[Python-Dev] Support the /usr/bin/python2 symlink upstream

[Eric Smith]

On 3/1/2011 4:19 PM, Kerrick Staley wrote:
> Hello,
> There is a need for the default Python2 install to place a symlink at
> /usr/bin/python2 that points to /usr/bin/python, or for the
> documentation to recommend that packagers ensure that python2 is
> defined. Also, all documentation should be changed to recommend that
> "#!/usr/bin/env python2" be used as the shebang for Python 2 scripts.
> This is needed because some distributions (Arch Linux, in particular),
> point /usr/bin/python to /usr/bin/python3, while others (including
> Slackware, Debian, and the BSDs, probably more) do not even define the
> python2 command. This means that a script has no way of achieving
> cross-platform compatibility. The point at which many distributions
> begin to alias /usr/bin/python to /usr/bin/python3 is due soon, and for
> the next couple of years, it would be best to use a python2 or python3
> shebang in all scripts, making no assumptions about plain python, which
> should only be invoked interactively. This email from about 3 years ago
> seems relevant: :
> http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2008-March/012421.html
> Again, this issue needs to be addressed by the Python developers
> themselves so that different *nix distributions will handle it
> consistently, allowing Python scripts to continue to be cross-platform.
>

I believe we agreed at the language summit last year (or maybe even the 
year before) that "python" would always be python2.x, and "python3" 
would be python3.x.

And by "always" we indeed meant forever. To do otherwise would break 
scripts even many, many years from now.

Eric.