Installation of multiple versions of Python on Unix

[Gerhard Häring]

Lee Harr wrote in comp.lang.python:
> I have a very similar setup on a FreeBSD server (Zope still at 2.4.X tho
> as I have not had a chance to upgrade yet)
> 
> I just leave /usr/local/bin/python as a hard link to
> /usr/local/bin/python2.1 and run the other as /usr/local/bin/python2.2

Any reason not to use a symbolic link? Any reason to use a hard link
for anything, ever? I never needed one.

> One issue is building ports.

Erh. Really? <0.8 wink>

> Whenever I want to build a port to go with 2.2 (like I just added
> twisted python, for instance) I will change the plain python to link
> to python2.2 before I make and make install, then switch it back
> when I am done. That has no impact on the running Zope at all.

For the ports you want to build, use:

$ make PYTHON_VERSION=python2.1

to use the FreeBSD ports system instead of working around it ;-)

Look into /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.python.mk for why this works :-)

Gerhard
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