FreeRADIUS modules python vs python3

[Jonathan Davis]

Thank you both Alan and Matthew for the response. As an aside, under 
Ubuntu there is a freeradius-python3 package. When I had tried to 
install that one one of our Ubuntu servers, I got dependency issues:

  freeradius-python3 : Depends: freeradius (= 3.0.20+dfsg-3build1) but 3.0.25-2 is to be installed

However, looking at it now, that is maintained by the Ubuntu Developers.

For my current issue on AlmaLinux release 8.5, I think the quickest 
solution for me is rewrite the portions of my python script to work 
under 2.7 until python3 is added to the networkradius packages, then 
switch them to my python3 script. It is still very good to know the 
reasons behind the problems I was running into.


Thank you,

Jonathan Davis - Priority Colo Inc.
jonathan at prioritycolo.com  -https://www.prioritycolo.com
1-888-AS-30176 (1-888-273-0176) x304

On 2021-11-23 5:35 p.m., Matthew Newton wrote:
> On 23/11/2021 22:20, Alan DeKok wrote:
>> On Nov 23, 2021, at 5:10 PM, Jonathan Davis 
>> <jonathan at prioritycolo.com> wrote:
>>> However I am confused about the information at 
>>> https://freeradius.org/modules/
>>>
>>> - rlm_python3 is listed as obsolete with the view documentation link 
>>> taking you to 
>>> https://networkradius.com/doc/current/raddb/mods-available/home.html 
>>> where there is neither python or python3
>>> - rlm_python is listed as not obsolete, with "Allows the server to 
>>> call a persistent, embedded Python script."
>>
>>    Yeah, that's out of date.  We'll have to update it.
>
> Actually it's an artefact of how the web site is generated.
>
> The module information comes from the master branch. The metadata has 
> never been added to v3 AFAIK.
>
> Most cases it's fine as the modules do the same thing, or don't exist 
> in one or the other version. Python is one of those few where the 
> naming and behaviour are subtly different between v3 and v4.
>
> I think this is the first question about it in 4 years since it's been 
> up...
>
>>> Which is true, there is no rlm_python3.so that exists under 
>>> /usr/lib64/freeradius/
>>
>>    That isn't in the v3 packages.  We'll update it.
>
> Saw this last week and looked at updating it. Just very busy right 
> now. Hopefully later this week.
>
> I need to be careful that adding python3 lib dependencies to the v3 
> freeradius package doesn't cause unexpected problems, especially for 
> older systems. (Adding the module itself to the package is a noop 
> unless it's used in the config, so that side is safe at least).
>