Hello,

This is a question for integrators and packagers of Mbed TLS, especially if you're integrating the library in some embedded OS or BSP.

To build, configure and test Mbed TLS, we use Python for several purposes:

• To configure the library with scripts/config.py, unless you use the default configuration or write your own configuration from scratch.
• To generate some configuration-independent library source files, but only if you use the development branch, not if you use a release or an LTS branch.
• To generate some glue code for PSA drivers, if you use PSA drivers and don't write the glue code by hand.
  
• To generate the unit test source files.
• (We have many more maintenance and test scripts but they're out of scope here.)
  

(Python is not necessary, and will remain unnecessary, to configure and build the library with a given set of hardware drivers, so that a typical BSP will not have to depend on Python.)

For each of these purposes, how problematic is it if we require a recent version of Python? We're currently planning to drop support for older versions of Python as soon as they become unsupported upstream (so officially dropping 3.8 now — although right now all scripts still work on 3.5). This includes versions of Python that are still shipped in e.g. Linux distributions that are themselves officially supported. Is there demand for supporting older Python versions for some scripts?

Also, how problematic is it if some of these purposes require third-party Python packages?

Best regards,

--
Gilles Peskine
Mbed TLS developer