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

[Piotr Ożarowski]

[Guido van Rossum, 2011-03-02]
> On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 4:56 AM, Piotr Ożarowski <piotr at debian.org> wrote:
> > [Sandro Tosi, 2011-03-02]
> >> On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 10:01, Piotr Ożarowski <piotr at debian.org> wrote:
> >> > I co-maintain with Matthias a package that provides /usr/bin/python
> >> > symlink in Debian and I can confirm that it will always point to Python
> >> > 2.X. We also do not plan to add /usr/bin/python2 symlink (and I guess
> >> > only accepted PEP can change that)
> >>
> >> Can you please explain why you NACK this proposed change?
> >
> > it encourages people to change /usr/bin/python symlink to point to
> > python3.X which I'm strongly against (how can I tell that upstream
> > author meant python3.X and not python2.X without checking the code?)
> 
> But the same is already true for python2.X vs. python2.Y. Explicit is
> better than implicit etc. Plus, 5 years from now everybody is going to
> be annoyed that "python" still refers to some ancient unused version
> of Python.

I don't really mind adding /usr/bin/python2 symlink just to clean Arch
mess, but I do mind changing /usr/bin/python to point to python3 (and I
can use the same argument - "Explicit is better than implicit" - if you
need Python 3, say so in the shebang, right?). What I'm afraid of is
when we'll add /usr/bin/python2, we'll start getting a lot of scripts
that will have to be checked manually every time new upstream version is
released because we cannot assume what upstream author is using at given
point.

If /usr/bin/python will be disallowed in shebangs on the other hand
(and all scripts will use /usr/bin/python2, /usr/bin/python3,
/usr/bin/python4 or /usr/bin/python2.6 etc.) I don't see a problem with
letting administrators choose /usr/bin/python (right now not only
changing it from python2.X to python3.X will break the system but also
changing it from /usr/bin/pytohn2.X to /usr/bin/python2.Y will break it,
and believe me, I know what I'm talking about (one of the guys at work
did something like this once))

[all IMHO, dunno if other Debian's python-defaults maintainers agree
with me]
-- 
Piotr Ożarowski                         Debian GNU/Linux Developer
www.ozarowski.pl          www.griffith.cc           www.debian.org
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