suppress pkg_resources DeprecationWarning from vmware-vapi-runtime on setuptools >= 81

[dirtycache]

Problem

Users running netbox-sync with a vSphere source on systems where setuptools >= 81 is installed receive a UserWarning on every run:

/path/to/vmware/vapi/l10n/bundle.py:59: UserWarning: pkg_resources is deprecated as an API.
See https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/pkg_resources.html. The pkg_resources package is
slated for removal as early as 2025-11-30. Refrain from using this package or pin to Setuptools<81.
  from pkg_resources import resource_string

This warning originates in vmware-vapi-runtime 2.52.0 (vmware/vapi/l10n/bundle.py), which imports pkg_resources at runtime. setuptools 81.0.0 (released February 2026) added a DeprecationWarning to pkg_resources/__init__.py, causing this to surface for anyone on a current setuptools.

Because the warning is emitted to stderr, it bypasses the >/dev/null in the documented cron entry and produces unwanted email noise for cron-based deployments.

Root cause

vmware-vapi-runtime 2.52.0 uses pkg_resources.resource_string() to load .properties resource files from the package. The modern stdlib replacement is importlib.resources, which is available in all Python versions netbox-sync supports (3.6+).

Broadcom has already made this fix in vmware-vapi-runtime 9.1.0.0, where the import is replaced with importlib.resources. However, upgrading the full vapi stack (vmware-vapi-runtime, vmware-vapi-common-client, vmware-vcenter) from 2.52.0/8.0.3.0 to 9.1.0.0 is a non-trivial change:

• The 9.x packages come from a new repo (vcf-sdk-python, the rebranded VMware Cloud Foundation SDK)
• VCF SDK 9.x officially targets vCenter 8.x/9.x and drops vCenter 7.x support, which conflicts with netbox-sync's stated compatibility

That upgrade is worth pursuing separately once the compatibility implications are fully assessed.

Fix

Suppress the specific warning at startup in netbox-sync.py, before any vmware modules are imported:

import warnings
warnings.filterwarnings("ignore", message="pkg_resources is deprecated", category=UserWarning)

The filter is scoped to the exact warning message rather than suppressing all UserWarnings. It will become a harmless no-op once the vapi stack is eventually upgraded to 9.x.

Alternatives considered

• Pin setuptools < 81: Treats the symptom, keeps the codebase on aging build tooling, and still leaves a time bomb when pkg_resources is eventually removed from setuptools entirely.
• -W flag on the Python invocation: Only helps users following the exact documented cron entry; does not help systemd, Docker, Kubernetes, or direct invocations.
• Suppress stderr entirely (2>&1): The documented cron entry already does this; the problem affects users who route stderr to logs or rely on cron email for error alerting.