Why does not python3 depend on dh-python?

[Markus Rexhepi-Lindberg]

I get the following while trying to install python3 on Bionic.

dpkg-query: package 'dh-python' is not installed
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.

What I can tell, every other Ubuntu release has this dependency but not Bionic.

[Markus Rexhepi-Lindberg (k-markus)]

Here is the complete output while trying to install python3 in a bionic environment (debootstrap).

# apt-get install python3
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  adduser apt apt-utils bzip2 ca-certificates debconf debconf-i18n dpkg file gcc-8-base gpgv libacl1 libapt-inst2.0 libapt-pkg5.0 libattr1 libaudit-common libaudit1 libbz2-1.0 libc6
  libcap-ng0 libdb5.3 libexpat1 libffi6 libgcc1 libgcrypt20 libgmp10 libgnutls30 libgpg-error0 libgpm2 libhogweed4 libidn2-0 liblocale-gettext-perl liblz4-1 liblzma5 libmagic-mgc
  libmagic1 libmpdec2 libncursesw5 libnettle6 libp11-kit0 libpam-modules libpam-modules-bin libpam0g libpcre3 libpython3-stdlib libpython3.6-minimal libpython3.6-stdlib libreadline7
  libseccomp2 libselinux1 libsemanage-common libsemanage1 libsepol1 libsqlite3-0 libssl1.1 libstdc++6 libtasn1-6 libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl libtext-wrapi18n-perl
  libtinfo5 libudev1 libunistring2 mime-support openssl passwd perl-base python3-minimal python3.6 python3.6-minimal readline-common tar ubuntu-keyring update-motd xz-utils zlib1g
Suggested packages:
  perl ecryptfs-utils apt-doc aptitude | synaptic | wajig dpkg-dev gnupg | gnupg2 | gnupg1 powermgmt-base bzip2-doc debconf-doc debconf-utils whiptail | dialog
  libterm-readline-gnu-perl libgtk3-perl libnet-ldap-perl libqtgui4-perl libqtcore4-perl debsig-verify gnupg glibc-doc locales rng-tools gnutls-bin gpm libpam-doc python3-doc
  python3-tk python3-venv python3.6-venv python3.6-doc binutils binfmt-support readline-doc ncompress tar-scripts tar-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  adduser apt apt-utils bzip2 ca-certificates debconf debconf-i18n dpkg file gcc-8-base gpgv libacl1 libapt-inst2.0 libapt-pkg5.0 libattr1 libaudit-common libaudit1 libbz2-1.0 libc6
  libcap-ng0 libdb5.3 libexpat1 libffi6 libgcc1 libgcrypt20 libgmp10 libgnutls30 libgpg-error0 libgpm2 libhogweed4 libidn2-0 liblocale-gettext-perl liblz4-1 liblzma5 libmagic-mgc
  libmagic1 libmpdec2 libncursesw5 libnettle6 libp11-kit0 libpam-modules libpam-modules-bin libpam0g libpcre3 libpython3-stdlib libpython3.6-minimal libpython3.6-stdlib libreadline7
  libseccomp2 libselinux1 libsemanage-common libsemanage1 libsepol1 libsqlite3-0 libssl1.1 libstdc++6 libtasn1-6 libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl libtext-wrapi18n-perl
  libtinfo5 libudev1 libunistring2 mime-support openssl passwd perl-base python3 python3-minimal python3.6 python3.6-minimal readline-common tar ubuntu-keyring update-motd xz-utils
  zlib1g
0 upgraded, 77 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 21.3 MB of archives.
After this operation, 94.3 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://debian.lth.se/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 gcc-8-base amd64 8-20180408-0ubuntu1 [18.1 kB]
Get:2 http://debian.lth.se/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libc6 amd64 2.27-0ubuntu3 [2823 kB]
Get:3 http://debian.lth.se/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libgcc1 amd64 1:8-20180408-0ubuntu1 [40.9 kB]
Get:4 http://debian.lth.se/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libbz2-1.0 amd64 1.0.6-8.1 [30.9 kB]
Get:5 http://debian.lth.se/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 ...

[dino99 (9d9)]

You might use the genuine sources.
Here are mine; what are yours ?

when i see your output, i wonder how you have installed ubuntu bionic (as essential packages are requested for installation: apt, debconf, dpkg; they are always installed on normal system)
**********
The following additional packages will be installed:
  adduser apt apt-utils bzip2 ca-certificates debconf debconf-i18n dpkg
*********

oem@ubuntu:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic main restricted
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates main restricted

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates universe

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates multiverse

# deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu bionic partner

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-proposed universe restricted multiverse main

[Markus Rexhepi-Lindberg (k-markus)]

I'm sorry the environment I'm using does not have all the base packages. But I'm still curious why the dh-python dependency was removed from the python3 package.

[dino99 (9d9)]

in the past days i've seen a few packages been rebuild with dh-python. I suppose the job is not yet complete, as your request. So the report makes sense.

About your 'base packages' i'm scared it cant be stable as it is.