Python 2.3.2 RPM's for Redhat 8.0 or Python source RPM and upgrade procedure?

[Cliff Wells]

On Fri, 2003-10-03 at 15:35, Skip Montanaro wrote:

> The problem is, there are lots of dependencies we (the people twisting the
> knobs on the Python distribution) really can't control.  On my Mac I have
> four different versions of Python: /usr/bin/python comes from Apple.
> /sw/bin/python comes from fink.  /usr/local/bin/python and
> ~/local/bin/python are my doing.  I have no trouble with any of this for a
> simple reason: I have my path jiggered to see ~/local/bin before anything
> else, so I never run the versions Apple or fink installed, and I don't mess
> with their stuff.  On the rare occasions where I explicitly want to run one
> of the other versions, I just use a full path.  I think that's the best way
> to do it on a Red Hat system as well (that's what I do on Mandrake, a Red
> Hat derivative that seems to have eschewed Python for Perl).  It wastes a
> little disk space but is much less likely to create heartburn for Red Hat's
> tools or worse, leave you with a system on which you can't perform routine
> administrative tasks or update.

IMO, the *best* solution would be for Redhat and other vendors to keep a
"system" version of Python separate for their own needs, e.g
/usr/bin/python-rh could link to their 2.2 install with all of its
modules.  All their scripts could start with #!/usr/bin/python-rh and
problem solved.  Some might think that this is a waste of disk space,
but anyone concerned about ~10MB of disk storage shouldn't be upgrading
functional software anyway.

> Wipe out what the vendor delivered at your own peril.

Indeed.  Although I strongly suspect that if one could discover all the
Python 2.2 dependencies and recompile them against 2.3 they would work
fine.  Finding and rebuilding the dependencies is the real problem.  It
seems odd that there's no 'rpm -q --what-depends' type command, since
'rpm -e python' will demonstrate that it clearly knows.

RPM is your fair-weather-friend.


Cliff

-- 
Now the sugar in your soft voice
Makes the sweetness in your weeping
                             -Swans