Python 3.8 - alpha release

I’ve just finished uploading the GCC 4.7.4 release 5 with the new shared libraries. I’ve installed the new shared libraries and python 3 seems to be running OK.

I have tried to upgrade the libraries with PackMan and got a message:- failed to install/remove package when downloading – url malformed.

The log does not make any sense to me – I was trying to upgrade SharedLibs not ADFFS

LOG
Code Description
3000a Started processing changes to packages
3002e Updating component paths
30031 Component paths updated
3000b Preprocessing package ‘ADFFS’ version ‘2.72-2’
3004d Package environment ‘unset’ with OS dependency ‘’
3000d Not using cached version of package ’ADFFS’
due to ‘missing cache file for package ()’
3000b Preprocessing package ‘LibSSL’ version ‘1.0.2k-3’
3004d Package environment ‘unset’ with OS dependency ‘’
3000b Preprocessing package ’SharedLibs’ version ‘4.0-Rel5-1’
3004d Package environment ‘arm’ with OS dependency ‘’
3000d Not using cached version of package ’SharedLibs’
due to ‘missing cache file for package SharedLibs (4.0-Rel5-1)’
3000b Preprocessing package ‘SharedLibs-C2’ version ‘4.7.4-Rel5-1’
3004d Package environment ‘arm’ with OS dependency ‘’
3000d Not using cached version of package ’SharedLibs-C2’
due to ‘missing cache file for package SharedLibs-C2 (4.7.4-Rel5-1)’
3000b Preprocessing package ‘ZLib1g’ version ‘1.2.11.dfsg-3’
3004d Package environment ‘arm’ with OS dependency ‘’
3000e Downloading package ’ADFFS’ from ‘’
00004 Failed to download package ’ADFFS’, error: malformed

failed to install/remove package when downloading – url malformed.

This can happen when the package sources are out of date. Try ‘update lists’.
If that doesn’t work go to ‘Advanced→Sources’ and disable the jaspp package source.

I think there was a problem with the cache. After I cleared, updated lists and upgraded all it seems to be correct.
Python 3 is working again, thanks.

To handle my website www.riscos.berlin I need sFTP. Is a different protokoll so FTPc is not working.
Have made a curl frontend but curl is very slow.
I was hoping I can use the Python3 sftp-stuff but

python3 -m pip install pysftp

fails with a lot of error messages.
Any ideas?

Hi Raik,

At first guess I think it would be down to the version of SharedLibs that you have installed.

4.0-Rlse5-1 is the latest and seems to resolve issues though Qupzilla/Otter don’t work with it and are awaiting an update.

Hi Doug,

thanks for your answer.

I’m sure, I use the latest. With the older, I use before, YTSearch was not working…

Looks like I have to use the very slow cURL and my frontend a bit longer ;-)

Any ideas?

I did have a try here. A file appears to be missing but it is not clear what that might be.

*python3 -m pip install pysftp
Collecting pysftp
  Using cached pysftp-0.2.9.tar.gz (25 kB)
[31m    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
     command: 'ADFS::Titan4.$.Progm.Progm2.Python.!Python3.python3' -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'ADFS::Titan4.$.!BOOT.Resources.!Scrap.ScrapDirs.ScrapDir.pip-install-o7wdfv28.pysftp.setup/py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'ADFS::Titan4.$.!BOOT.Resources.!Scrap.ScrapDirs.ScrapDir.pip-install-o7wdfv28.pysftp.setup/py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' egg_info --egg-base 'ADFS::Titan4.$.!BOOT.Resources.!Scrap.ScrapDirs.ScrapDir.pip-install-o7wdfv28.pysftp.pip-egg-info'
         cwd: ADFS::Titan4.$.!BOOT.Resources.!Scrap.ScrapDirs.ScrapDir.pip-install-o7wdfv28.pysftp
    Complete output (11 lines):
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "ADFS::Titan4.$.Progm.Progm2.Python.!Python3.Lib.Site-Packages.setuptools.__init__/py", line 20, in <module>
        from setuptools.dist import Distribution, Feature
      File "ADFS::Titan4.$.Progm.Progm2.Python.!Python3.Lib.Site-Packages.setuptools.dist/py", line 35, in <module>
        from setuptools import windows_support
      File "ADFS::Titan4.$.Progm.Progm2.Python.!Python3.Lib.Site-Packages.setuptools.windows_support/py", line 2, in <module>
        import ctypes
      File "ADFS::Titan4.$.Progm.Progm2.Python.!Python3.Lib.ctypes.__init__", line 7, in <module>
        from _ctypes import Union, Structure, Array
    ImportError: File not found
    ----------------------------------------[0m
[31mERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: python setup.py egg_info Check the logs for full command output.[0m
*

