[issue17639] symlinking .py files creates unexpected sys.path

[Guido van Rossum]

Guido van Rossum added the comment:

Do not "fix" this. It is an intentional feature.

There is a common pattern where one or more Python scripts are collected in some "bin" directory (presumably on the user's $PATH) as symlinks into the directory where they really live (not on $PATH, nor on sys.path). The other files needed by the script(s) are in the latter directory, and so it needs to be on sys.path[0]. If you change the symlink resolution, sys.path[0] will point to the "bin" directory and the scripts won't be able to find the rest of their modules.

While there are probably better patterns to solve the problem that this intends to solve, the pattern is commonly used and I do not want it to be broken.

If you are using symlinks for other purposes, well, too bad.

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resolution:  -> wont fix
status: open -> closed

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue17639>
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