setuptools version

69.4.0

Python version

all

OS

POSIX

Additional environment information

No response

Description

Originally reported at mpi4py/mpi4py#484
Also reported here for another project: https://gitlab.com/petsc/petsc/-/issues/1579

The commit pypa/setuptools@a131f83 changed the return type of a publich method within a public class within a public module.

Expected behavior

pip install mpi4py should succeed with no traceback.

How to Reproduce

pip install mpi4py should be enough.

However, it cannot be reproduced easily as setuptools 69.4.0 was yanked for other reasons.

Output

File "/tmp/pip-build-env-qxqtzla9/overlay/lib/python3.10/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/ccompiler.py", line 1232, in gen_lib_options
          lib_opts.extend(always_iterable(compiler.runtime_library_dir_option(dir)))
        File "/tmp/pip-install-u2viu3lx/mpi4py_70e5ecd7d41d4c9fb50ac4e92d5eb59f/conf/mpidistutils.py", line 68, in rpath_option
          if option.startswith('-R'):
      AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'startswith'