Apprise Build System Modernization (PEP 621 / RPM CI)

[caronc]

Related issue (if applicable): #1313 , #1322
Also addresses: Red Hat Bugzilla 2377453

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🔧 Description

This pull request modernizes the Apprise build system by:

• Migrating from setup.py to pyproject.toml per PEP 621
• Consolidating translation support and package building into tox environments
• Fully integrating an RPM build+verify pipeline into GitHub Actions
• Updating the RPM .spec file to follow Fedora packaging guidelines and reflect the new Python packaging metadata
• Replacing .coveragerc with [tool.coverage] in pyproject.toml
• Enabling multi-platform CI (macOS + Windows) using matrix builds
• Resolving long-standing GitHub Actions coverage upload conflicts with artifact naming and .coverage handling

These changes aim to provide a reproducible, CI-friendly, standards-compliant release process for both Python and RPM packages.

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🚀 Key Changes

• ✅ Replaced setup.py with pyproject.toml (setuptools.build_meta backend)
• ✅ Replaced legacy dynamic keyword loading with static [project.keywords]
• ✅ Added SPDX-compliant license (BSD-2-Clause)
• ✅ Introduced tox -e release for full packaging lifecycle
• ✅ Man page generation and translation compilation included in CI
• ✅ Verified RPM builds using Fedora-compatible GitHub Actions
• ✅ CI test matrix now supports Python 3.9–3.12, across Ubuntu, macOS, and Windows
• ✅ .coverage files now consistently written to root; parallel coverage disabled for simpler merging
• ✅ Artifact uploads now uniquely named per ${{ matrix.os }}-${{ matrix.python-version }}-${{ matrix.tox_env }}
• ✅ tox.ini now supports clean qa, minimal, and release testing workflows
• ✅ ruff linter applied to entire code-base
• ✅ .pyi files dropped and type hinting integrated into main code base

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🧪 tox Command Summary

Command	Purpose
tox -e validate	Validates pyproject.toml metadata
tox -e clean	Cleans working tree + caches
tox -e i18n	Extracts/updates .po files
tox -e compile	Compiles .mo translation binaries
tox -e build	Builds sdist and wheel to dist/
tox -e twine-check	Verifies build artifacts for PyPI upload
tox -e release	Full release lifecycle (all the above)
tox -e qa	Full plugin coverage + test + reporting
tox -e minimal	Fast test run with base dependencies only

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🧪 GitHub Actions Improvements

• 🧪 Full matrix testing across Python 3.9–3.12
• 🖥️ Includes macOS and Windows minimal tests for cross-platform validation
• ☂️ Fixes .coverage merging logic using consistent naming and upload paths
• 📦 Coverage upload conflicts resolved by using include-hidden-files: true and unique artifact names
• 🔄 Dropped Python 3.7 due to EOL and GitHub runner deprecation
• 🔄 Dropped Python 3.8 due to EOL and GitHub runner deprecation

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🗂️ Files Affected

• pyproject.toml: new canonical build + lint + coverage + metadata source
• tox.ini: restructured with environments for build, QA, lint, clean, i18n
• .coveragerc: removed (superseded by [tool.coverage] in pyproject.toml)
• .github/workflows/tests.yml: matrix test and coverage pipeline overhauled
• .github/workflows/pkgbuild.yml: CI-based RPM builder
• Dockerfile.el9: non-root compatible for tox RPM building
• build-rpm.sh: now tox-aware and CI-friendly
• KEYWORDS: removed (now handled in pyproject.toml)
• .spec file: modernized and compliant with Fedora packaging

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🛠️ Developer Quickstart

If you're contributing to the code base; you can use the following tools to assist you:

🔬 Run Tests

You can run tests for different environments using tox:

# Run full QA suite (with all plugin dependencies)
tox -e qa

# Run minimal tests (base dependencies only)
tox -e minimal

# You can also focus on just specifc tests like so:
tox -e minimal -- -k email

# or
tox -e qa -- -k email

# Run only against one Python version (e.g., local 3.11)
tox -e py311-qa  # or just use `tox -e qa` in a venv

💡 Tip: Install tox globally via pip install tox.

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🧼 Lint and Style Checks

Static checks are handled by Ruff:

# Check for style, safety, and formatting issues
tox -e lint

🧽 Auto-format Code

Apply automatic style fixes using:

tox -e format

This runs Ruff in fix mode and will auto-correct most common issues.

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🧪 Try the CLI Directly

If you're modifying apprise.cli, or want to test output locally:

tox -e apprise -- --version
tox -e apprise -- --debug -b "notify body here" mailto://credentials

🛠️ This runs your changes using the local editable install (-e .), so changes to code are immediately reflected.

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📖 Validate Build Metadata

Ensure your pyproject.toml is PEP 621 compliant before release:

tox -e validate

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✅ Checklist

• Code builds correctly locally via tox -e release
• RPM builds and installs successfully on EL9 (Rocky Linux)
• GitHub Actions workflow passes all tox and RPM matrix builds
• Cross-platform validation via macOS and Windows (minimal testenv)
• Code coverage is merged and uploaded to Codecov
• .coverage file handling no longer conflicts across jobs
• flake8 replaced with ruff (modern static checks)

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This PR brings Apprise in line with modern Python and Linux packaging practices while improving test visibility, platform coverage, and CI artifact hygiene.