[Distutils] The future of invoking pip

[Paul Moore]

On 6 November 2015 at 03:52, Glyph Lefkowitz <glyph at twistedmatrix.com> wrote:
> If you invoke 'pip[X.Y]' and it matches 'python -m pip' in your current
> virtualenv, don't say anything; similarly if you invoke 'python -m pip' and
> 'which pip' matches.  But if there's a mismatch, pip can print information
> in both cases.  This would go a long way to alleviating the confusion that
> occurs when users back themselves into one of these corners, and would alert
> users to potential issues before they become a problem; right now you have
> to be a dogged investigative journalist to figure out why pip is doing the
> wrong thing in some cases.

I don't see how such checks would work on Windows. The "simple"
approach would involve invoking a subprocess to check what "python"
resolved to, which is a non-trivial overhead on Windows.

Could you explain how you'd do a check like this on Windows?
Paul