Python build images: install setuptools only; remove wheel

[Fares-Abubaker]

Issue #, if available:

Description of changes:

🔄 What Changed

• Updated all Python build images:

  • Replaced

    pip3 install wheel setuptools

    with

    pip3 install setuptools

---

📝 Why

• Fixes: Bug Bug: Install library from git using ssh is not success on python3.12 and python3.13 #153

• Rationale:

  • wheel as a standalone package is no longer required:

    • The bdist_wheel command has been moved to setuptools ≥ 70.1.
    • setuptools vendors the wheel functionality (setuptools/_vendor/wheel).
    • Pip injects wheel only for older setuptools builds.

References:

• wheel/bdist_wheel.py – deprecation warning about bdist_wheel.
• setuptools/command/bdist_wheel.py – new canonical implementation.
• setuptools/_vendor/wheel/bdist_wheel.py – vendored copy for compatibility.

---

✅ Verification

• Built images:

  • amazon/aws-sam-cli-build-image-python3.12:x86_64 (SAM CLI 1.144.0)
  • amazon/aws-sam-cli-build-image-python3.13:x86_64 (SAM CLI 1.144.0)

• Tests:

  • pytest runtime tests (3.12) → Passed.

  • Manual builds inside both images:

    • aiohttp@v3.11.11 via requirements.txt → ✅ succeeded.
    • cryptography==43.0.1 → ✅ succeeded.

• Outcome: Removing wheel and ensuring setuptools resolves the failure and supports packages requiring wheel builds and VCS installs.

---

📊 Impact

• Removes unnecessary system package (wheel).
• Keeps images aligned with modern Python packaging practices.
• No regressions observed in functional and package build tests.

---

🚀 How to Reproduce

1. Build images:

   SAM_CLI_VERSION=1.144.0 RUNTIME=python312 make build-x86_64-arch
   SAM_CLI_VERSION=1.144.0 RUNTIME=python313 make build-x86_64-arch

2. Inside container, run sam build with a temp app requiring:

   • cryptography==43.0.1
   • git+https://github.com/aio-libs/aiohttp.git@v3.11.11

3. Both builds should succeed without installing wheel system-wide.

---

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[Fares-Abubaker]

@roger-zhangg Can you check please

[Fares-Abubaker]

I added a new commit to do it for all Python versions

[vicheey]

Running workflow now.

[Fares-Abubaker]

@vicheey issue in build dotnet7 should not be related to this PR, isn't it?

[seshubaws]

Hi @Fares-Abubaker, thank you for raising this PR! Let's keep wheel alongside setuptools for now, since even though tested this new build, it could be the case that cryptography or another library that needs wheel had prebuilt wheels available, and so did not require wheel. However, this could fail if there are no prebuilt wheels for a dependency, or if an env forces source builds which makes wheel mandatory. Just to be on the safe side, let's keep wheel in the requirements.

[Fares-Abubaker]

@seshubaws Thanks for the review! I specifically tested a case with no prebuilt wheels:

pip3 install git+ssh://git@github.com/aio-libs/aiohttp.git@v3.11.11

This forces a source build from VCS. It succeeded with only setuptools present (no system-wide wheel). So a separate wheel package in the base image isn’t required as I see.

Also, note that modern setuptools (≥ 70.1) already includes the bdist_wheel functionality and even vendors the wheel package internally, so the standalone wheel package is no longer needed for builds.

[seshubaws]

Hi @Fares-Abubaker, thank you for clarifying!

So it seems setuptools wasn't included for Python 3.12+ (edmorley/get-pip@2f463eb). So in theory for Python 3.11 and lower, we don't need to add setuptools, because it should already be there if we have pip (setuptools used to come with pip until recently).

Could you do a check if python3.11 and below still work without explicitly adding setuptools? In theory we should be able to remove wheel without having to add setuptools in python311 and below.