[DOCS] The latest version of python (3.12) doesn't support node-gyp #7161

[harshajk]

Is there an existing issue for this?
I have searched the existing issues
This is a CLI Docs Problem, not another kind of Docs Problem.
This is a CLI Docs Problem.
Description of Problem
I am trying the below

npm install

However, I see the below error

npm ERR! ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils

Reason: The latest version of python (3.12) doesn't support node-gyp.

Potential Solution
node-gyp is currenlty supported only up to python version 3.11

Affected URL
https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-gyp#on-windows

[cclauss]

Python 3.12 is fully supported on the current version of node-gyp. Please see our automated tests.

• distutils is removed in Python 3.12 #2869
• Replace uses of python distutils library #2888

https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Anodejs%2Fnode-gyp+distutils&type=issues

[harshajk]

Going through the comments, does running the below command help fix the distutils error?

Link for the comment - #2869 (comment)

python3 -m pip install packaging

[cclauss]

• chore (main): vendor in Python packaging for Py3.12 gyp-next#214

Let's vendor in packaging so that installing node-gyp does not require running pip install packaging.

We just include all the packaging files in the node-gyp release to avoid the support questions from Node.js users running pip.

I added a clarification at the top of #2869 (comment)