Python 3.8 and 3.9 not found on macOS

[ZeroIntensity]

Description:
Python 3.8 and 3.9 on macOS no longer work, and actions complains about them not being a real version.

Action version:
Latest

Platform:

• Ubuntu
• macOS
• Windows

Runner type:

• Hosted
• Self-hosted

Tools version:
Python 3.8 - Python 3.9. It might be all versions <Python 3.10, but I haven't tested that.

Repro steps:
See this run from yesterday, vs this run from this morning on the same commit.

Expected behavior:
Python 3.8 and 3.9 should install on macOS

Actual behavior:
The following is logged to actions:

Version 3.8 was not found in the local cache
Error: Version 3.8 with arch arm64 not found
The list of all available versions can be found here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/actions/python-versions/main/versions-manifest.json

[hugovk]

This is a duplicate, macos-latest now uses M1 runners (macos-14-arm64) and 3.9 and earlier aren't available there: #696 (comment)

To fix, you can use one of the options at python/peps#3763, or stick to macos-12 or macos-13 (but you get some nice speedups using M1 where available).

[snorkman88]

I am facing the same issues when running GHA I get:

Installed versions
  Version 3.8 was not found in the local cache
  Error: The version '3.8' with architecture 'arm64' was not found for macOS 14.4.1.

[ZeroIntensity]

Odd, that issue is from months ago, but I only started having problems this morning.

[hugovk]

Yeah, macos-latest used to point to macos-12 but now points to macos-14-arm64.

You can check the top of your CI logs to see which image was used yesterday and today.

[Paebbels]

The list of offered Python versions is here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/actions/python-versions/main/versions-manifest.json

It shows no Python 3.8 and Python 3.9 for macOS (Python for ARM64 platform).

[HarithaVattikuti]

Hello @ZeroIntensity
Thank you for creating this issue. We will investigate it and get back to you as soon as we have some feedback.

[aparnajyothi-y]

Hello @ZeroIntensity, We are supporting python 3.8 and 3.9 versions for macos arm64 now. Please test your workflows. Closing this issue for now and let us know to reopen this issue if the you are still facing the issue.

Hello @abravalheri, We have investigated the issue and we found that setup-python is successful on macos-latest. We have further more investigated by looking into your project about the issue and found that the file attribute is not found in the global scope of a module being used, which in this case is the setup.py file. The issue occurs in the context of the setup-python action when it tries to install setuptools and pip. The error is more likely to do with how the environment is configured in the action rather than the macOS version.
We can add a step to upgrade setuptools before the step where the error occurs to resolve the issue.

name: Upgrade setuptools
run: pip install --upgrade setuptools

we can change the setup.py file in the repository, consider replacing it with pyproject.toml and setup.cfg. The pyproject.toml file is a newer, more robust method of managing Python package builds and dependencies.
Please raise new issue if the issue still exists as this issue is opened for Python 3.8 and 3.9 support on macOS.

[abravalheri]

Hello @abravalheri, We have investigated the issue and we found that setup-python is successful on macos-latest. We have further more investigated by looking into your project about the issue and found that the file attribute is not found in the global scope of a module being used, which in this case is the setup.py file. The issue occurs in the context of the setup-python action when it tries to install setuptools and pip. The error is more likely to do with how the environment is configured in the action rather than the macOS version.\nWe can add a step to upgrade setuptools before the step where the error occurs to resolve the issue.\n\nname: Upgrade setuptools\nrun: pip install --upgrade setuptools\n\nwe can change the setup.py file in the repository, consider replacing it with pyproject.toml and setup.cfg. The pyproject.toml file is a newer, more robust method of managing Python package builds and dependencies.\nPlease raise new issue if the issue still exists as this issue is opened for Python 3.8 and 3.9 support on macOS.

Hi @aparnajyothi-y thank you for investigating, but this explanation does not make much sense for me.

You suggested installing the updated version of setuptools before the step that is failing... The problem with this suggestion that the problem that is failing is the installation of Python itself... So, how should I update stuff when Python is not installed yet? The step that is failing is very much the first one, it should not depend on the code inside the repository, right?

The second suggestion about replacing setup.py with pyproject.toml, also does not work and actually contains a bit of misleading and innacurate information:

1. pyproject.toml is by no means more robust, it is just a different configuration format.

2. setup.py, setup.cfg and pyproject.toml are not mutually exclusive, they can all exist at the same time and do different things - that is exactly what happens in the repository with problems: we have all of these files at the same time.

Please note that the problem is happening for the repository of setuptools itself. Maybe that is related?