From 013edcd55869cb93db04ac41211daca3bb04df68 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Thomas Waldmann <tw@waldmann-edv.de>
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2026 20:25:56 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] cleanup: remove check_python() compatibility shim

The check_python() function verified that the Python runtime supported
'follow_symlinks' for os.stat, os.utime, and os.chown. This check is no
longer necessary because:

1. Borg now requires Python >= 3.10.
2. On POSIX systems (Linux, macOS, *BSD, Haiku, OmniOS), support for these
   operations relies on the *at syscalls (fstatat, etc.), which have been
   implemented in standard libc for well over a decade (e.g., FreeBSD 8.0+,
   NetBSD 6.0+, Solaris 11+).
3. On Windows (MSYS2/MinGW), Python has supported follow_symlinks for
   os.stat since Python 3.2. The removed check specifically inspected only
   os.stat on Windows, avoiding the problematic os.utime/os.chown checks.

Any platform capable of running Python 3.10 will inherently support these
standard file operations.
---
 src/borg/archiver/__init__.py |  6 ++----
 src/borg/helpers/__init__.py  |  2 +-
 src/borg/helpers/checks.py    | 12 ------------
 3 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/borg/archiver/__init__.py b/src/borg/archiver/__init__.py
index cce868634..7f7610fae 100644
--- a/src/borg/archiver/__init__.py
+++ b/src/borg/archiver/__init__.py
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ try:
     from ..helpers import format_file_size
     from ..helpers import remove_surrogates, text_to_json
     from ..helpers import DatetimeWrapper, replace_placeholders
-    from ..helpers import check_python, check_extension_modules
+    from ..helpers import check_extension_modules
     from ..helpers import is_slow_msgpack, is_supported_msgpack, sysinfo
     from ..helpers import signal_handler, raising_signal_handler, SigHup, SigTerm
     from ..helpers import ErrorIgnoringTextIOWrapper
@@ -455,9 +455,7 @@ class Archiver(
         return args
 
     def prerun_checks(self, logger, is_serve):
-        if not is_serve:
-            # this is the borg *client*, we need to check the python:
-            check_python()
+
         check_extension_modules()
         selftest(logger)
 
diff --git a/src/borg/helpers/__init__.py b/src/borg/helpers/__init__.py
index 86648ab7f..74800d6a3 100644
--- a/src/borg/helpers/__init__.py
+++ b/src/borg/helpers/__init__.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import logging
 from collections import namedtuple
 
 from ..constants import *  # NOQA
-from .checks import check_extension_modules, check_python
+from .checks import check_extension_modules
 from .datastruct import StableDict, Buffer, EfficientCollectionQueue
 from .errors import Error, ErrorWithTraceback, IntegrityError, DecompressionError, CancelledByUser, CommandError
 from .errors import RTError, modern_ec
diff --git a/src/borg/helpers/checks.py b/src/borg/helpers/checks.py
index b11f2230c..8c935bee7 100644
--- a/src/borg/helpers/checks.py
+++ b/src/borg/helpers/checks.py
@@ -1,16 +1,4 @@
-import os
-
 from .errors import RTError
-from ..platformflags import is_win32
-
-
-def check_python():
-    if is_win32:
-        required_funcs = {os.stat}
-    else:
-        required_funcs = {os.stat, os.utime, os.chown}
-    if not os.supports_follow_symlinks.issuperset(required_funcs):
-        raise RTError("""FATAL: This Python was compiled for a too old (g)libc and lacks required functionality.""")
 
 
 def check_extension_modules():