[Python-Dev] sys.path file feature

[Steve Dower]

The underscore is an appropriate rename here, but calling the file sys.path was too juicy :)

It's intended only for embedding on Windows and does not exist on Linux/Mac yet (more precisely, implementation is only in PC/getpathp.c). I chatted with some people about spreading it and there wasn't really enough interest yet - theoretical uses but not actual ones, whereas on Windows there are actual uses. If you have actual uses we can look more seriously at it, but right now it's more of a secret registry key that disables the registry.

As it is totally outside the language and very specific to a particular installation, support can easily be added at any time. Find my various write-ups on the embeddable distro for details on the use cases, but none of them affect regular Python developers.

Cheers,
Steve

Top-posted from my Windows Phone

-----Original Message-----
From: "Nick Coghlan" <ncoghlan at gmail.com>
Sent: ‎9/‎10/‎2016 2:43
To: "Wolfgang" <tds333 at mailbox.org>
Cc: "Python Dev" <python-dev at python.org>
Subject: Re: [Python-Dev] sys.path file feature

On 10 September 2016 at 18:37, Wolfgang <tds333 at mailbox.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> tracking the commit log I have noticed for Windows there was added a new
> feature which is very interesting and can also be useful for other
> platforms.
>
> If I read it right it supports adding a sys.path text file near the
> executable to specify the Python sys.path variable and overwriting the
> default behavior.
>
> https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/03517dd54977

While I'm all for adding ways to simplify CPython sys.path
configuration, they shouldn't be added as implicit side effects of
other changes without at least some discussion of the chosen approach.

If there isn't time for that, and it's needed to solve a particular
problem, then the underscore-prefix naming convention indicating "this
is not a standardised and supported interface" works just as well for
config files as it does for module and attribute names.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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