Maintaining Multiple Copies of Python (Linux)

[Ben Finney]

nfitzkee at gmail.com writes:

> For various reasons, I would like to maintain multiple copies of
> python on my (Ubuntu 12.04) linux system. This is primarily for
> scientific software development; several modules require different
> configuration options than are installed on the 'vanilla' python
> included in the Ubuntu distribution, and I don't want to disturb that
> version in case something would interfere with the OS.

The consensus solution for this is ‘virtualenv’
<URL:http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv>.

It is so popular as a solution for the kinds of problems you describe
that its functionality will come into core Python, as discussed in PEP
405 <URL:http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0405/>, for Python 3.3.

Until you start using Python 3.3, you can install ‘virtualenv’ as a
third-party package.

-- 
 \        “The difference between religions and cults is determined by |
  `\                      how much real estate is owned.” —Frank Zappa |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney