MLflow: ImportError: cannot import name 'tarfile' from 'backports'`

[amotl]

@nayanjha16 reported an error. Thanks!

I am still facing the same issue even after changing the versions of setuptools. I tried downgrading it to <71 as well. Doesn't seem to work for me.

Still getting the error ImportError: cannot import name 'tarfile' from 'backports' on importing mlflow.

{
	"name": "ImportError",
	"message": "cannot import name 'tarfile' from 'backports' (c:\\Users\\NayanAnand\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\backports\\__init__.py)",
	"stack": "---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ImportError                               Traceback (most recent call last)
~\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\ipykernel_25044\\2545141633.py in <module>
      3 from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestRegressor
      4 
----> 5 from mlflow import MlflowClient

c:\\Users\\NayanAnand\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\mlflow\\__init__.py in <module>
     32 
     33 __version__ = VERSION
---> 34 from mlflow import (
     35     artifacts,  # noqa: F401
     36     client,  # noqa: F401

c:\\Users\\NayanAnand\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\mlflow\\models\\__init__.py in <module>
     42 )
     43 from mlflow.models.flavor_backend import FlavorBackend
---> 44 from mlflow.models.model import Model, get_model_info, set_model
     45 from mlflow.models.model_config import ModelConfig
     46 from mlflow.models.python_api import build_docker

c:\\Users\\NayanAnand\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\mlflow\\models\\model.py in <module>
     26 from mlflow.utils.databricks_utils import get_databricks_runtime_version, is_in_databricks_runtime
     27 from mlflow.utils.docstring_utils import LOG_MODEL_PARAM_DOCS, format_docstring
---> 28 from mlflow.utils.environment import (
     29     _CONDA_ENV_FILE_NAME,
     30     _PYTHON_ENV_FILE_NAME,

c:\\Users\\NayanAnand\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\mlflow\\utils\\environment.py in <module>
     22 from mlflow.utils.os import is_windows
     23 from mlflow.utils.process import _exec_cmd
---> 24 from mlflow.utils.requirements_utils import (
     25     _infer_requirements,
     26     _parse_requirements,

c:\\Users\\NayanAnand\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\mlflow\\utils\\requirements_utils.py in <module>
     18 
     19 import importlib_metadata
---> 20 import pkg_resources  # noqa: TID251
     21 from packaging.requirements import Requirement
     22 from packaging.version import InvalidVersion, Version

c:\\Users\\NayanAnand\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\pkg_resources\\__init__.py in <module>
     93 
     94 import packaging.specifiers
---> 95 from jaraco.text import (
     96     yield_lines,
     97     drop_comment,

c:\\Users\\NayanAnand\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\setuptools\\_vendor\\jaraco\\text\\__init__.py in <module>
     10 
     11 from jaraco.functools import compose, method_cache
---> 12 from jaraco.context import ExceptionTrap
     13 
     14 

c:\\Users\\NayanAnand\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\setuptools\\_vendor\\jaraco\\context.py in <module>
     15 
     16 if sys.version_info < (3, 12):
---> 17     from backports import tarfile
     18 else:
     19     import tarfile

ImportError: cannot import name 'tarfile' from 'backports' (c:\\Users\\NayanAnand\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\backports\\__init__.py)"
}

Any suggestions on how to fix this.

Originally posted by @nayanjha16 in #201 (comment)

[amotl]

Dear @nayanjha16,

thank you for writing in. Can I ask you to verify the version of setuptools you are running?

$ python3 -c 'import setuptools; print(setuptools.__version__)'
69.0.3

Also, did you restart the Kernel of your Juypter environment, in order to apply any updates to dependencies?

With kind regards,
Andreas.

NB: Any woes with most recent setuptools==71.x.x have been resolved. So, running the most recent version should also work, like pip install --upgrade setuptools.

[amotl]

Dear Nayan,

just checking back if your request has anything to do with CrateDB, so we may move it to the issue tracker at https://github.com/crate/mlflow-cratedb?

With kind regards,
Andreas.

[amotl]

Hi @nayanjha16.

Can you confirm the error you are observing is related to mlflow-cratedb in any way? I can't spot any relevant mentions in the error output you shared above.

With kind regards,
Andreas.