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{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Avoid falling back to deprecated Apple-supplied Tcl/Tk 8.5 on macOS builds for 3.8, 3.9, and 3.10","articleBody":"The Apple-supplied `Tcl` and `Tk` frameworks on macOS releases have been deprecated and not updated in years. They are ancient 8.5.9 versions that have many known critical problems and should not be being used by anyone at this point. As of Python 3.11, we no longer fall back to using the system version if no other `Tcl/Tk` libraries are found and simply skip building the `_tkinter` extension module in that case. But we still do for older branches that are in the `security-fix-only` phase of their life, currently 3.8, 3.9, and 3.10, and this misbehavior can cause CI and/or buildbot tests for these branches to fail.\r\n\r\nSince properly running GUI tests are difficult in this environment anyway, the attached PR removes the fallback check in `setup.py` for the system-supplied `Tcl/Tk` on macOS. For these branches, no other behavior is changed: it is still possible to specify locations for `Tcl/Tk` headers and libs using the `--with-tcltk-includes=` and `--with-tcltk-libs=` `./configure` options and, on 3.10, through the use of `pkg-config`. (Starting with 3.11, the `--with-tcltk-*` options have been removed in favor of generalized `*_CFLAGS=` and `*_LIBS=` `./configure` options along with full `pkg-config` support.)\n\n\u003c!-- gh-linked-prs --\u003e\n### Linked PRs\n* gh-115437\n* gh-115438\n* gh-115439\n\u003c!-- /gh-linked-prs --\u003e\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/ned-deily","@type":"Person","name":"ned-deily"},"datePublished":"2024-02-14T00:29:09.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":2},"url":"https://github.com/115436/cpython/issues/115436"}