easy_install doesn't handle sysconfig vars being integers.

[domdfcoding]

In the create_home_path function of setuptools/command/easy_install.py the code fails with an AttributeError if path is not a string. Since #3027 self.config_vars has been created from sysconfig.get_config_vars(), where the values can be strings or integers, such as 'WITH_PYMALLOC': 1.

setuptools/setuptools/command/easy_install.py

Line 241 in b2ba0e3

self.config_vars = dict(sysconfig.get_config_vars())

setuptools/setuptools/command/easy_install.py

Lines 1337 to 1338 in b2ba0e3

	for name, path in self.config_vars.items():
	if path.startswith(home) and not os.path.isdir(path):

Because integers do not have a startswith method an AttributeError is raised. Checking whether path is a string should fix this.

I tried to reproduce this locally with easy_install, but couldn't. However, it can be observed in pip's testsuite: https://github.com/pypa/pip/runs/5002678226

[rbeauchemin]

We are also seeing this issue where path seems to be an int (not sure how that can happen in the first place). This is breaking our CICD pipelines. For now, we will add <=0.60.5, but let us know when this is fixed!

[purarue]

Ran into this issue trying topip install -e . a module locally:

 $ pip list | grep -E 'setuptools|pip'
pip                      22.0.2
setuptools               60.6.0

$ pip install --editable .
Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable
Obtaining file:///home/sean/Repos/sqlite_backup
  Preparing metadata (setup.py): started
  Preparing metadata (setup.py): finished with status 'done'
Requirement already satisfied: click>=7.0 in /usr/lib/python3.10/site-packages (from sqlite-backup==0.1.0) (8.0.3)
Installing collected packages: sqlite-backup
  Attempting uninstall: sqlite-backup
    Found existing installation: sqlite-backup 0.1.0
    Uninstalling sqlite-backup-0.1.0:
      Successfully uninstalled sqlite-backup-0.1.0
  Running setup.py develop for sqlite-backup
    error: subprocess-exited-with-error
    
    × python setup.py develop did not run successfully.
    │ exit code: 1
    ╰─> [29 lines of output]
        running develop
        /home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/command/easy_install.py:157: EasyInstallDeprecationWarning: easy_install command is deprecated. Use build and pip and other standards-based tools.
          warnings.warn(
        Traceback (most recent call last):
          File "<string>", line 2, in <module>
          File "<pip-setuptools-caller>", line 34, in <module>
          File "/home/sean/Repos/sqlite_backup/setup.py", line 8, in <module>
            setup(
          File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/__init__.py", line 155, in setup
            return distutils.core.setup(**attrs)
          File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/core.py", line 148, in setup
            return run_commands(dist)
          File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/core.py", line 163, in run_commands
            dist.run_commands()
          File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/dist.py", line 967, in run_commands
            self.run_command(cmd)
          File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/dist.py", line 985, in run_command
            cmd_obj.ensure_finalized()
          File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/cmd.py", line 107, in ensure_finalized
            self.finalize_options()
          File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/command/develop.py", line 52, in finalize_options
            easy_install.finalize_options(self)
          File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 276, in finalize_options
            self._fix_install_dir_for_user_site()
          File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 382, in _fix_install_dir_for_user_site
            self.create_home_path()
          File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 1338, in create_home_path
            if path.startswith(home) and not os.path.isdir(path):
        AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute 'startswith'
        [end of output]
    
    note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
  WARNING: No metadata found in /home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages
  Rolling back uninstall of sqlite-backup
  Moving to /home/sean/.local/bin/sqlite_backup
   from /tmp/pip-uninstall-q7xp83v5/sqlite_backup
  Moving to /home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/sqlite_backup-0.1.0.dist-info/
   from /home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/~qlite_backup-0.1.0.dist-info
  Moving to /home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/sqlite_backup/
   from /home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/~qlite_backup
error: subprocess-exited-with-error

× python setup.py develop did not run successfully.
│ exit code: 1
╰─> [29 lines of output]
    running develop
    /home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/command/easy_install.py:157: EasyInstallDeprecationWarning: easy_install command is deprecated. Use build and pip and other standards-based tools.
      warnings.warn(
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 2, in <module>
      File "<pip-setuptools-caller>", line 34, in <module>
      File "/home/sean/Repos/sqlite_backup/setup.py", line 8, in <module>
        setup(
      File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/__init__.py", line 155, in setup
        return distutils.core.setup(**attrs)
      File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/core.py", line 148, in setup
        return run_commands(dist)
      File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/core.py", line 163, in run_commands
        dist.run_commands()
      File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/dist.py", line 967, in run_commands
        self.run_command(cmd)
      File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/dist.py", line 985, in run_command
        cmd_obj.ensure_finalized()
      File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/cmd.py", line 107, in ensure_finalized
        self.finalize_options()
      File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/command/develop.py", line 52, in finalize_options
        easy_install.finalize_options(self)
      File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 276, in finalize_options
        self._fix_install_dir_for_user_site()
      File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 382, in _fix_install_dir_for_user_site
        self.create_home_path()
      File "/home/sean/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 1338, in create_home_path
        if path.startswith(home) and not os.path.isdir(path):
    AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute 'startswith'
    [end of output]

note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.

I get the same error running python3 setup.py develop --user, with this setup.py

Found a temporary solution for this while still on 60.6.0 here, by specifying the --prefix -- Both

• pip install --prefix=$(python -m site --user-base) --editable .
• python setup.py develop --prefix=$(python -m site --user-base)

seem to work

[mantkiew]

@seanbreckenridge thank you so much for the workaround!!! I was going crazy for hours yesterday because of this bug. I was also able to now install two packages I needed. On Ubuntu 20.04, used pip3 install --prefix=$(python3 -m site --user-base) --editable. The relevant error to help people find this is

File "/home/<user>/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 1338, in create_home_path
        if path.startswith(home) and not os.path.isdir(path):
    AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute 'startswith'

Tried with both pip 20.0.2 and 22.0.2.

[abravalheri]

Hi @domdfcoding, thank you very much for finding this out and for the extensive investigation!

Any chance you can help us out with a PR? 😝