Project status & Python 3.12 readiness — proposing atomic PRs and/or a soft handoff pointer

[olibrius]

Project status & Python 3.12 readiness

Observation

Looking at the repository state in 2026:

• last merged PR: Add project status. #170 in June 2022 (almost 4 years ago)
• last commit on master: d6cda4f (also June 2022)
• 60+ open issues, ~10 open PRs untouched
• the official "project status" PR (Add project status. #170) acknowledges limited maintenance bandwidth

Meanwhile, downstream:

• Python 3.10 removed distutils.spawn
• Python 3.11 removed imp
• Python 3.12 removed distutils entirely and deprecated asyncore
• nose (the configured test runner) no longer installs cleanly on Py3.10+
• eventlet < 0.33 fails to import under Py3.12
• six is dead since Py2 EOL (2020)

The pip install ryu story on a fresh Python 3.12 system is currently broken end-to-end.

What I did

I have been running a fork — olibrius/ryu4312 — that:

1. Restores pip install on Python 3.11 / 3.12 (distutils/imp/asyncore replacements).
2. Bumps eventlet to a Py3.12-compatible release with dnspython>=2.0.
3. Migrates the test suite from nose to pytest (121,868 unit tests passing).
4. Removes the six dependency entirely (87 files, native Py3 idioms).
5. Fixes a real Py2→Py3 regression in SCTP CRC32C computation (proposed independently in Fix SCTP CRC32C computation under Python 3 #210).
6. Ships GitHub Actions CI (Python 3.11 + 3.12 matrix) and a tag-driven release workflow.
7. Has been validated end-to-end on Python 3.12 against OVS 3.1.0 with the in-tree ryu/tests/switch/tester.py (OF1.0/1.3/1.4) and simple_switch_15 (OF1.5).

The fork is published as ryu4312 on GitHub Releases (the Python import name remains ryu for full source compatibility):

• v4.35.0 — first packaging cut
• v4.35.1 — includes the SCTP CRC fix

What I am proposing

Two complementary tracks, take whichever (or none) fits:

Track 1 — atomic upstream PRs. I am happy to split the work above into independent PRs against faucetsdn/ryu so each one stays digestible:

• Fix SCTP CRC32C computation under Python 3 #210 — SCTP CRC32C Py3 fix (already opened)
• distutils / imp / asyncore replacements (Py3.10+ minimum)
• six removal (Py2 long EOL)
• nose → pytest migration
• eventlet bump + GHA CI matrix on Py3.11/3.12
• packaging modernization

If a maintainer is willing to review and merge incrementally, I will keep submitting. I have all of these already in production-tested branches.

Track 2 — soft handoff. If maintenance bandwidth is genuinely zero, I would like to ask whether you would be open to adding a short pointer in README.rst along the lines of:

⚠️ This repository is in maintenance mode. For Python 3.11/3.12 support, see the actively maintained fork at https://github.com/olibrius/ryu4312.

That keeps the upstream history authoritative while letting downstream users discover a working install path on modern Python.

I am not asking for commit rights — only for a way to help users not silently hit ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils' on pip install ryu in 2026. Whichever track works for you (including "neither, please don't") is fine; I just wanted to surface this transparently rather than fragment the ecosystem in silence.

Thanks for everything you have done on Ryu over the years.