Missing freetype-devel and gcc when upgrading from Python 3.10 image to Python 3.12 image

[agosmou]

Description:

Python 3.12 images are missing packages that were available for Python 3.10 in Amazon Linux 2 before the migration to Amazon Linux 20023.

Steps to reproduce:

✅ Working Condition

Try the below Docker file to see the previously working condition with the Python 3.10 image.

# any of the below architectures work
# FROM public.ecr.aws/lambda/python:3.10.2025.01.15.17-arm64
FROM public.ecr.aws/lambda/python:3.10.2025.01.15.17-x86_64

RUN pip install -U pip && pip install reportlab==3.6.13

ENTRYPOINT ["python", "-c", \
"from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas; \
c = canvas.Canvas('test.pdf'); \
c.drawString(100,100,'Hello World'); c.save(); \
print('PDF generated as test.pdf')"]

Run on your terminal:

docker build -t test . && docker run --rm test

This will output:

PDF generated as test.pdf

---

❌ Broken Condition

Try the above Dockerfile with one of the latest Python 3.12 images, then rebuild and rerun:

FROM public.ecr.aws/lambda/python:3.12.2025.01.24.11-x86_64

or

FROM public.ecr.aws/lambda/python:3.12.2025.01.24.11-arm64

This will output the two errors (on separate runs when I added each additional package independently):

#5 2.614 Collecting reportlab==3.6.13
#5 2.669   Downloading reportlab-3.6.13.tar.gz (4.0 MB)
#5 2.820      ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 4.0/4.0 MB 32.9 MB/s eta 0:00:00
#5 3.032   Installing build dependencies: started
#5 4.272   Installing build dependencies: finished with status 'done'
#5 4.274   Getting requirements to build wheel: started
#5 4.407   Getting requirements to build wheel: finished with status 'error'
#5 4.411   error: subprocess-exited-with-error
#5 4.411
#5 4.411   × Getting requirements to build wheel did not run successfully.
#5 4.411   │ exit code: 1
#5 4.411   ╰─> [10 lines of output]
#5 4.411       ##### setup-python-3.12.7-linux-x86_64: ================================================
#5 4.411       ##### setup-python-3.12.7-linux-x86_64: Attempting build of _rl_accel
#5 4.411       ##### setup-python-3.12.7-linux-x86_64: extensions from 'src/rl_addons/rl_accel'
#5 4.411       ##### setup-python-3.12.7-linux-x86_64: ================================================
#5 4.411       ##### setup-python-3.12.7-linux-x86_64: ===================================================
#5 4.411       ##### setup-python-3.12.7-linux-x86_64: Attempting build of _renderPM
#5 4.411       ##### setup-python-3.12.7-linux-x86_64: extensions from 'src/rl_addons/renderPM'
#5 4.411       ##### setup-python-3.12.7-linux-x86_64: ===================================================
#5 4.411       ##### setup-python-3.12.7-linux-x86_64: will use package libart 2.3.21
#5 4.411       !!!!! cannot find ft2build.h
#5 4.411       [end of output]

or

#6 11.37       building 'reportlab.lib._rl_accel' extension
#6 11.37       creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-cpython-312/src/rl_addons/rl_accel
#6 11.37       gcc -fno-strict-overflow -Wsign-compare -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -Wall -fPIC -I/var/lang/include/python3.12 -c src/rl_addons/rl_accel/_rl_accel.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-cpython-312/src/rl_addons/rl_accel/_rl_accel.o
#6 11.37       error: command 'gcc' failed: No such file or directory
#6 11.37       [end of output]

🩹 These errors disappear when you add gcc and freetype-devel to the Dockerfile.

So for the same program to work on the Python 3.12 image, you have to modify your Dockerfile so in its final state looks like this:

# FROM public.ecr.aws/lambda/python:3.12.2025.01.24.11-arm64
FROM public.ecr.aws/lambda/python:3.12.2025.01.24.11-x86_64

RUN dnf install -y freetype-devel gcc

RUN pip install -U pip && pip install reportlab==3.6.13

ENTRYPOINT ["python", "-c", \
"from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas; \
c = canvas.Canvas('test.pdf'); \
c.drawString(100,100,'Hello World'); c.save(); \
print('PDF generated as test.pdf')"]

---

⚠️⚠️⚠️
Is lack of these packages intentional or is this a bug and they will be added❓
⚠️⚠️⚠️

[agosmou]

probably also applied to 3.13