Upgrade script netbox fails with SPDX license classifiers deprecated message

[OdieArbuckle]

Hi,

I'm encountering an error with the upgrade of netbox due to the license identifiers in pyproject.toml being deprecated. I've tried using some different identifiers from the information here but this doesn't work either.

Does anyone know which identifiers should be used or if there's a specific other format that should be used? Maybe another file to edit as well? I'm currently editing /opt/netbox/pyproject.toml.

Here's my terminal output after launching the upgrade:

You are installing (or upgrading to) NetBox version 4.3.2
Using Python 3.12.10
Removing old virtual environment...
Creating a new virtual environment at /opt/netbox/venv...
Updating pip (pip install --upgrade pip)...
Requirement already satisfied: pip in ./venv/lib64/python3.12/site-packages (23.2.1)
Collecting pip
  Obtaining dependency information for pip from https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/29/a2/d40fb2460e883eca5199c62cfc2463fd261f760556ae6290f88488c362c0/pip-25.1.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata
  Using cached pip-25.1.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (3.6 kB)
Using cached pip-25.1.1-py3-none-any.whl (1.8 MB)
Installing collected packages: pip
  Attempting uninstall: pip
    Found existing installation: pip 23.2.1
    Uninstalling pip-23.2.1:
      Successfully uninstalled pip-23.2.1
Successfully installed pip-25.1.1
pip 25.1.1 from /opt/netbox/venv/lib64/python3.12/site-packages/pip (python 3.12)
Installing Python system packages (pip install wheel)...
Collecting wheel
  Using cached wheel-0.45.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.3 kB)
Using cached wheel-0.45.1-py3-none-any.whl (72 kB)
Installing collected packages: wheel
Successfully installed wheel-0.45.1
Installing core dependencies (pip install -r requirements.txt)...
Collecting Django==5.2.2 (from -r requirements.txt (line 1))
  Using cached django-5.2.2-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.1 kB)
Collecting django-cors-headers==4.7.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 2))
  Using cached django_cors_headers-4.7.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (16 kB)
Collecting django-debug-toolbar==5.2.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 3))
  Using cached django_debug_toolbar-5.2.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.5 kB)
Collecting django-filter==25.1 (from -r requirements.txt (line 4))
  Using cached django_filter-25.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (5.1 kB)
Collecting django-htmx==1.23.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 5))
  Using cached django_htmx-1.23.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.6 kB)
Collecting django-graphiql-debug-toolbar==0.2.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 6))
  Using cached django_graphiql_debug_toolbar-0.2.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (3.5 kB)
Collecting django-mptt==0.17.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 7))
  Using cached django_mptt-0.17.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (5.3 kB)
Collecting django-pglocks==1.0.4 (from -r requirements.txt (line 8))
  Using cached django-pglocks-1.0.4.tar.gz (4.1 kB)
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... done
Collecting django-prometheus==2.3.1 (from -r requirements.txt (line 9))
  Using cached django_prometheus-2.3.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (9.4 kB)
Collecting django-redis==5.4.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 10))
  Using cached django_redis-5.4.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (32 kB)
Collecting django-rich==2.0.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 11))
  Using cached django_rich-2.0.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (7.7 kB)
Collecting django-rq==3.0.1 (from -r requirements.txt (line 12))
  Using cached django_rq-3.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (19 kB)
Collecting django-storages==1.14.6 (from -r requirements.txt (line 13))
  Using cached django_storages-1.14.6-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.7 kB)
Collecting django-taggit==6.1.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 14))
  Using cached django_taggit-6.1.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (3.5 kB)
Collecting django-tables2==2.7.5 (from -r requirements.txt (line 15))
  Using cached django_tables2-2.7.5-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.0 kB)
Collecting django-timezone-field==7.1 (from -r requirements.txt (line 16))
  Using cached django_timezone_field-7.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (13 kB)
Collecting djangorestframework==3.16.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 17))
  Using cached djangorestframework-3.16.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (11 kB)
Collecting drf-spectacular==0.28.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 18))
  Using cached drf_spectacular-0.28.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (14 kB)
Collecting drf-spectacular-sidecar==2025.6.1 (from -r requirements.txt (line 19))
  Using cached drf_spectacular_sidecar-2025.6.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (3.6 kB)
Collecting feedparser==6.0.11 (from -r requirements.txt (line 20))
  Using cached feedparser-6.0.11-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.4 kB)
Collecting gunicorn==23.0.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 21))
