[New-bugs-announce] [issue45101] Small inconsistency in usage message between the python and shell script versions of python-config

[Kien Dang]

New submission from Kien Dang <mail at kien.ai>:

`python-config` outputs a usage instruction message in case either the `--help` option or invalid arguments are provided.

However there is a small different in the output I/O between the python and shell script versions of `python-config`. In the python version, the message always prints to `stderr`.

https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/bc1c49fa94b2abf70e6937373bf1e6b5378035c5/Misc/python-config.in#L15-L18

def exit_with_usage(code=1):
    print("Usage: {0} [{1}]".format(
        sys.argv[0], '|'.join('--'+opt for opt in valid_opts)), file=sys.stderr)
    sys.exit(code)

while in the shell script version it always prints to `stdout`.

https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/bc1c49fa94b2abf70e6937373bf1e6b5378035c5/Misc/python-config.sh.in#L5-L9

exit_with_usage ()
{
    echo "Usage: $0 --prefix|--exec-prefix|--includes|--libs|--cflags|--ldflags|--extension-suffix|--help|--abiflags|--configdir|--embed"
    exit $1
}

This inconsistency does not affect most users of `python-config`, who runs the script interactively. However it might cause issues when run programmatically.

----------
components: Demos and Tools
messages: 401054
nosy: kiendang
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: Small inconsistency in usage message between the python and shell script versions of python-config
type: behavior
versions: Python 3.10, Python 3.11, Python 3.9

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue45101>
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