Ensure that removing shim in older setuptools does not error

[bdrosen96]

Addresses #11314

[sbidoul]

Also, if remove_shim is absent, don't we loose the fix for #11294 ?

Not sure what to do here. Any suggestion @jaraco @pradyunsg ?

[jaraco]

Also, if remove_shim is absent, don't we loose the fix for #11294 ?

Not sure what to do here. Any suggestion @jaraco @pradyunsg ?

If remove_shim is absent, it probably means that the shim isn't present, so it's fine. I confirmed that the first appearance of _distutils_hack in 49.3.0 had remove_shim.

The issue appears to be that some form of downgrade of Setuptools is leading to an empty _distutils_hack directory, which is a namespace package containing no functionality. Let's just suppress the error in that case.

Separately, it would be nice to understand why a downgrade is leading to directories left behind.

[sbidoul]

If remove_shim is absent, it probably means that the shim isn't present, so it's fine. I confirmed that the first appearance of _distutils_hack in 49.3.0 had remove_shim.

Thanks for the analysis, @jaraco !

[pradyunsg]

Suggested change

	Avoid AttributeError when _distutils_hack is missing its implementation.
	Avoid ``AttributeError`` when removing the setuptools-provided ``_distutils_hack`` is missing its implementation.

[bdrosen96]

Should that be:

Avoid AttributeError when removing the setuptools-provided _distutils_hack and it is missing its implementation.

[sbidoul]

@bdrosen96 can you please update the news fragment as you suggest and squash the commits in this PR? This will then go in 22.2.2.

[bdrosen96]

Done