Thanks for trying.
Looks comparable.

python3 -m pip install pysftp
fails with a lot of error messages.
Any ideas?

The reason the ctypes python module fails to load with a file not found error is due to the _ctypes dynamic library being linked with the libffi6 shared library.
It’s not available in PackMan but can be downloaded here. Just drop the zip file onto the PackMan iconbar icon to install it.

Looks like I have to use the very slow cURL and my frontend a bit longer ;-)

The psftp command line utility can be used to transfer files to an ssh server. I’ve done a quick port of 0.74. I’ll post the download link here when it’s available.

You can download it from here.

Thanks a lot.

The reason the ctypes python module fails to load with a file not found error is due to the _ctypes dynamic library being linked with the libffi6 shared library.
It’s not available in PackMan but can be downloaded here. Just drop the zip file onto the PackMan iconbar icon to install it.

Have try. Gives also any error messages. Can not post at this time. Forget my USB pendrive with the message text at home.

The psftp command line utility can be used to transfer files to an ssh server. I’ve done a quick port of 0.74. I’ll post the download link here when it’s available.

First short try this morning looks very good. The access to my homepage content is much faster than with cURL.
Looks like I have to change my cURL frontend to a psftp one.

Thanks a lot.

The reason the ctypes python module fails to load with a file not found error is due to the _ctypes dynamic library being linked with the libffi6 shared library.

Gives also any error messages.

libffi6 corrects the _ctypes error but there is a further issue.

*python3 -m pip install pysftp
Collecting pysftp
  Using cached pysftp-0.2.9.tar.gz (25 kB)
[31m    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
     command: 'ADFS::Titan4.$.Progm.Progm2.Python.!Python3.python3' -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'ADFS::Titan4.$.!BOOT.Resources.!Scrap.ScrapDirs.ScrapDir.pip-install-d2jxccn1.pysftp.setup/py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'ADFS::Titan4.$.!BOOT.Resources.!Scrap.ScrapDirs.ScrapDir.pip-install-d2jxccn1.pysftp.setup/py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' egg_info --egg-base 'ADFS::Titan4.$.!BOOT.Resources.!Scrap.ScrapDirs.ScrapDir.pip-install-d2jxccn1.pysftp.pip-egg-info'
         cwd: ADFS::Titan4.$.!BOOT.Resources.!Scrap.ScrapDirs.ScrapDir.pip-install-d2jxccn1.pysftp
    Complete output (5 lines):
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "ADFS::Titan4.$.!BOOT.Resources.!Scrap.ScrapDirs.ScrapDir.pip-install-d2jxccn1.pysftp.setup/py", line 5, in <module>
        with open('README.rst') as h_rst:
    FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'README.rst'
    ----------------------------------------[0m
[31mERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: python setup.py egg_info Check the logs for full command output.[0m
* 

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: ‘README.rst’

I think it’s because python3 only supports RISC OS file paths.

Even if you get past that it will fail as there are quite a few dependancies of ‘C’ python modules. pysftp uses the paramiko python module. All the dependancies build OK using GCCSDK but the lack of file path translation will stop it working.

It works OK in python27 once all the dependancies are built manually and installed.

