[Mailman-Users] Jump from Python 2.4 to 2.7...

[Chris Nulk]

On 3/2/2015 9:53 AM, Mark Sapiro wrote:
> On 03/02/2015 08:22 AM, Bill.Costa at unh.edu wrote:
>> My question is, are there any quirks or gotchas that I should be
>> aware of in going from the old RHEL/Python platform to the new
>> one?  Is there anything I can do on the old system now that will
>> make migration to the new platform easier?  For example, I could
>> use Pythonbrew to install a private v2.7 Python on the old box
>> for Mailman to use, rather than relying on the system's older
>> Python.
>
> Are you installing Mailman 2.1.19 on the Red Hat system or using
> whatever Red Hat rpm package that's available, and if the latter, what
> is that? And, what Mailman will you be using on the RHEL 7 system?
>
> I ask because the FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/8486953> may be relevant.
>
> Assuming you will be installing Mailman 2.1.19 from source, I would be
> more concerned over potential difficulties due to the older Python than
> with any gotchas from moving to a newer Python although there are some
> compatibility issues with older Mailman versions and newer Python. See
> <http://wiki.list.org/x/4030629> for more on both kinds.
>
>
>> In general is it a good practice to give Mailman it's own Python
>> installation rather than relying on and dinking with the system's
>> Python.
>
> My production server is Centos 5 with Python 2.4.3, but I also have
> Python 2.7.9 installed and configure Mailman
> --with-python=/usr/bin/python2.7. I wouldn't necessarily call it "good
> practice", but it's certainly a viable approach.
>

Interesting.  We moved our Mailman instance from CentOS 5.x running 
Mailman 2.1.9 to SLES version ? running Mailman 2.1.18-1 and python 2.7.

When we switched, the OS was some concern but the main decision we made 
was to use Mailman from the source at list.org and python 2.7. We have 
made some custom modifications here and getting Mailman from the source 
would allow us to upgrade Mailman a little easier than from the OS 
maintainer.   By divorcing our Mailman instance from the version 
provided by the OS maintainer, we can pick up our instance and switch to 
a newer host easier.

Chris