  Using cached gunicorn-23.0.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.4 kB)
Collecting Jinja2==3.1.6 (from -r requirements.txt (line 22))
  Using cached jinja2-3.1.6-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.9 kB)
Collecting jsonschema==4.24.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 23))
  Using cached jsonschema-4.24.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (7.8 kB)
Collecting Markdown==3.8 (from -r requirements.txt (line 24))
  Using cached markdown-3.8-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (5.1 kB)
Collecting mkdocs-material==9.6.14 (from -r requirements.txt (line 25))
  Using cached mkdocs_material-9.6.14-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (18 kB)
Collecting mkdocstrings==0.29.1 (from mkdocstrings[python]==0.29.1->-r requirements.txt (line 26))
  Using cached mkdocstrings-0.29.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (8.3 kB)
Collecting netaddr==1.3.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 27))
  Using cached netaddr-1.3.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (5.0 kB)
Collecting nh3==0.2.21 (from -r requirements.txt (line 28))
  Using cached nh3-0.2.21-cp38-abi3-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl.metadata (2.0 kB)
Collecting Pillow==11.2.1 (from -r requirements.txt (line 29))
  Using cached pillow-11.2.1-cp312-cp312-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl.metadata (8.9 kB)
Collecting psycopg==3.2.9 (from psycopg[c,pool]==3.2.9->-r requirements.txt (line 30))
  Using cached psycopg-3.2.9-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.5 kB)
Collecting PyYAML==6.0.2 (from -r requirements.txt (line 31))
  Using cached PyYAML-6.0.2-cp312-cp312-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl.metadata (2.1 kB)
Collecting requests==2.32.3 (from -r requirements.txt (line 32))
  Using cached requests-2.32.3-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.6 kB)
Collecting rq==2.3.3 (from -r requirements.txt (line 33))
  Using cached rq-2.3.3-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.9 kB)
Collecting social-auth-app-django==5.4.3 (from -r requirements.txt (line 34))
  Using cached social_auth_app_django-5.4.3-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.8 kB)
Collecting social-auth-core==4.6.1 (from -r requirements.txt (line 35))
  Using cached social_auth_core-4.6.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.1 kB)
Collecting strawberry-graphql==0.271.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 36))
  Using cached strawberry_graphql-0.271.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (7.8 kB)
Collecting strawberry-graphql-django==0.60.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 37))
  Using cached strawberry_graphql_django-0.60.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.9 kB)
Collecting svgwrite==1.4.3 (from -r requirements.txt (line 38))
  Using cached svgwrite-1.4.3-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (8.8 kB)
Collecting tablib==3.8.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 39))
  Using cached tablib-3.8.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (3.8 kB)
Collecting tzdata==2025.2 (from -r requirements.txt (line 40))
  Using cached tzdata-2025.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (1.4 kB)
Collecting asgiref>=3.8.1 (from Django==5.2.2->-r requirements.txt (line 1))
  Using cached asgiref-3.8.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (9.3 kB)
Collecting sqlparse>=0.3.1 (from Django==5.2.2->-r requirements.txt (line 1))
  Using cached sqlparse-0.5.3-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (3.9 kB)
Collecting graphene-django>=2.0.0 (from django-graphiql-debug-toolbar==0.2.0->-r requirements.txt (line 6))
  Using cached graphene_django-3.2.3-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (8.2 kB)
Collecting django-js-asset (from django-mptt==0.17.0->-r requirements.txt (line 7))
  Using cached django_js_asset-3.1.2-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.4 kB)
Collecting six>=1.0.0 (from django-pglocks==1.0.4->-r requirements.txt (line 8))
  Using cached six-1.17.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (1.7 kB)
Collecting prometheus-client>=0.7 (from django-prometheus==2.3.1->-r requirements.txt (line 9))
  Using cached prometheus_client-0.22.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (1.9 kB)
Collecting redis!=4.0.0,!=4.0.1,>=3 (from django-redis==5.4.0->-r requirements.txt (line 10))
  Using cached redis-6.2.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (10 kB)
Collecting rich>=10 (from django-rich==2.0.0->-r requirements.txt (line 11))
  Using cached rich-14.0.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (18 kB)
Collecting uritemplate>=2.0.0 (from drf-spectacular==0.28.0->-r requirements.txt (line 18))
  Using cached uritemplate-4.2.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.6 kB)
Collecting inflection>=0.3.1 (from drf-spectacular==0.28.0->-r requirements.txt (line 18))
  Using cached inflection-0.5.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (1.7 kB)
Collecting sgmllib3k (from feedparser==6.0.11->-r requirements.txt (line 20))
  Using cached sgmllib3k-1.0.0.tar.gz (5.8 kB)
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... done
Collecting packaging (from gunicorn==23.0.0->-r requirements.txt (line 21))
  Using cached packaging-25.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (3.3 kB)
Collecting MarkupSafe>=2.0 (from Jinja2==3.1.6->-r requirements.txt (line 22))
