[Python-Dev] Proposal for virtualenv functionality in Python

[R. David Murray]

On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:35:42 -0700, Dj Gilcrease <digitalxero at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/19/10, P.J. Eby <pje at telecommunity.com> wrote:
> > At 01:49 PM 2/19/2010 -0500, Ian Bicking wrote:
> >>I'm not sure how this should best work on Windows (without symlinks,
> >>and where things generally work differently), but I would hope if
> >>this idea is more visible that someone more opinionated than I would
> >>propose the appropriate analog on Windows.
> >
> > You'd probably have to just copy pythonv.exe to an appropriate
> > directory, and have it use the configuration file to find the "real"
> > prefix.  At least, that'd be a relatively obvious way to do it, and
> > it would have the advantage of being symmetrical across platforms:
> > just copy or symlink pythonv, and make sure the real prefix is in
> > your config file.
> >
> > (Windows does have "shortcuts" but I don't think that there's any way
> > for a linked program to know *which* shortcut it was launched from.)
>
> win2k and later have a form of sym link, the api for it is just not
> provided in a nice simple app like it is on nix platforms.

See also http://bugs.python.org/issue1578269, which proposes an
implementation of os.symlink for windows, and appears to be just
about ready to go in.

--David