[New-bugs-announce] [issue43465] ./configure --help describes what --with-ensurepip does poorly

[Enji Cooper]

New submission from Enji Cooper <yaneurabeya at gmail.com>:

Many users are used to --without-* flags in autoconf disabling features (and optionally not installing them). --without-ensurepip (at face value to me) suggests it shouldn't be built/installed.

This comment in https://bugs.python.org/issue20417 by dstufft implies otherwise. From https://bugs.python.org/msg209537 :

> I don't see any reason not to install ensurepip in this situation. That flag controls whether or not ``python -m ensurepip`` will be executed during the install, but ensurepip itself will still be installed. It is not an optional module

This isn't what "./configure --help" implies though:

```
$ git log --oneline -n 1
87f649a409 (HEAD -> master, upstream/master, origin/master, origin/logging-config-dictconfig-support-more-sysloghandler-options, origin/HEAD, logging-config-dictconfig-support-more-sysloghandler-options) bpo-43311: Create GIL autoTSSkey ealier (GH-24819)
$ ./configure --help

...

  --with-ensurepip[=install|upgrade|no]
                          "install" or "upgrade" using bundled pip (default is
                          upgrade)
$
```

The wording should be clarified to note what the flag actually does instead of causing [valid] confusion to end-users which might make them think that the ensurepip module shouldn't be installed if --without-ensurepip is specified.

----------
components: Build
messages: 388456
nosy: ngie
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: ./configure --help describes what --with-ensurepip does poorly
versions: Python 3.10

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue43465>
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