Waf configuration issue with Python 3.12 - no module named 'imp'

[alexsobotka]

I'm trying to update my CLASS and Montepython installations to Python 3.12. Running into trouble when attempting to configure Planck likelihoods using waf:

[asobotka@longleaf-login2 plc-3.01]$ /nas/longleaf/rhel9/apps/python/3.12.4/bin/python3 waf configure --install_all_deps --cfitsio_prefix=/nas/longleaf/home/asobotka/cfitsio-4.0.0

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/nas/longleaf/home/asobotka/planck/code/plc_3.0/plc-3.01/waf", line 164, in <module>
    from waflib import Scripting
  File "/nas/longleaf/home/asobotka/planck/code/plc_3.0/plc-3.01/.waf3-2.0.17-c5414c9b1eca70e1add79159e16494fe/waflib/Scripting.py", line 7, in <module>
    from waflib import Utils,Configure,Logs,Options,ConfigSet,Context,Errors,Build,Node
  File "/nas/longleaf/home/asobotka/planck/code/plc_3.0/plc-3.01/.waf3-2.0.17-c5414c9b1eca70e1add79159e16494fe/waflib/Configure.py", line 6, in <module>
    from waflib import ConfigSet,Utils,Options,Logs,Context,Build,Errors
  File "/nas/longleaf/home/asobotka/planck/code/plc_3.0/plc-3.01/.waf3-2.0.17-c5414c9b1eca70e1add79159e16494fe/waflib/Options.py", line 6, in <module>
    from waflib import Logs,Utils,Context,Errors
  File "/nas/longleaf/home/asobotka/planck/code/plc_3.0/plc-3.01/.waf3-2.0.17-c5414c9b1eca70e1add79159e16494fe/waflib/Context.py", line 5, in <module>
    import os,re,imp,sys
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'imp'

According to Python 3.11 documentation, the imp package is removed in Python 3.12:

Deprecated since version 3.4, will be removed in version 3.12: The imp module is deprecated in favor of importlib.
imp — Access the import internals — Python 3.11.8 documentation

One could try to use a python version older than 3.12. Unfortunately, my cluster just updated to RHEL 9 and Python 3.12 is the only available version at this time.

Would it be a bad idea to manually edit the waflib/Context.py file to use importlib instead of imp? Does anyone have a possible solution?

Thanks!