`pip install panda-client` fails when attempting to write to /usr/etc

[wdconinc]

This occurs in GitHub actions: https://github.com/eic/panda-compose/actions/runs/24583602000/job/71887486218#step:8:135 (workflow file: https://github.com/eic/panda-compose/actions/runs/24583602000/workflow).

name: Smoke Test

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  smoke-test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 15

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Copy default environment
        run: cp .env.example .env

      - name: Start PanDA stack
        run: docker compose up -d

      - name: Wait for PanDA server to become healthy
        run: ./scripts/healthcheck.sh 300

      - name: Verify JEDI is running
        run: |
          docker compose ps panda-jedi
          docker compose logs panda-jedi --tail=20
      - name: Verify Harvester is running
        run: |
          docker compose ps harvester
          docker compose logs harvester --tail=20
      - name: Install panda-client
        run: pip install panda-client

The docker compose shouldn't matter. So this is likely reproducible with less 'other stuff'.

Yes, I am aware that the installation instructions indicate a different installation mechanism.

Tagging @wenaus since discussed.

[tmaeno]

I suggest you add

    - name: Set up Python 
      uses: actions/setup-python@v6
      with:
        python-version: "3.14"

to your workflow file so that they will be installed under /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/blah.

[wdconinc]

Thanks for the suggestion. Just using setup-python didn't work. What worked was using python -m pip instead of plain pip.

[tmaeno]

If you are talking about https://github.com/eic/panda-compose/actions/runs/24608541762/job/71958778204 , it failed since you didn't set

  with:
    python-version: 'blah'

for actions/setup-python

Run actions/setup-python@v6
Warning: Neither 'python-version' nor 'python-version-file' inputs were supplied. Attempting to find '.python-version' file.
Warning: .python-version doesn't exist.
Warning: The `python-version` input is not set.  The version of Python currently in `PATH` will be used.
2s

so the system python and pip were used, which tried to write the system path and failed. I suppose your success came mainly from specifying the python-version rather than switching to python -m pip, unless you have a messy PATH.

[wdconinc]

Yeah, you're right and it's the version that does it. I guess I'm just surprised that this is the only package I know of that doesn't install without the explicit setup python in GitHub actions. No problem for rucio-clients to write its etc files in a bare workflow like this:

jobs:
  install:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: pip install rucio-clients
      - run: pip install panda-client

First one succeeds, second one fails.