Cannot install petsc4py on Ubuntu 20.04 - python-3.8

Question

After successfully installing and testing PETSc I went ahead and tried to install petsc4py with:
$ sudo python3 -m pip install petsc4py
but got loads of errors. Here are the messages:
Collecting petsc4py
Using cached petsc4py-3.16.1.tar.gz (2.3 MB)
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
command: /usr/bin/python3 -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'/tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'/tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' egg_info --egg-base /tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/pip-egg-info
cwd: /tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/
Complete output (54 lines):
running egg_info
creating /tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/pip-egg-info/petsc4py.egg-info
writing /tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/pip-egg-info/petsc4py.egg-info/PKG-INFO
writing dependency_links to /tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/pip-egg-info/petsc4py.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
writing requirements to /tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/pip-egg-info/petsc4py.egg-info/requires.txt
writing top-level names to /tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/pip-egg-info/petsc4py.egg-info/top_level.txt
writing manifest file '/tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/pip-egg-info/petsc4py.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
File "/tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/setup.py", line 289, in <module>
main()
File "/tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/setup.py", line 286, in main
run_setup()
File "/tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/setup.py", line 135, in run_setup
setup(packages = ['petsc4py',
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/__init__.py", line 155, in setup
return distutils.core.setup(**attrs)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/_distutils/core.py", line 148, in setup
return run_commands(dist)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/_distutils/core.py", line 163, in run_commands
dist.run_commands()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/_distutils/dist.py", line 967, in run_commands
self.run_command(cmd)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/_distutils/dist.py", line 986, in run_command
cmd_obj.run()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/command/egg_info.py", line 298, in run
self.find_sources()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/command/egg_info.py", line 305, in find_sources
mm.run()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/command/egg_info.py", line 540, in run
self.add_defaults()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/command/egg_info.py", line 577, in add_defaults
sdist.add_defaults(self)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/_distutils/command/sdist.py", line 226, in add_defaults
self._add_defaults_python()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/command/sdist.py", line 111, in _add_defaults_python
build_py = self.get_finalized_command('build_py')
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/_distutils/cmd.py", line 299, in get_finalized_command
cmd_obj.ensure_finalized()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/_distutils/cmd.py", line 107, in ensure_finalized
self.finalize_options()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/command/build_py.py", line 29, in finalize_options
orig.build_py.finalize_options(self)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/_distutils/command/build_py.py", line 43, in finalize_options
self.set_undefined_options('build',
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/_distutils/cmd.py", line 287, in set_undefined_options
src_cmd_obj.ensure_finalized()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/setuptools/_distutils/cmd.py", line 107, in ensure_finalized
self.finalize_options()
File "/tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/conf/baseconf.py", line 411, in finalize_options
self.petsc_dir = config.get_petsc_dir(self.petsc_dir)
File "/tmp/pip-install-yg5szcfl/petsc4py/conf/baseconf.py", line 349, in get_petsc_dir
petsc_dir = petsc.get_petsc_dir()
AttributeError: module 'petsc' has no attribute 'get_petsc_dir'
----------------------------------------
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: python setup.py egg_info Check the logs for full command output.
There are so many error messages that I have no idea where from I should start. Any help? The installation should be straightforward, I don't know what's going on. Trying to fix the package (or setup.py thereof) manually is futile. I'm using Python 3.8.10.
Any hints will be much appreciated.

Answer 1

The easiest solution I found to solve this issue in one of my Dockerfile is simply to use apt-get install -y python3-petsc4py-complex.
(If you want/have the petsc real version, use apt-get install -y python3-petsc4py-real instead).
From those who are interested, the same idea can be applied for slepc with apt-get install -y python3-slepc4py-complex.
Feel free to tell me if it works ! If not, I will try on a new Dockerfile to solve this.