"#!/usr/bin/env python" vs. "#!/usr/bin/python"?

[D'Arcy Cain]

On Fri, 28 Sep 2012 06:57:28 -0400
Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> wrote:
> > I've seen both shebang lines to run a Python script on a *nix host:
> > 
> > #!/usr/bin/env python
> > #!/usr/bin/python
> > 
> > What's the difference?
> 
> The first one looks through your PATH to find the right python 
> interpreter to run.  The second one is hard-wired to run /usr/bin/python.
> 
> If you only have a single copy of python installed, it doesn't really 
> matter which you use.  But, you might as well get into the habit of 
> using the /usr/bin/env flavor because it's more flexible.

Not just flexible but portable.  On various systems I have Python
in /usr/bin, /usr/local/bin and /usr/pkg/bin.  "#!/usr/bin/env python"
finds it in each case so I only need one version of the script.

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