# PyPy v2.7 Backwards Compatible Travis Runner Failing - print(\*k) - SyntaxError: invalid syntax

**URL:** <https://travis-ci.community/t/pypy-v2-7-backwards-compatible-travis-runner-failing-print-k-syntaxerror-invalid-syntax/11536>\
**Category:** Python\
**Tags:** python\
**Created:** [April 30, 2021, 9:30pm UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/pypy-v2-7-backwards-compatible-travis-runner-failing-print-k-syntaxerror-invalid-syntax/11536 "2021-04-30T21:30:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![caronc](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/caronc/32/1124_2.png) [@caronc](https://travis-ci.community/u/caronc)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2021, 9:30pm UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/pypy-v2-7-backwards-compatible-travis-runner-failing-print-k-syntaxerror-invalid-syntax/11536/1 "2021-04-30T21:30:43Z")

</div>

First off, here is [a link to my almost working build](https://travis-ci.com/github/caronc/apprise/builds/224663547). Specifically [here](https://travis-ci.com/github/caronc/apprise/jobs/502369648) is the failing runner.

Back on [Travis-CI.org](http://Travis-CI.org), this worked great (but that was 5 months ago). My free credits on the new .com (per the transition) ran out and it took a really long time to get the very welcoming credits (for owning an open source project). I’m so appreciative of being acknowledged recently and granted service again. But… 5 months without any service brought with it changes i wasn’t ready for (and the CI was broken for me at the start).

I fixed most of them thanks to this [ticket here](https://travis-ci.community/t/pip-install-cryptography-fails-on-py36/11233) allowing the Python 3.6 and Python 2.7 runners to work smoothly. However the **pypy2.7-6.0** still does not 🙁 .

The error is:

```bash
tox
GLOB sdist-make: /home/travis/build/caronc/apprise/setup.py
....
  File "/home/travis/virtualenv/pypy2.7-6.0.0/site-packages/setuptools/sandbox.py", line 45, in _execfile

    exec(code, globals, locals)

  File "/tmp/easy_install-XU9z6B/pytest-runner-5.3.0/temp/easy_install-9oP4zp/setuptools_scm-6.0.1/setup.py", line 52, in <module>

  File "/tmp/easy_install-XU9z6B/pytest-runner-5.3.0/temp/easy_install-9oP4zp/setuptools_scm-6.0.1/setup.py", line 29, in scm_config

  File "/tmp/easy_install-XU9z6B/pytest-runner-5.3.0/temp/easy_install-9oP4zp/setuptools_scm-6.0.1/src/setuptools_scm/ __init__.py", line 8, in <module>

  File "/tmp/easy_install-XU9z6B/pytest-runner-5.3.0/temp/easy_install-9oP4zp/setuptools_scm-6.0.1/src/setuptools_scm/config.py", line 6, in <module>

  File "/tmp/easy_install-XU9z6B/pytest-runner-5.3.0/temp/easy_install-9oP4zp/setuptools_scm-6.0.1/src/setuptools_scm/utils.py", line 41

    print(*k)

          ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

```

Previously I had an entry in the `.travis.cfg` file that read:

```bash
pip install .

```

When that was in place, then the exact same `print(*k)` SyntaxError would happen there instead ([source](https://travis-ci.com/github/caronc/apprise/jobs/502363488)).

Any help/advice would be most welcome! 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![native-api](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/native-api/32/430_2.png) [@native-api](https://travis-ci.community/u/native-api)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2021, 3:13pm UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/pypy-v2-7-backwards-compatible-travis-runner-failing-print-k-syntaxerror-invalid-syntax/11536/2 "2021-05-01T15:13:25Z")

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[`tests_require` in `setuptools` is broken and deprecated](https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/issues/1684). Don’t use it in your `setup.py`.  
It installs dependencies in an obsolete way that did not work in this case.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![caronc](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/caronc/32/1124_2.png) [@caronc](https://travis-ci.community/u/caronc)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2021, 1:21pm UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/pypy-v2-7-backwards-compatible-travis-runner-failing-print-k-syntaxerror-invalid-syntax/11536/3 "2021-05-02T13:21:04Z")

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Thank you for your prompt reply ~~but unfortunately didn’t help~~ 🙁 . Even after removing the entry, it still fails in the same spot with the same error ([source](https://travis-ci.com/github/caronc/apprise/builds/224709830)).

**Edit** : I apologize, i see that i missed reference to `pytest-runner` which i was able to find from the link you shared that resided in `setup_requires`. That in addition to your advice appeared to fix it! Thank you so much! 👍