ValueError('ZIP does not support timestamps before 1980') on GitHub package install

[nicholasserra]

Description

Still tracking exactly how this is being triggered, but wanted to report early just in case.

Inconsistently getting ValueError('ZIP does not support timestamps before 1980') in CI when installing requirements via git+https for packages from GitHub.

I see the new zip functionality was introduced via #9689. Stack trace points to zf.write in _create_standalone_pip function.

Haven't been able to trigger locally in pip 21.1 yet, only seeing in CI, so wondering if i'm having some kind of network issue.

Either way, we might want to consider setting strict_timestamps=False when using ZipFile for this:
https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipfile.html#zipfile-objects

Expected behavior

Correctly install requirement from GitHub.

pip version

21.1

Python version

3.9.2

OS

python:3.9.2-buster Docker container

How to Reproduce

Still trying to nail down a consistent method to reproduce. I suspect something in my CI is contributing to the issue. But exception is triggered while trying to install via git+https requirement.

Output

No response

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow the PSF Code of Conduct.

[uranusjr]

Maybe the CI has an incorrect system time or delibrately set file system time to a “wrong” value (for reproducilibty for example)? This can never be triggered under normal circumstances since you can’t really have files older than 1980-01-01.

But yeah setting strict_timestamps=False should be a good idea either way, we’ll only building a temporary file to run against and don’t really care about timestamps anyway. I’d accept a PR in a heartbeat.

[nicholasserra]

Tried to go down the route of testing with an incorrect system time, but things like SSL cert validation blocked the entire process. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what else could be triggering it.

Just issued a PR for suggested fix:
#9920

Thanks!