Collin, Zack - > Shouldn't AM_PATH_PYTHON check for the python3 command before python?
Yes it should. That seems like a huge change to make. I understand the reasoning, given the world of Python, but the goal of "don't break existing projects" argues against it. Note that PEP 394 is dangerously incorrect on one point: a system where /usr/bin/python and/or the bare 'python' command invoke Python3 is a misconfigured system Nevertheless, that is the reality on Red Hat(-derived) 9 systems. I don't know about any others. a huge volume of Python 2-only scripts out there in the wild Right. assuming people who use AM_PATH_PYTHON with current versions of Automake *want* the Python 3 interpreter, for the most part That feels like an awfully big assumption to me. Ever since its inception, Automake has looked for "python" first. We will surely be breaking many existing projects if we change that default -- all the ones that are still using Python 2, for starters. Python created this insoluble problem. As far as I can see, we can't fix it. People will just have to set PYTHON if they need to a force a version different from the system, seems to me. I can imagine preferring "python3" to "python" in the future, but this seems like too big of a change to make at the very end (I hope) of the pretest cycle. I think it would be better to make it well in advance of the next release and try to garner feedback on the inevitable problems that will result. --thanks, karl.