Prepare for distutils.version being removed in Python 3.12

distutils has been deprecafed and will be removed from
Python's stdlib in Python 3.12 (see python.org/dev/peps/pep-0632).

This PR replaces the use of distutils.version.LooseVersion and distutils.version.StrictVersion
with LooseVersion from the vendored copy of distutils.version
included with ansible-core 2.12 (ansible/ansible#74644) if available,
and falls back to distutils.version for ansible-core 2.11 and before.

Since ansible-core 2.11 and earlier do not support Python 3.12 (since
they use LooseVersion itself in various places), this incomplete fix
should be OK for now. Also, the way this PR works (by adding a new
module_utils version that abstracts away where LooseVersion comes from),
it is easy to also fix this for ansible-core 2.11 and earlier later on.

Co-authored-by: Felix Fontein <felix@fontein.de>
Signed-off-by: Abhijeet Kasurde <akasurde@redhat.com>

changelogs/fragments/disutils.version.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - "Various modules and plugins - use vendored version of ``distutils.version`` included in ansible-core 2.12 if available. This avoids breakage when ``distutils`` is removed from the standard library of Python 3.12. Note that ansible-core 2.11, ansible-base 2.10 and Ansible 2.9 are right now not compatible with Python 3.12, hence this fix does not target these ansible-core/-base/2.9 versions."

molecule/default/roles/helm/library/helm_test_version.py

@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
 '''
 
 import re
-from distutils.version import LooseVersion
+from ansible_collections.kubernetes.core.plugins.module_utils.version import LooseVersion
 
 from ansible.module_utils.basic import AnsibleModule
 

plugins/module_utils/common.py

@@ -26,8 +26,10 @@
 import sys
 import hashlib
 from datetime import datetime
-from distutils.version import LooseVersion
 
+from ansible_collections.kubernetes.core.plugins.module_utils.version import (
+    LooseVersion,
+)
 from ansible_collections.kubernetes.core.plugins.module_utils.args_common import (
     AUTH_ARG_MAP,
     AUTH_ARG_SPEC,

plugins/module_utils/version.py

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+# Copyright: (c) 2021, Felix Fontein <felix@fontein.de>
+# GNU General Public License v3.0+ (see COPYING or https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt)
+
+"""Provide version object to compare version numbers."""
+
+from __future__ import absolute_import, division, print_function
+
+__metaclass__ = type
+
+from ansible.module_utils.six import raise_from
+
+try:
+    from ansible.module_utils.compat.version import LooseVersion
+except ImportError:
+    try:
+        from distutils.version import LooseVersion
+    except ImportError as exc:
+        raise_from(
+            ImportError(
+                "To use this plugin or module with ansible-core < 2.11, you need to use Python < 3.12 with distutils.version present"
+            ),
+            exc,
+        )

plugins/modules/helm.py

@@ -308,7 +308,9 @@
 
 import tempfile
 import traceback
-from distutils.version import LooseVersion
+from ansible_collections.kubernetes.core.plugins.module_utils.version import (
+    LooseVersion,
+)
 
 try:
     import yaml