[Python-Dev] PYTHON3PATH

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Thu Jan 14 22:02:28 CET 2010


M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> Nick Coghlan wrote:
>> Guido van Rossum wrote:
>>> On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 9:57 AM, ssteinerX at gmail.com > Or, how about
>>> just removing the antiquated use of environment variables altogether
>>> from Python 3 and avoid the issue completely.
>>>
>>> -1. They have their use, but more in controlled situations. If you
>>> have "global" env vars that you only want to use with Python 2.x,
>>> write a wrapper for Python 3 that invokes it with -E.
>> Perhaps a case can be made for Python 3 to assume -E by default, with a
>> -e option to enable reading of the environment variables?
>>
>> That way naive users could run Python3 without tripping over existing
>> Python2 environment variables, while other tools could readily set up a
>> different environment before launching Python3.
> 
> Naive users won't have PYTHONPATH or any other Python environment
> variables setup.

I was actually thinking of the situation where the OS had a preinstalled
Python 2 with a default PYTHONPATH setting and the user was playing with
Python 3.

However, I agree that that is a fairly unlikely scenario (since
preinstalled Pythons tend not to rely on the environment variables and a
user sophisticated enough to be playing with a new Python interpreter
should be able to cope with a few environment variable conflicts anyway).

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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