[Python-Dev] PEP 394 - Clarification of what "python" command should invoke

[R. David Murray]

On Fri, 19 Sep 2014 10:16:20 -0400, Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org> wrote:
> The way I look at it is that "/usr/bin/python" is user interface.
> Distributions are completely free to choose whichever Python they want for
> system scripts, and it's great to see that Fedora is well on their way to
> making Python 3 the default for system scripts.  Debian is also making good
> progress, though we likely won't complete the transition until Jessie+1.

Yep, user interface.  Therefore I think the distribution should let the
user choose :)

Most users will chose python2, because that's what other scripts they
might download and install will expect.  So that should be the default.
But I'll choose python3 (and have, on most of my gentoo linux systems,
which supports having both quite well, for system installed packages).

On the gripping hand, given what Fedora is doing, it is not that hard to
change (or create) the symlinks as an end user to point to the python3
programs even if Fedora doesn't support it directly, so I don't see a
problem with the proposed strategy.

> If the user wants to invoke Python 3, it's not hard to type 'python3' and I
> think that's the message we should be spreading.  That already seems pretty
> ingrained in user habits afaict.

As Donald pointed out, that presents a problem for the future.  But
since there is no good alternative to putting /usr/bin/python3 in the
shebang of scripts that require python3, I don't think there is a
solution and we're just going to have to cross that further bridge when
we come to it.

--David