pkg_resources is deprecated as an API for python 3.13.5

[mgraugal]

When installing monai and importing in python 3.13.5, we get a deprecation warning:

Python 3.13.5 (main, Jul 28 2025, 00:00:00) [GCC 11.5.0 20240719 (Red Hat 11.5.0-5)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

import monai
/data/devspace/marc/game-on-autoptz/venv/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/monai/utils/module.py:399: 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.
pkg = import(module) # top level module

This would need to be solved in future updates to prevent from breaking

[ericspod]

Hi @mgraugal thanks for flagging this. We don't use pkg_resources any more but this might be warned as part of our import process. When this package is removed there shouldn't be a problem and the warning will cease.

[ericspod]

The pkg_resouces package has now been removed from PyPI rather than just deprecated, MONAI itself isn't affected but downstream projects are, specifically MetricsReloaded. As a result installing these packages through pip fails with an error about the package not being found.

The solution used with MONAI is to ensure a working version of setuptools is installed in an environment, then use the pip --no-build-isolation option to force building in that environment when installing requirements. This avoids subsequent build operations installing a newer version which has this issue. This has been done in #8738 by @KumoLiu and other PRs to update the tutorials and model zoo repos are in progress. We do need to update MetricsReloaded however to eliminate the need for this fix (CC @csudre).

[ericspod]

Related issue: pypa/setuptools#5174