On Thu, Jul 05, 2001 at 07:13:54AM -0700, Neil Schemenauer wrote: > Gregor Hoffleit wrote: > > Until now I had the impression that in general it's not necessary to > > have more than one Python version on your machine at the same time > > (except perhaps you're a Python core developer). Feedback from > > python-dev though was that it's definitely necessary to allow and > > support multiple concurrent versions of Python even on production > > machines. > > This doesn't imply that Debian has to support multiple concurrent > versions of Python _packages_. To me, it means Debian should play > nicely if you want to install other versions of Python in /usr/local or > wherever. Currently it does not.
Sorry ? What problems do you have installing Python 2.1 in /usr/local on a Debian system ? > > For one, I've changed my mind and accepted that there's a need to > > support multiple concurrent Python versions in Debian. > > Woody should have one core Python package (python-base_2.1.1-X). > Extension modules should have a versioned dependency on the interpreter > (ie. "python (= X.Y)"). Pure Python packages should only have a > dependency on "python" or perhaps "python (>= X.Y)". That's our current setup (well-behaved packages should have a dependency on "python-base >= 1.5, python-base << 1.6"). Look at the mess we're now running into, now that we want to upgrade this to Python 2.1.1. All packages have to be recompiled at once. Gregor