[Python-Dev] "setuptools has divided the Python community"

[Barry Warsaw]

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On Mar 25, 2009, at 6:06 PM, Tennessee Leeuwenburg wrote:

> For case one, where I want to install additional functionality into my
> system Python interpreter "forever", it would be great to have my  
> system
> manage this.

In fact, I think it /has/ to.  I'll go further and say that I'm very  
wary of using easy_install and the like to install non-distro provided  
packages into the system Python.  Many Linux distros require a  
functioning system Python to operate and the distros (should) take  
great care to make sure that if you install package X for application  
Y, you won't break essential system service Z.  Once you start  
installing your own stuff in the system Python's site-packages, you  
break the warranty.

There was a related problem in previous Ubuntu/Debian releases.  If  
you installed Python from source, say into the default /usr/local and  
started easy_installing stuff into there, it was possible to break  
your system Python.  This was because the system Python hacked /usr/ 
local's site-packages into sys.path.  That's now been fixed.

Barry

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