[Python-Dev] 3.5 release schedule PEP

[Chris Barker]

On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 9:00 AM, Donald Stufft <donald at stufft.io> wrote:

> 1) Just always default to —user and add a —system or similar flag, this
>     is super easy to change but is a backwards incompatible change and
>     would need to go through a deprecation window.
>

Maybe would have been the way to go to begin with, but I think backwards
compatibility should probably trump "better" -- even with a deprecation
window.


> 2) Switch to —user based on if the user has permission to write to the
>     site-packages or not.
>

ouch -- no. Why not a clear error message if pip can't write to
site-packages -- something like:

"""
pip doesn't have permissions to write to the system location. If you want
to install this package system-wide, you need to run pip with admin
priviledges (and example here if it's easy), if you want to install for
this user only, pass the "--user" flag to pip install
"""

"In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess."

-Chris

-- 

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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