Unvendor distutils.version (#3988)

* Unvendor distutils.version.

* Document breaking change.

README.md

@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ If you encounter abusive behavior violating the [Ansible Code of Conduct](https:
 
 Tested with the current Ansible 2.9, ansible-base 2.10, ansible-core 2.11, ansible-core 2.12 releases and the current development version of ansible-core. Ansible versions before 2.9.10 are not supported.
 
+Parts of this collection do not work with ansible-core before 2.12 (this includes ansible-base and Ansible 2.9) on Python 2.12+.
+
 ## External requirements
 
 Some modules and plugins require external libraries. Please check the requirements for each plugin or module you use in the documentation to find out which requirements are needed.

changelogs/fragments/3988-distutils-vendor-removed.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+minor_changes:
+  - "Remove vendored copy of ``distutils.version`` in favor of vendored copy included with ansible-core 2.12+. For ansible-core 2.11, uses ``distutils.version`` for Python < 3.12. There is no support for ansible-core 2.11 with Python 3.12+ (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/3988)."
+breaking_changes:
+  - "Parts of this collection do not work with ansible-core 2.11 on Python 3.12+. Please either upgrade to ansible-core 2.12+, or use Python 3.11 or earlier (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/3988)."

plugins/module_utils/version.py

@@ -9,9 +9,13 @@
 __metaclass__ = type
 
 
-# Once we drop support for Ansible 2.9, ansible-base 2.10, and ansible-core 2.11, we can
-# remove the _version.py file, and replace the following import by
-#
-#     from ansible.module_utils.compat.version import LooseVersion
+from ansible.module_utils.six import raise_from
 
-from ._version import LooseVersion
+try:
+    from ansible.module_utils.compat.version import LooseVersion
+except ImportError:
+    try:
+        from distutils.version import LooseVersion
+    except ImportError as exc:
+        msg = 'To use this plugin or module with ansible-core 2.11, you need to use Python < 3.12 with distutils.version present'
+        raise_from(ImportError(msg), exc)