Test suite assumes virtualenv installs setuptools

[pfmoore]

Description

Running nox -s test-3.11 in a system that has virtualenv (globally) configured to not install setuptools or wheel, fails with the error

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Work\Projects\pip\setup.py", line 4, in <module>
    from setuptools import find_packages, setup
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'setuptools'

Expected behavior

Test suite doesn't depend on the user's configuration being the default. (It's worth noting that I think virtualenv is going to stop installing setuptools in Python 3.12).

pip version

23.2.dev0

Python version

3.11.2

OS

Windows

How to Reproduce

1. Put no_setuptools=True in your virtualenv.ini.
2. Run nox -s test-3.11

Output

No response

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow the PSF Code of Conduct.

[pfmoore]

I'm logging this as a reminder, it's not a critical issue right now

[uranusjr]

I think (did not check confirmed) this is also an issue for --use-venv on 3.12 since setuptools was removed from ensurepip.

[pradyunsg]

(I've filed a support request, marking the above as spam)