chore(deps-dev): update setuptools requirement from <77,>=70.1 to >=70.1,<85

[dependabot]

Updates the requirements on setuptools to permit the latest version.

Changelog

Sourced from setuptools's changelog.

v84.0.0

Features

• Newline-separated keywords and platformspypa/setuptools#4887old specification <https://peps.python.org/pep-0345/>_ separated items with spaces and the current one uses commas. (#4887)
• Extensionpypa/distutils#373#5022)
• The C compiler modules now emit log messages through their own compilers.C.* loggers instead of the distutils root logger, part of decoupling the compilers package from distutils. The logger names are normalized to a stable compilers.C.* prefix so they remain constant as the package migrates toward a standalone compilers.C distribution. (#5266)
• The C compilers gained a Compiler.call method -- a thin wrapper over subprocess.check_call (with macOS deployment-target env injection) that is the modern replacement for Compiler.spawn. The compilers no longer depend on distutils.spawn, distutils.dir_util, distutils.file_util, distutils._modified, or distutils.util.execute/split_quoted: the generic newer/newer_group and split_quoted helpers are vendored into the compilers package, and Compiler.mkpath/move_file/execute are implemented directly on the standard library (os.makedirs/shutil.move). The methods are retained for backward compatibility. (#5267)
• The compilers no longer depend on distutils.util, distutils.version, distutils.compat, or distutils._macos_compat. The platform-identification helpers (get_platform/get_host_platform/is_mingw) now live in distutils.compilers.platform.detect and the macOS deployment-target logic and compiler_fixup in distutils.compilers.platform.macos; CygwinCCompiler.gcc_version returns a packaging.version.Version. distutils.util re-exports the platform/macOS helpers from their new homes for backward compatibility rather than keeping duplicate copies. (sysconfig lookups still route through distutils pending its own decoupling.) (#5268)
• The compilers now read their build configuration from the standard library's sysconfig instead of distutils.sysconfig. Per-compiler customization -- previously distutils.sysconfig.customize_compiler -- has moved into Compiler.configure_system(): a no-op on the base class, with UnixCCompiler applying the compiler/flag/archiver settings CPython recorded in sysconfig (and the usual CC/CFLAGS/LDSHARED/… environment overrides). distutils.sysconfig.customize_compiler is retained as a thin wrapper that calls compiler.configure_system(). (#5269)

Bugfixes

• The MSVC linker now passes its arguments through a response file when the command line would exceed the Windows maximum length, fixing failures when linking a large number of objects. (#4177)
• The Cygwin and MinGW compilers now pass -O1 instead of a bare -O. The two are equivalent to GCC, but cc1 rejected the bare form when building 32-bit extensions with -m32. -- by :user:dchaudhari7177 (#4873)
• copy_filepypa/distutils#379#5079)
• Setuptools wheels no longer bundled the project's own test modules. -- by :user:itscloud0 (#5212)
• build_ext no longer fails when cross-compiling with a compiler other than MSVC (such as MinGW). Compiler now provides a no-op initialize()pypa/distutils#399

Improved Documentation

• Clarified what "correspond exactly to the directory structure" means in the packages section of the Package Discovery user guide. (#4109)
• Documented how bdist_wheel's py_limited_api option controls abi3 wheel tagging for extension modules -- by :user:Himanshuagrawal4 (#4741)