The psftp command line utility…

… gives a small error at start. But at the end, it works.

ERROR: Unable to write random seed: Boot:Choices/.putty: mkdir: No such file or directory
…..
Store key in cache? (y/n) y
ERROR: Unable to store host key: Boot:Choices/.putty: mkdir: No such file or directory
Using username “xxxxxxxxxx”.
Remote working directory is /
psftp>

Edit: Sorry, UnixHome was not seen by the filer…

ERROR: Unable to write random seed: Boot:Choices/.putty: mkdir: No such file or directory

I changed it to always store files in Boot:Choices.Putty. You can download the updated version from here.

I think it’s because python3 only supports RISC OS file paths.

Yes, it does. I took the decision to make sure “native” paths wotked, rather than making everything unix-style. In doing so I think I gave myself a load of extra work.

I need to have a think about what can be done for this sort of thing, as I imagine it will crop up lots. People just assume that files are named file.ext which is fine on unix, Windows and macOS.

If anyone feels brave, I’ve updated the RISC OS port to Python 3.8.5 and the latest release of GCC for RISC OS. I’ve made a package so it can be installed with PackMan rather than downloading a zip file. As this is a work-in-progress I’ve not released any packages to the main servers yet, while I iron out any bugs.

A word of warning for any early adopters – at the moment pip isn’t supported on 3.8.5. It might just copy over, but I want to make that it’s own package in PackMan. There are also some issues with pip I need to address. It’s on the list. Please let me know if you find any issues – especially with dependencies.

Adding http://packages.lessthan3.org.uk/pkg/testing to PackMan’s sources should give you the Python package to install. Usual warnings apply!

Did you have to butcher gcc8 too? I’m using it and had to fiddle it a lot including some odd issues (like armeabihf) to make it function. Sadly the means of interacting with development is archaic and somewhat prickly so I can’t do much about it, but I would like to know how you got on building with it?

This was just the latest release of GCC 4.7.4 (think it’s release 5?). I did think about trying 8 or 10 but decided there are probably more pressing python-related things to look at first.

Thanks for the Package Chris – works straight from the box. Haven’t done much testing yet but will try this evening.

Hi there,

RISC OS code newbie here, just messing around with Python and I have a question about something I just came across while attempting to understand how everything works in RISC OS land
when it comes to writing code etc.

So, I loaded Python 3 to use the live interpreter, just to test that it was working on my setup (RPCEmu, latest release on Win10, using the ROD distribution (the prebuilt package that’s
offered on the RPCEmu site, so R0 5.27). Python loads into a StrongED window, by the looks of things. I typed the standard hello world line, which worked fine. I then tried it again, with a typing error (hellow world). Before hitting return,
I arrowed back to the errant letter, deleted it and pressed return – but still got “hellow world”!

That was weird, so I tried again: I wrote the line as print(“hellow world”) and then backspaced to the errant w and retyped the remaining line, and got a syntax error. It appears that
either the interpreter or StrongED is ignoring the deletion of the characters.

Does anyone know if this is an issue with Python, StrongED or the way I have it set up? I haven’t changed any of the initial parameters for any programs, simply loaded Python and gone
from there. I have the same result from both Python3a4, as included in the distribution, and Python3a6 as downloaded from a link in this thread.

I typed the standard hello world line, which worked fine. I then tried it again, with a typing error (hellow world). Before hitting return,
I arrowed back to the errant letter, deleted it and pressed return – but still got “hellow world”!

I suspect that you are in a TaskWindow.

This is not the same as a direct command-line interpreter.

Try re-entering the correct command, and it will probably work!

Thanks John, I think you are right. So if I understand correctly, there isn’t a way to launch a direct command-line interpreter in RISC OS, like there is in Linux?
Not a problem or complaint, just making sure I understand how to do things! Of course to do anything more than testing I would be writing in an editor then running it, so no real
issue, just feeling my way around. Thanks for the reply :)