Barry Warsaw wrote:
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On Apr 12, 2008, at 9:41 PM, Stephen Waterbury wrote:
I used to always set up my own Python[s] in /usr/local and put that first in my PATH, but I have gotten lazy lately, and sometimes it will bite me. ;)
On Debian and derivatives (e.g. Ubuntu) you might have even more fun. They put /usr/local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages on the sys.path *of the system python*! This means that you can break your system Python by installing a version of Python from source and then distutil'ing things into there. Astoundingly, this is promoted as a feature.
That *is* astounding. I've been using Ubuntu for several years now, and I blush to admit I never noticed that until just the other day when I tried installing Python 2.6 from source (into the default /usr/local location, of course) and it broke all my running web stuff, so I hastily removed it -- sheesh! As I mentioned, I've been "lazy" about using the system Python for my own apps and development, but I would feel much more comfortable if the system Python had its own space.
I've reported bugs on this and had discussions with some of the Debian Python packaging folks. I'm hoping that we'll find a solution that doesn't collide with a from-source default Python build.
Thanks for fighting the good fight, Barry -- hang in there! Maybe you can push for my "radical" solution. :) Steve