[Python-Dev] Support the /usr/bin/python2 symlink upstream

[Kerrick Staley]

> Right, but on Mac OS X we do put a "python3" on the path but not a
"python2". We also
> create "python2.x" and "python3.x" variants.

The PEP makes a recommendation for all *nix platform, which includes Mac OS
X. I was not aware that Apple preinstalled Python on OS X, but it doesn't
really matter: Apple is the "distribution maintainer", and they will be
expected to follow the recommendations of this PEP. Even if Apple is
sluggish in getting this change pushed out, it can be resolved on a
per-system basis by the sysadmin.

> On Windows we only have a "python.exe" I believe, but if the user does put
their Python
> installs on the path then we *could* usefully create "python2.exe" and
"python3.exe" for
> them. I don't see that duplicating these binaries on the filesystem is an
issue. File
> associations is just unsolvable on Windows, so it isn't something we can
address or should
> worry about. (Actually a stub python.exe that looks at the shebang line
and then
> delegates to the appropriate pythonX.Y.exe would be a possibility but I'm
not
> volunteering to write it.)

I like your idea for Windows, but it would take time to implement this
solution, and we won't be able to finalize the solution for *nix as quickly
if we also provide a provision for Windows in this same PEP.

We should keep the use of the singular "they"; it's more popular than the
universal "he" (I intended the universal, rather than gender-specific,
meaning in the drafts of the PEP).

-Kerrick Staley

On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 9:50 AM, Ronald Oussoren <ronaldoussoren at mac.com>wrote:

>
>
> On 04 Mar, 2011,at 02:21 PM, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> For *nix, I think there is a simple way forward that is an improvement
> over where things stand now. For Windows, I don't think we can do much
> better than the status quo and for Mac OS X... I think Apple will do
> whatever Apple feel like doing :)
>
>
> Apple will generally follow what we decide to do for the base install.
>
> Anyway, I'd say that OSX should do the same as Unix platforms here and
> support '#!/usr/bin/env python2'. Adding another symlink is fairly trivial.
>
> Ronald
>
> P.S. I'm a bit confused about this discussion though, wouldn't adding
> python2 to the installation be a feature change and as such not something
> that can be done in a maintenance branch?
>
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