Deprecations and Removals

• Compiler.spawn is deprecated in favor of the new Compiler.call. call raises native subprocess exceptions; spawn remains as a shim that emits a DeprecationWarning and translates them to DistutilsExecError. The MSVC spawn compatibility shim for third-party monkeypatches predating the env argument (numpy.distutils before 1.19, per pypa/distutils#15) has been removed. distutils.spawn.spawn is likewise reduced to a thin wrapper around subprocess.check_call: it no longer resolves cmd[0] via shutil.which (subprocess searches PATH itself) nor injects MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET (that now lives with the compilers, the only callers to which it applied). (#5267)
• Building an extension with a MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET lower than the interpreter's configured value now raises compilers.errors.PlatformError instead of distutils.errors.DistutilsPlatformError (the macOS deployment-target check moved into the compilers package). CygwinCCompiler.gcc_version returns a packaging.version.Version rather than the removed distutils.version.LooseVersion. Completing the transition begun in pypa/distutils#246, UnixCCompiler.runtime_library_dir_option now returns the ["-Wl,--enable-new-dtags", "-Wl,-rpath,<dir>"] list directly for GNU ld rather than collapsing it into a single string, and the temporary distutils.compat.consolidate_linker_args shim has been removed. (#5268)
• The compilers now define their own exception vocabulary instead of borrowing distutils' framework errors. Language-agnostic exceptions (Error, UnknownFileType, and a new PlatformError) live at distutils.compilers.errors, leaving room for future compilers.<language> siblings; the C/C++-specific CompileError/LinkError/LibError/PreprocessError remain in distutils.compilers.C.errors. The compilers now raise compilers.errors.PlatformError where they previously raised distutils.errors.DistutilsPlatformError/DistutilsModuleError, and compilers._modified.newer raises the stdlib FileNotFoundError. distutils.errors keeps its own framework exceptions and re-exports the compiler ones (CCompilerError, CompileError, etc.) for backward compatibility; because CCompilerError is compilers.errors.Error, code catching it (as distutils' top-level handlers do) still catches the new PlatformError. (#5270)
• customize_compiler now asserts that the compiler-related config variables (CC, CXX, CFLAGS, etc.) resolve to strings, raising AssertionError if any are unexpectedly Nonepypa/distutils#363

v83.0.0

Features

• Require Python 3.10 or later.

... (truncated)

Commits

• 72e919a Merge pull request #5293 from pypa/bugfix/integration-pip-flit-backend
• 1b29701 Select the top-level pyproject.toml when reading build requirements
• bb1b381 Bump version: 83.0.0 → 84.0.0
• ee6fdd7 Sync with distutils @ e8eb87855 (#5292)
• 2a4a9e4 Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into distutils-e8eb87855
• cbd1195 Merge https://github.com/jaraco/skeleton
• bd3594e Merge pull request #5287 from Avasam/Configuring-lint.flake8-comprehensions.a...
• f02e90a Configure C408 to allow dict(a=1) rather than disabling it
• c55f52b Configuring lint.flake8-comprehensions.allow-dict-calls-with-keyword-argument...
• e9904b0 Match the distutils sdist base type for the user_options override
• Additional commits viewable in compare view

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[karlwaldman]

Closing — the <77 cap is deliberate, not drift, and this PR is correctly blocked by its own guard test.

Verified 2026-08-22 against origin/main (8b2dd20) and CI run 32056298358:

FAILED tests/test_release_readiness.py::test_packaging_configuration_remains_compatible_with_supported_python
  assert 'requires = ["setuptools>=70.1,<77", "wheel"]' in project

tests/test_release_readiness.py:222-230 pins the cap on purpose:

Python 3.8 resolves a setuptools release whose schema does not yet accept
the PEP 639 string form. Keep the PEP 621 table while 3.8 is supported.

The package still declares requires-python = ">=3.8" and uses the legacy
license = {file = "LICENSE"} table. setuptools 77+ deprecates that table in
favour of the PEP 639 string form, which the 3.8-resolvable backend cannot
parse. Raising the ceiling to <85 therefore breaks the sdist build on the
oldest Python we ship for — the guard test is doing exactly its job.

This cap is unblocked by dropping Python 3.8, not by raising the ceiling.
Until then, adding ignore: setuptools to .github/dependabot.yml so this
does not reopen weekly (PR to follow).

[dependabot]

OK, I won't notify you again about this release, but will get in touch when a new version is available. If you'd rather skip all updates until the next major or minor version, let me know by commenting @dependabot ignore this major version or @dependabot ignore this minor version. You can also ignore all major, minor, or patch releases for a dependency by adding an ignore condition with the desired update_types to your config file.

If you change your mind, just re-open this PR and I'll resolve any conflicts on it.