  Using cached MarkupSafe-3.0.2-cp312-cp312-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl.metadata (4.0 kB)
Collecting attrs>=22.2.0 (from jsonschema==4.24.0->-r requirements.txt (line 23))
  Using cached attrs-25.3.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (10 kB)
Collecting jsonschema-specifications>=2023.03.6 (from jsonschema==4.24.0->-r requirements.txt (line 23))
  Using cached jsonschema_specifications-2025.4.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.9 kB)
Collecting referencing>=0.28.4 (from jsonschema==4.24.0->-r requirements.txt (line 23))
  Using cached referencing-0.36.2-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.8 kB)
Collecting rpds-py>=0.7.1 (from jsonschema==4.24.0->-r requirements.txt (line 23))
  Using cached rpds_py-0.25.1-cp312-cp312-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl.metadata (4.1 kB)
Collecting babel~=2.10 (from mkdocs-material==9.6.14->-r requirements.txt (line 25))
  Using cached babel-2.17.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.0 kB)
Collecting backrefs~=5.7.post1 (from mkdocs-material==9.6.14->-r requirements.txt (line 25))
  Using cached backrefs-5.9-py312-none-any.whl.metadata (3.2 kB)
Collecting colorama~=0.4 (from mkdocs-material==9.6.14->-r requirements.txt (line 25))
  Using cached colorama-0.4.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (17 kB)
Collecting mkdocs-material-extensions~=1.3 (from mkdocs-material==9.6.14->-r requirements.txt (line 25))
  Using cached mkdocs_material_extensions-1.3.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.9 kB)
Collecting mkdocs~=1.6 (from mkdocs-material==9.6.14->-r requirements.txt (line 25))
  Using cached mkdocs-1.6.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.0 kB)
Collecting paginate~=0.5 (from mkdocs-material==9.6.14->-r requirements.txt (line 25))
  Using cached paginate-0.5.7-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (11 kB)
Collecting pygments~=2.16 (from mkdocs-material==9.6.14->-r requirements.txt (line 25))
  Using cached pygments-2.19.2-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.5 kB)
Collecting pymdown-extensions~=10.2 (from mkdocs-material==9.6.14->-r requirements.txt (line 25))
  Using cached pymdown_extensions-10.16-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (3.0 kB)
Collecting charset-normalizer<4,>=2 (from requests==2.32.3->-r requirements.txt (line 32))
  Using cached charset_normalizer-3.4.2-cp312-cp312-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl.metadata (35 kB)
Collecting idna<4,>=2.5 (from requests==2.32.3->-r requirements.txt (line 32))
  Using cached idna-3.10-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (10 kB)
Collecting urllib3<3,>=1.21.1 (from requests==2.32.3->-r requirements.txt (line 32))
  Using cached urllib3-2.5.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.5 kB)
Collecting certifi>=2017.4.17 (from requests==2.32.3->-r requirements.txt (line 32))
  Using cached certifi-2025.6.15-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.4 kB)
Collecting mkdocs-autorefs>=1.4 (from mkdocstrings==0.29.1->mkdocstrings[python]==0.29.1->-r requirements.txt (line 26))
  Using cached mkdocs_autorefs-1.4.2-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (13 kB)
Collecting typing-extensions>=4.6 (from psycopg==3.2.9->psycopg[c,pool]==3.2.9->-r requirements.txt (line 30))
  Using cached typing_extensions-4.14.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (3.0 kB)
Collecting click>=5 (from rq==2.3.3->-r requirements.txt (line 33))
  Using cached click-8.2.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.5 kB)
Collecting cryptography>=1.4 (from social-auth-core==4.6.1->-r requirements.txt (line 35))
  Using cached cryptography-45.0.4-cp311-abi3-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl.metadata (5.7 kB)
Collecting defusedxml>=0.5.0 (from social-auth-core==4.6.1->-r requirements.txt (line 35))
  Using cached defusedxml-0.7.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (32 kB)
Collecting oauthlib>=1.0.3 (from social-auth-core==4.6.1->-r requirements.txt (line 35))
  Using cached oauthlib-3.3.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (7.9 kB)
Collecting PyJWT>=2.7.0 (from social-auth-core==4.6.1->-r requirements.txt (line 35))
  Using cached PyJWT-2.10.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.0 kB)
Collecting python3-openid>=3.0.10 (from social-auth-core==4.6.1->-r requirements.txt (line 35))
  Using cached python3_openid-3.2.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (1.6 kB)
Collecting requests-oauthlib>=0.6.1 (from social-auth-core==4.6.1->-r requirements.txt (line 35))
  Using cached requests_oauthlib-2.0.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (11 kB)
Collecting graphql-core<3.4.0,>=3.2.0 (from strawberry-graphql==0.271.0->-r requirements.txt (line 36))
  Using cached graphql_core-3.2.6-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (11 kB)
Collecting python-dateutil<3.0.0,>=2.7.0 (from strawberry-graphql==0.271.0->-r requirements.txt (line 36))
  Using cached python_dateutil-2.9.0.post0-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (8.4 kB)
Collecting mkdocstrings-python>=1.16.2 (from mkdocstrings[python]==0.29.1->-r requirements.txt (line 26))
  Using cached mkdocstrings_python-1.16.12-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (5.6 kB)
Collecting psycopg-c==3.2.9 (from psycopg[c,pool]==3.2.9->-r requirements.txt (line 30))
  Using cached psycopg_c-3.2.9.tar.gz (609 kB)
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error

