[Python-Dev] issue 9807 - a glitch in coexisting builds of different types

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Mon, 4 Oct 2010 14:41:11 -0400
Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org> wrote:
> 
> For a distro, all those Python binaries have to go in /usr/bin.  We already
> symlink /usr/bin/python to pythonX.Y so I don't see the harm in a few extra
> symlinks.

Why would a distro want to provide all combinations of Python builds?

One important issue for me is guessability. While "d" is
reasonably guessable (and "dbg" or "debug" would be even better), "u"
and "m" are not.
(actually, "u" could lead to misunderstandings such as "is this a
unicode-enabled version of Python?"; as for "m", I don't know what it's
for)

As for the SOABI, you could use a different mangling which would
preserve the ".so" suffix -- e.g. "-debug.so" instead of ".so.d". At
least then well-known conventions would be preserved.

Regards

Antoine.