The distutils module was deprecated in Python 3.10 and is scheduled for removal in Python 3.12.

Right now, Python still uses distutils for different purpose:

• Build C extensions which can not be built by Makefile yet. Python 3.11 can build way more C extensions with Makefile than Python 3.10.
• peg_generator uses distutils to build C extensions.
• test_cppext uses distutils to check that the Python C API can be used in C++.
• Tools/c-analyzer/ uses distutils to get a C preprocessor.

Until Python can be built and used without distutils, I propose to first rename the distutils package to _distutils: rename th Lib/distutils/ directory to Lib/_distutils/.

Right now, test_venv fails without distutils, because pip fails on importing the distutils module in pip/_internal/locations/_distutils.py: https://github.com/pypa/pip/blob/cb24fb4052ca8ab8009866b0de61980c81a7e13c/src/pip/_internal/locations/_distutils.py#L9-L12

I created the PR #92585 which renames distutils to _distutils.

• PR: gh-92584: Remove the distutils package #99061

• PR: gh-92584: Remove references to removed _bootsubprocess #99062

• PR: gh-100238: Vendor distutils for peg_generator #104744

• PR: GH-92584: Move installation schemes overview to sysconfig docs #108018

• PR: GH-92584: Remove Installing Python Modules (Distutils version) #108020

• PR: GH-92584: Remove distutils from the newtypes tutorial includes #108024

• PR: GH-92584: Remove distutils mentions from importlib.metadata docs #108026

• PR: GH-92584: Redirect to Setuptools' guidance on extension modules #108030

• PR: GH-92584: Drop reference to Distutils in site.USER_BASE #108031

• PR: [3.12] GH-92584: Drop reference to Distutils in site.USER_BASE (GH-108031) #108039

• PR: GH-92584: Remove references to Distutils in PYTHONUSERBASE #108040

• PR: GH-92584: Remove references to Distutils in configure.rst #108043

• PR: GH-92584: Redirect macOS package installation to the PPUG #108044

• PR: GH-92584: Remove reference to Distutils in cx_Freeze's description #108047

• PR: [3.12] GH-92584: Remove reference to Distutils in cx_Freeze's description (GH-108047) #108057

• PR: [3.12] GH-92584: Redirect macOS package installation to the PPUG (GH-108044) #108058

• PR: [3.11] GH-92584: Redirect macOS package installation to the PPUG (GH-108044) #108059

• PR: [3.12] GH-92584: Remove references to Distutils in PYTHONUSERBASE (GH-108040) #108060

• PR: [3.11] GH-92584: Remove reference to Distutils in cx_Freeze's description (GH-108047) #108061

• PR: [3.12] GH-92584: Remove Installing Python Modules (Distutils version) (GH-108020) #108062

• PR: [3.12] GH-92584: Remove references to Distutils in configure.rst (GH-108043) #108063

• PR: [3.12] GH-92584: Remove distutils from the newtypes tutorial includes (GH-108024) #108333

• PR: [3.12] GH-92584: Move installation schemes overview to sysconfig docs (GH-108018) #110213

• PR: [3.11] GH-92584: Move installation schemes overview to sysconfig docs (GH-108018) #110214