4-bin` for now. Critically, this binary will have *no dependencies* other than `libc`. If we can successfully swap `eopkg` with `eopkg4-bin` on user's machines, then we've solved the last issue: Python3 can be updated without worrying about also wrecking the package manager. Got it?
+
+But what about Python2? Well, now that Evan and Joey have seen off a [successful ISO release](https://getsol.us/2024/01/08/solus-4-5-released/) with a `calamares` based installer, we can cross `os-installer` [off the list](https://github.com/getsolus/packages/issues/270). And `eopkg4-bin` will let us cross off a whole bunch more. The rest of that list is a story for another day.