test_from (tkinter.test.test_tkinter.test_widgets.ScaleTest) is currently failing on Arch Linux, and at least another place: https://python-build-standalone.readthedocs.io/en/latest/status.html

The error looks like:

======================================================================
FAIL: test_from (tkinter.test.test_tkinter.test_widgets.ScaleTest)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/tkinter/test/test_tkinter/test_widgets.py", line 939, in test_from
    self.checkFloatParam(widget, 'from', 100, 14.9, 15.1, conv=float_round)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/tkinter/test/widget_tests.py", line 106, in checkFloatParam
    self.checkParam(widget, name, value, conv=conv, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/tkinter/test/widget_tests.py", line 64, in checkParam
    self.assertEqual2(widget.cget(name), expected, eq=eq)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/tkinter/test/widget_tests.py", line 47, in assertEqual2
    self.assertEqual(actual, expected, msg)
AssertionError: 14.9 != 15.0

It's the only failure in the current Python 3.8.4 release's test suite here. Also adding Python 3.9 and 3.10 as I am able to reproduce it on master too.

What version of Tk is being used? It's in the output from:
python3 -m test.pythoninfo
or however you invoke python.

tkinter.TCL_VERSION: 8.6
tkinter.TK_VERSION: 8.6
tkinter.info_patchlevel: 8.6.10

It's always reproducible in either a real desktop or Xvfb with arbitrary resolution etc as far as I have tested.

I can reproduce that test failure with Tk 8.6.10 on macOS, along with a few others. I believe various small things have changed in Tk somewhere between 8.6.8 and 8.6.10 in ways that affect some of the Python Tk gui tests, like test_tk and test_ttk_guionly. Some of our tests are pretty brittle with regard to Tk behavior; they captured how a particular version of Tk worked without necessarily a guarantee on the Tk side that the observed behavior wouldn't change. Someone needs to go through and make the tests work with all recent versions of Tk 8.6.x and someone should also get at least some buildbots running with 8.6.10 and really running the gui tests.

This issue should be fixed for upcoming releases. Nosying Łukasz for consideration of "release blocker" status.

+1 this issue. I have encountered this problem lots when testing patches and almost always just end up deleting the test_from method to get test_tk to pass. I am not sure of a solution, though, as we *need* to keep test compatibility with Tk 8.6.8 while (preferably) being able to recognise when the value is wrong for the given version. I hope to take a more in-depth look at the problem and possible solutions (I want to avoid, if possible, either checking the Tk version or allowing both 14.9 & 15.0 values to pass the test).

For reference, I have opened https://core.tcl-lang.org/tk/tktview?name=81c3ef93148d17ff280d9a0b4c4edfce453b972f to report this to the Tk team and ask if this change in behaviour is intended.

Fixing this test bug is required to upgrade tk on Windows. bpo-39107 and PR 22405.

E. Paine reported on the PR 21715 that this change is intentional and here to stay. I wondered the same; thank you for asking.

New changeset aecf036 by E-Paine in branch 'master':
bpo-41306: Allow scale value to not be rounded (GH-21715)
aecf036

New changeset 3d103e0 by Miss Skeleton (bot) in branch '3.8':
bpo-41306: Allow scale value to not be rounded (GH-21715)
3d103e0

New changeset 15e091f by Miss Skeleton (bot) in branch '3.9':
bpo-41306: Allow scale value to not be rounded (GH-21715)
15e091f