[Tkinter-discuss] IDLE can't be opened

[Ned Deily]

In article <1DEB8C62-7277-4646-97E3-8FDD389305BF at genetics.utah.edu>,
 Petr Tvrdik <ptvrdik at genetics.utah.edu> wrote:

> When I open the Console after IDLE launch failure, it says:
> 
> Dock: LSOpenFromURLSpec(file:///Users/Michal/Scripting/1.%20IDLE%202.7) 
> failed with -10810

I don't know what to make of this.  What is file "1. IDLE 2.7"?  A 
Python source file?  Is that the file you are double-clicking on?  In 
any case, Launch Services error 10810 is helpfully documented as an 
"unknown error occurred".

> > I have tried:
> > 
> > cd ~
> > sudo rm -rf .idlerc
> > cd Desktop
> > /usr/local/bin/idle2.7
> > 
> > and I got:
> > 
> > MacBook-Tanya:Desktop Michal$ /usr/local/bin/idle2.7
> > -bash: /usr/local/bin/idle2.7: Permission denied
> > 
> > I have also reset ownership
> > 
> > sudo chown Michal /Users/Michal/
> > 
> > but IDLE still cannot be opened

The permission denied message presumably has nothing to do with a file 
in your home directory, /Users/Michal, so using chown on your home 
directory is not likely to have any effect.  /usr/local/bin/idle2.7 is 
normally a symbolic link to an executable in the Python frameworks bin 
directory:

ls -l /usr/local/bin/python2.7
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  71 May 23 18:00 /usr/local/bin/python2.7 -> 
../../../Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python2.7

ls -lL /usr/local/bin/python2.7
-rwxrwxr-x  1 root  admin  25624 May 23 09:36 /usr/local/bin/python2.7

The permissions entries, owner, and group should look exactly like those 
above.  Those are set when Python is installed by the Installer.  If 
they are not identical or if you are unable to view them without sudo, 
most likely something is wrong with directory or file permissions 
somewhere in the /Library or /usr hierarchy (either with the standard 
Unix permissions shown here or as specified with ACLs) *or* there is 
something unusual about the permissions of your account.  I really have 
no idea what would be the most likely scenarios to cause the behavior 
you report.  Indiscriminate use of sudo and chown and chmod could 
certainly screw things up.  There is a slight chance that running Disk 
Utility.app's Repair Disk Permissions function might help.  If, as you 
say, everything works OK from another user (although you should verify 
that you are really using the new Python 2.7.10 and not the older system 
Python 2.7), then you could try to focus on what is different between 
the two user accounts and home directories.  But those kinds of 
questions are *way* beyond the scope of a Python forum.

Good luck!

-- 
 Ned Deily,
 nad at acm.org