[Python-Dev] PYTHON3PATH

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Ralf Schmitt wrote:
> "M.-A. Lemburg" <mal at egenix.com> writes:
> 
>>
>> Naive users won't have PYTHONPATH or any other Python environment
>> variables setup.
>>
>> Really, if you know that you are going to run Python 3 instead of
>> Python 2 or vice-versa it's easy enough to run
> 
> You don't even know that you're going to run python. I have 40 python
> scripts in my /usr/bin directory. 
> 
>>
>> . py3env.sh
>> or
>> . py2env.sh
>>
>> in order to setup your shell environment, much like you typically
>> do when using virtual Python installations or work on different
>> projects that require different setups.
> 
> No, thanks. I'd rather setup my shell environment in ~/.zshrc, once.
> 
>>
>> If you just want to separate Python 2 and 3 files, use the
>> user site-packages dir which includes the Python version.
> 
> Both the bzr and mercurial wiki recommend setting PYTHONPATH in order to
> install those programs in a user's home directory. There are still
> people running python <2.6.

Note that you only need to have a different PYTHONPATH
setups for Python 2.x/3.x if you plan to run code that:

 * is not installed in site-packages (most OS shipped code
   will be found in the resp. system site-packages/ dir)

 * is not installed in a user site-packages directory
   (user installed code will typically go there (*))

 * uses modules/packages that come in two different versions
   (one for Python 2.x and one for 3.x) and use the same name
   for both versions

 * needs to work in both Python 2.x and 3.x


(*) The method for installing code in user site-packages dir is
running:

    python setup.py install --user

instead of the standard

    python setup.py install

which install to the system-wide site-packages.

BTW: I guess the bzr and mercurial wikis will need to be updated
accordingly - at least for users of Python >=2.6.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com

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