[BUG] v70.0.0 removes 'packaging' from pkg_resources

[dmick]

setuptools version

setuptools=70.0.0

Python version

3.8

OS

Ubuntu 22.04

Additional environment information

first noticed on readthedocs.org builds today

Description

from pkg_resources import packaging

fails with

ImportError: cannot import name 'packaging' from 'pkg_resources'

Expected behavior

expected the import to succeed as in v69.5.1 and prior

How to Reproduce

python3 -mvenv v
v/bin/pip install pkg_resources
v/bin/python3

from pkg_resources import packaging

Output

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: cannot import name 'packaging' from 'pkg_resources' (/home/dmick/vsetup/lib64/python3.9/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py)

[jeffhataws]

This is also breaking PyTorch 2.1 (not PyTorch 2.2+). Will you consider adding it back?

(aws_neuron_venv_pytorch) ubuntu@ip-10-0-8-190:~$ python -c "from torch.utils import cpp_extension"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/home/ubuntu/aws_neuron_venv_pytorch/lib/python3.8/site-packages/torch/utils/cpp_extension.py", line 28, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import packaging  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
ImportError: cannot import name 'packaging' from 'pkg_resources' (/home/ubuntu/aws_neuron_venv_pytorch/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py)

[abravalheri]

Hi @dmick , please see the explanation for the behaviour you are observing in #4376 (comment).

Tl;DR: the package you are using was relying on an internal implementation detail of pkg_resources and that implementation detail was not part of the public API.

I recommend contacting the maintainers of that package and reporting the bug on their end. The easiest way to fix this is to install and import packaging directly.

The API documentation for pkg_resources can be found in https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/pkg_resources.html.

You can also check which "names" are public in the package by inspecting the __all__ property.