Python 3.12.1, Windows 11: shebang line #!/usr/bin/env python3 doesn't work any more

[Peter J. Holzer]

On 2023-12-22 22:56:45 -0500, Thomas Passin via Python-list wrote:
> In my experience one should always make sure to know what version of Python
> is being used, at least if there is more than one version installed on the
> computer.  Even on Linux using a shebang line can be tricky, because you are
> likely to get the system's version of Python,

You are not "likely" to get the system's version of Python, you get the
version of Python you specify. If you specify "/usr/bin/python3", that's
the system's version of Python. If you specify something else, you get
something else. If you specify "/usr/bin/env python3", you get whatever
the user has in their PATH first.


> and that often is not what you want.  OTOH you don't want to go
> symlinking python3 to some other version of python because then the OS
> system may not work right.  So either you have to specify the Python
> version in the shebang,

This. In my considered opinion installed scripts should work regardless
pf the user's PATH, so they must have the correct interpreter in the
shebang. That specifying the correct shebang pulls in the complete
virtual environment is IMHO a great feature of Python.

I've written a small script "install-python" which basically just copies
a file and adjusts the shebang line.
<https://git.hjp.at:3000/hjp/install-python/src/branch/master/install-python>
for the use in Makefiles etc.

> or just specify the right version
> on the command line.  In that case you might as well not have included the
> shebang line at all.

Right. However, that's not how scripts are usually invoked on Unix.
Using /usr/bin/env in the command line is supposed to fix that but of
course it assumes that your interpreter is actually called python3.

        hp

-- 
   _  | Peter J. Holzer    | Story must make more sense than reality.
|_|_) |                    |
| |   | hjp at hjp.at         |    -- Charles Stross, "Creative writing
__/   | http://www.hjp.at/ |       challenge!"
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