docs: add contributor instructions for Python 3.11 on Ubuntu 24.04

[MikeMcC399]

Additional details

Ubuntu 24.04 ships with Python 3.12, which is not compatible with the Cypress yarn build process. Ubuntu 24.04 is currently available as a beta version and the planned release date is April 2024.

If the pre-installed Python 3.12 version of Ubuntu 24.04 is used by yarn install then the build encounters the errors described in #28695 when it attempts to install the npm modules:

• registry-js
• cpu-features

The error messages include the following line caused by a breaking change in Python 3.12 which is incompatible with the version of node-gyp currently used by Cypress:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'

This PR adds instructions to the CONTRIBUTING document to install Python 3.11 on Ubuntu 24.04 in addition to the pre-installed Python 3.12 version. Python 3.11 is the highest version compatible with the Cypress Yarn build process.

Note: Cypress will build using the default pre-installed versions of Python on earlier versions of Ubuntu (20.04, 23.10 and 22.04). These Ubuntu versions have Python versions 3.8, 3.10 and 3.11 respectively pre-installed and so no changes in instructions are necessary for these Ubuntu versions.

Installation instructions

These instructions are intended for Ubuntu 24.04 only:

Execute

sudo apt install python3.11

Add the following to ~/.bashrc

export NODE_GYP_FORCE_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3.11

Steps to test

On Ubuntu 24.04 apply the above installation instructions, then execute:

sudo apt install git g++ make curl
curl -L https://bit.ly/n-install | bash
. ~/.bashrc
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/cypress-io/cypress
cd cypress
n auto
npm install yarn -g
yarn

The build log should contain the following steps with no errors recorded between these two lines:

[5/6] Building fresh packages...
[6/6] Cleaning modules...

How has the user experience changed?

This is a documentation change which affects only contributors to Cypress. There is no change to the user experience of end-users.

PR Tasks

• [na] Have tests been added/updated?
• [na] Has a PR for user-facing changes been opened in cypress-documentation?
• [na] Have API changes been updated in the type definitions?

[cypress-app-bot]

• Create a Draft Pull Request if your PR is not ready for review. Mark the PR as Ready for Review when you're ready for a Cypress team member to review the PR.

[MikeMcC399]

The section Requirements was re-arranged to accommodate the additional instructions. These are shown in the screenshot in green:

[MikeMcC399]

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/noble-numbat-release-notes/39890#toolchain-upgrades-9 documents:

Python 🐍 now defaults to version 3.12

[MikeMcC399]

See https://launchpad.net/%7Edeadsnakes/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt-get install python3.11