build: require python 3.9 or later. use new optionality and python check
What the developer wrote
Authored by Jon Griffiths
build: require python 3.9 or later. use new optionality and python check
Optionality means we don't need our previous hack from commit
d6b1fe21d070134bad11ffd6f091927201dfa856.
What changed, and why it matters
This commit updates the build system to require Python 3.9 or newer instead of Python 2.7 or newer. It also changes how the build detects whether Python development files are available, using a cleaner built-in option rather than a previous workaround. There is no direct security fix here; it is a build-maintenance change that removes outdated Python 2 support.
No security action required. Treat as a normal build-system maintenance update. Review downstream build environments to ensure Python 3.9+ is available if Python bindings are needed.
Security signals we found
No security-relevant code changes
Build-system-only change
Dependency version requirement update
Removal of Python 2 compatibility path
Evidence from the diff
The change in configure.ac bumps the AX_PYTHON_DEVEL version check from >= ‘2.7.0’ to >= ‘3.9.0’ and switches the HAVE_PYTHON conditional from checking whether the PYTHON variable is non-empty to checking the ax_python_devel_found flag. The commit message states this uses ‘new optionality’ in AX_PYTHON_DEVEL to remove a previous hack from commit d6b1fe21d070134bad11ffd6f091927201dfa856. No runtime code is modified.
Changed components
configure.ac build configurationInspect captured patch +2 / −2
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index a4637cc..99861b7 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -343,8 +343,8 @@ AC_ARG_ENABLE(python-manylinux,
[python_manylinux=$enableval], [python_manylinux=no])
AM_CONDITIONAL([PYTHON_MANYLINUX], [test "x$python_manylinux" = "xyes"])
-AX_PYTHON_DEVEL([>= '2.7.0'])
-AM_CONDITIONAL([HAVE_PYTHON], [test "$PYTHON" != ""])
+AX_PYTHON_DEVEL([>= '3.9.0'], [true])
+AM_CONDITIONAL([HAVE_PYTHON], [test "x$ax_python_devel_found" = "xyes"])
AC_ARG_ENABLE(wasm-interface,
Why this scored 16/100
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