[Python-ideas] Show more info when `python -vV`

[Nick Coghlan]

On 15 October 2016 at 03:52, Sebastian Krause <sebastian at realpath.org> wrote:
> Nathaniel Smith <njs at pobox.com> wrote:
>> The compiler information generally reveals the OS as well (if only
>> accidentally), and the OS is often useful information.
>
> But in which situation would you really need to call Python from
> outside to find out which OS you're on?

Folks don't always realise that the nominal version reported by
redistributors isn't necessarily exactly the same as the upstream
release bearing that version number. This discrepancy is most obvious
with LTS Linux releases that don't automatically rebase their
supported Python builds to new maintenance releases, and instead
selectively backport changes that they or their customers need.

This means that it isn't always sufficient to know that someone is
running "Python on CentOS 6" (for example) - we sometimes need to know
which *build* of Python they're running, as if a problem can't be
reproduced with a recent from-source upstream build, it may be due to
redistributor specific patches, or it may just be that there's an
already implemented fix upstream that the redistributor hasn' t
backported yet.

So +1 from me for making "python -vV" a shorthand for "python -c
'import sys; print(sys.version)'". Since older versions won't support
it, it won't help much in the near term (except as a reminder to ask
for "sys.version" in cases where it may be relevant), but it should
become a useful support helper given sufficient time.

Cheers,
Nick.

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