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

Barry Warsaw barry at python.org
Fri Mar 4 19:56:39 CET 2011


On Mar 03, 2011, at 08:37 PM, Toshio Kuratomi wrote:

>No, alternatives is really only useful for a very small class of problems
>[1]_ and [2]_.

Thanks for the clarification.  I was on the fence about making the suggestion
in the first place. ;)

>For this discussion there's an additional problem which is that alternatives
>works by creating symlinks.  Piotr Ożarowski wants to make /usr/bin/python
>not exist so that scripts would have to use either /usr/bin/python3 or
>/usr/bin/python2.  If alternatives places a symlink there, it defeats the
>purpose of avoiding that path in the package itself.

I don't agree that /usr/bin/python should not be installed.  The draft PEP
language hits the right tone IMHO, and I would favor /usr/bin/python pointing
to /usr/bin/python2 on Debian, but primarily used only for the interactive
interpreter.

Or IOW, I still want users to be able to type 'python' at a shell prompt and
get the interpreter.

Cheers,
-Barry
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