Folks, had a problem bootstrapping pants 5.0 for a new user. We've had no trouble, but with pants 2.5.0 and python 3.9 on a new system, this happened, as if pip wasn't seeing the right version of python:

$ ./pants test algorithms::
Bootstrapping Pants using /Users/user/.pyenv/shims/python3.9
Installing pantsbuild.pants==2.5.0 into a virtual environment at /Users/user/.cache/pants/setup/bootstrap-Darwin-x86_64/2.5.0_py39
created virtual environment CPython3.9.2.final.0-64 in 353ms
  creator CPython3Posix(dest=/Users/user/.cache/pants/setup/bootstrap-Darwin-x86_64/pants.xGjbPP/install, clear=False, no_vcs_ignore=False, global=False)
  seeder FromAppData(download=False, pip=bundle, setuptools=bundle, wheel=bundle, via=copy, app_data_dir=/Users/sohum/Library/Application Support/virtualenv)
    added seed packages: pip==21.1.2, setuptools==57.0.0, wheel==0.36.2
  activators BashActivator,CShellActivator,FishActivator,PowerShellActivator,PythonActivator,XonshActivator
Requirement already satisfied: pip in /Users/user/.cache/pants/setup/bootstrap-Darwin-x86_64/pants.xGjbPP/install/lib/python3.9/site-packages (21.1.2)
Collecting pip
  Using cached pip-21.2.4-py3-none-any.whl (1.6 MB)
Installing collected packages: pip
  Attempting uninstall: pip
    Found existing installation: pip 21.1.2
    Uninstalling pip-21.1.2:
      Successfully uninstalled pip-21.1.2
Successfully installed pip-21.2.4
ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement pantsbuild.pants==2.5.0 (from versions: 0.0.17, 0.0.18, 0.0.20, 0.0.21, 0.0.22, 0.0.23, 0.0.24, 0.0.25, 0.0.26, 0.0.27, 0.0.28, 0.0.29, 0.0.30, 0.0.31, 0.0.32, 0.0.33, 0.0.34, 0.0.35, 0.0.36, 0.0.37, 0.0.38, 0.0.39, 0.0.40, 0.0.41, 0.0.42, 0.0.43, 0.0.44, 0.0.45, 0.0.46, 0.0.47, 0.0.48, 0.0.49, 0.0.50, 0.0.51, 0.0.52, 0.0.53, 0.0.54, 0.0.55, 0.0.56, 0.0.57, 0.0.58, 0.0.59, 0.0.60, 0.0.61, 0.0.62, 0.0.63, 0.0.64, 0.0.65, 0.0.66, 0.0.67, 0.0.68, 0.0.69, 0.0.70, 0.0.71, 0.0.72, 0.0.73, 0.0.74, 0.0.75, 0.0.76, 0.0.77, 0.0.79, 0.0.80, 0.0.81, 0.0.82, 1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.1.0, 1.2.0, 1.2.1, 1.3.0, 1.4.0, 1.5.0, 1.6.0, 1.7.0, 1.15.0, 1.16.0, 1.17.0, 1.18.0, 1.19.0, 1.20.0, 1.21.0, 1.22.0, 1.23.0, 1.24.0, 1.25.0, 1.26.0, 1.27.0, 1.28.0)
ERROR: No matching distribution found for pantsbuild.pants==2.5.0

...myself and our DevOps lead could not duplicate with python 3.9.5 and 3.9.2 installed. Any idea what's happening here?

hi! what OS are they using?

Howdy, the aforementioned DevOps lead here 👋 MacOS Intel. I'm running 11.4 and the user is running 10.14.6.

Welcome! That's the issue. https://pantsbuild.slack.com/archives/C046T6T9U/p1628181878072500?thread_ts=1628179014.059000&cid=C046T6T9U (documented at https://www.pantsbuild.org/docs/installation)

Oh, that's simple. He's updating his OS now. Thanks for pointing this out!

Awesome! Let us know if there's anything else we can help with or feedback 🙂 we're definitely eager to know ways we can make Pants more enjoyable to use

For sure, and thank you for the warm welcome. I do have one more question. Where is the best place to follow for such updates?

Updates like what macOS version is required? The mailing list: https://www.pantsbuild.org/docs/getting-help#mailing-list. We announce all releases and big changes like that there. (Also cross-posted to Slack. See #announce channel). But all but the most special of circumstances like this macOS change, we follow the deprecation policy at https://www.pantsbuild.org/docs/deprecation-policy. See https://www.pantsbuild.org/docs/upgrade-tips for upgrade tips And then finally https://blog.pantsbuild.org has fun project updates , usually new features 🙂

Could this not be detected by the bootstrap script, printing a nice error message. Would be a lot more helpful.. ;)

Thanks for pointing all of that out. I'll keep an eye out moving forward.

Good idea @curved-television-6568!