Replace distutils.util.strtobool in tests with a local helper

[Sanjays2402]

What this fixes

tests/utils.py imports strtobool from distutils.util:

from distutils.util import strtobool

distutils was removed from the standard library in Python 3.12 (PEP 632). tests/utils.py is imported (via from .utils import ...) by 20 test modules, so on an interpreter without the distutils shim this raises at collection time and the entire test suite fails to run:

tests/utils.py:10: in <module>
    from distutils.util import strtobool
E   ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'

When it triggers

• setuptools absent on Python ≥ 3.12 — increasingly common with modern venvs, uv, and minimal CI images: hard ModuleNotFoundError, whole suite uncollectable.
• setuptools present: it vendors a distutils shim so the import succeeds today, but the shim is deprecated and is removed on Python 3.14 — which this project already targets (setup.py advertises Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12/3.13/3.14, and CI runs on 3.14).

Either way, relying on distutils here is on borrowed time.

The fix

Replace the import with a small local strtobool that reproduces the exact semantics of distutils.util.strtobool:

def strtobool(value: str) -> int:
    value = value.lower()
    if value in {"y", "yes", "t", "true", "on", "1"}:
        return 1
    if value in {"n", "no", "f", "false", "off", "0"}:
        return 0
    raise ValueError(f"invalid truth value {value!r}")

This is the standard PEP 632 migration for strtobool (the stdlib provides no replacement). It's test-only — no change to shipped code.

Verification (local, Python 3.12.12, no setuptools)

Before — collection fails:

tests/utils.py:10: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'

After:

• Semantics parity checked against the distutils spec for every truthy/falsy value (incl. mixed case) and the ValueError path — all match.
• Test collection restored, and real tests run green:

python -m pytest tests/test_formatting.py tests/features/test_features.py
220 passed, 33 skipped

• ruff check tests/utils.py → All checks passed!
• ruff format --check tests/utils.py → already formatted.

Notes

• The strtobool helper lives in tests/utils.py right next to its only caller (parse_flag_from_env), matching how the codebase already reads env flags like RUN_SLOW / RUN_REMOTE.
• No production code touched; behavior for the four env flags (RUN_SLOW, RUN_REMOTE, RUN_LOCAL, RUN_PACKAGED) is unchanged.