[Python-Dev] [PEPs] Rebooting PEP 394 (aka Support the /usr/bin/python2 symlink upstream)

[Toshio Kuratomi]

On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 12:19:23PM -0400, Barry Warsaw wrote:
> On Aug 12, 2011, at 01:10 PM, Nick Coghlan wrote:
> 
> >1. Accept the reality of that situation, and propose a mechanism that
> >minimises the impact of the resulting ambiguity on end users of Python
> >by allowing developers to be explicit about their target language.
> >This is the approach advocated in PEP 394.
> >
> >2. Tell the Arch developers (and anyone else inclined to point the
> >python name at python3) that they're wrong, and the python symlink
> >should, now and forever, always refer to a version of Python 2.x.
> 
> FWIW, although I generally support the PEP, I also think that distros
> themselves have a responsibility to ensure their #! lines are correct, for
> scripts they install.  Meaning, if it requires rewriting the #! line on OS
> package install, so be it.
> 
+1 with the one caveat... it's nice to upstream fixes.  If there's a simple
thing like python == python-2 and python3 == python-3 everywhere, this is
possible.  If there's something like python2 == python-2 and python-3 ==
python3 everywhere, this is also possible.  The problem is that: the latter
is not the case (python from python.org itself doesn't produce a python2
symlink on install) and historically the former was the case but since
python-dev rejected the notion that python == python-2 that is no long true.

As long as it's just Arch, there's still time to go with #2.  #1 is not
a complete solution (especially because /usr/bin/python2 will never exist on
some historical systems [not ones I run though, so someone else will need to
beat that horse :-)]) but is better than where we are now where there is no
guidance on what's right and wrong at all.

-Toshio
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