  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [21 lines of output]
      /tmp/pip-build-env-lutxcko5/overlay/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/dist.py:759: SetuptoolsDeprecationWarning: License classifiers are deprecated.
    !!  

              ********************************************************************************
              Please consider removing the following classifiers in favor of a SPDX license expression:

              License :: OSI Approved :: GNU Lesser General Public License v3 (LGPLv3)

              See https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/writing-pyproject-toml/#license for details.
              ********************************************************************************
    !!
      
        self._finalize_license_expression()
      running dist_info
      creating /tmp/pip-modern-metadata-afbulpmg/psycopg_c.egg-info
      writing /tmp/pip-modern-metadata-afbulpmg/psycopg_c.egg-info/PKG-INFO
      writing dependency_links to /tmp/pip-modern-metadata-afbulpmg/psycopg_c.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
      writing top-level names to /tmp/pip-modern-metadata-afbulpmg/psycopg_c.egg-info/top_level.txt
      writing manifest file '/tmp/pip-modern-metadata-afbulpmg/psycopg_c.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
      couldn't run 'pg_config' --includedir: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'pg_config'
      error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'pg_config'
      [end of output]

  note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
error: metadata-generation-failed

Encountered error while generating package metadata.
╰─> See above for output.```

[markkuleinio]

As far as I see it, according to the output, the problem is missing pg_config.

See the NetBox install guide at https://netboxlabs.com/docs/netbox/installation/netbox/, libpq-dev should be installed.

[OdieArbuckle]

Hi,

Tried that but didn't work unfortunately. Also found this earlier discussion talking about the same issue from what I can tell...

However, I have the necessary package installed - it looks like that anyway ?

# [netbox] yum install libpq-devel
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
EPEL8                                                                                                   84 kB/s | 2.3 kB     00:00
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 for x86_64 - AppStream (RPMs)                                               121 kB/s | 4.5 kB     00:00
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 for x86_64 - BaseOS (RPMs)                                                  109 kB/s | 4.1 kB     00:00
Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder for RHEL 8 x86_64 (RPMs)                                               119 kB/s | 4.5 kB     00:00
**Package postgresql11-devel-11.18-1PGDG.rhel8.x86_64 is already installed.**
Dependencies resolved.
Nothing to do.
Complete!
# [netbox] 

[markkuleinio]

I don't know much of Red Hat products after 2003 (moved on to Debian when Red Hat Linux was discontinued), but chatgpt suggests that postgresql-devel is the correct package for RHEL 8, maybe try that?

Version 11 for PostgreSQL looks very old anyway.

[OdieArbuckle]

Yes, my best guess is that i'm just missing the right package, however, I've tried to install the postgresql-devel package too and I couldn't find the right one. I searched the repository (which is fairly easy to search as you can work with * etc...) but no luck in finding a devel package like the one you mentioned above. Moreover, I have postgresql11 installed by default but I'm using version 15 actually, version 11 was just already there.

Let me check if maybe I need to add another package repository to find the correct package and get back to you.
Thanks for your help!
Kristof

[OdieArbuckle]

@markkuleinio ,
I've tried really many things and I keep bumping into issues on this RHEL8 machine. I've also enabled or disabled pgsql streams to be able to install pgsql development packages. python dev packages/header files...
Examples of (very similar or equal) errors:

• https://gist.github.com/kenzo0107/f204c7af2b764d15a6c6
• Failed building wheel for psycopg-c (v4.0) #16047
• Upgrading Netbox 3.7.3 to 4.0.8 - stuck at "Installing build dependencies" - proxy issue? #17028

I always followed the instructions for installation, upgrades, or other tweaks. It's kind of frustrating this one...Not really much to do about it. I guess.

[markkuleinio]

I've always been told that people/organizations use the commercial RHEL (instead of the free Linux distributions) because of the support contracts. Are you sure you don't have any support contract that would help in getting the missing pg_config working?