use uv for python packaging?

[sadguitarius]

Depending on Python system packages provided by the distro may necessitate changing requirements.txt for building on distros that use different versions of those packages. The uv package manager seems to be the new standard for this kind of thing, and has the advantage of being able to pin a local Python version with the packages used. Would it make sense to move to that, or would it be annoying to add another dependency?

[rdmark]

I'm open to learning more about uv. Python packaging is a long-running pain point for this project so if it can solve our problems, then adding a dependency is a fair tradeoff.

Our requirements are:

• cache python packages in the release image so that no network connection is required on first startup of the python apps
• support for python packages with compiled C components – we need cross-compilation for 32 and 64 bit ARM

If you're up for it, we gladly accept a PR that demonstrates this packaging approach. :)

[sadguitarius]

Great, I believe this is all possible with uv. I don't think I'll have time for a couple of weeks, but I'll give it a shot and report back when I can.