[Python-Dev] Issue 11715: building Python from source on multiarch Debian/Ubuntu

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> FWIW - I maintain legacy code for python2.4, and 2.5 (mainly 2.5).
[...]
> As a result, I'm very much +1 on integrating this patch to previous
> versions.

Updating 2.4 is clearly out of question; and I veto changing 2.5 in
that respect.

> I develop on Ubuntu (and will probably update to 11.04 in a few months)
> - so this will directly affect me.

I think it is really Ubuntu's fault, not Python's, that it fails to
build. They fail to provide backwards compatibility. It also STM that
they fail to comply to the FHS with that change...

In any case, it's not that you can't build Python 2.4 anymore on Ubuntu
11.04. You just have to edit Modules/Setup (which *is* a standard build
procedure) to point it to the right library paths and names.

> Even if their servers won't run ubuntu 11.04+ (or something with the
> same library paths), their development environments will.

They can also patch the Python releases themselves, or use Ubuntu
packages that someone else made for them (they can probably just install
the old 2.4 packages just fine).

Regards,
Martin