On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 11:16:57AM -0400, Stephen Waterbury wrote: > > On Debian and derivatives (e.g. Ubuntu) you might have even more fun. > > They put /usr/local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages on the sys.path *of the > > system python*! This means that you can break your system Python by > > installing a version of Python from source and then distutil'ing things > > into there. Astoundingly, this is promoted as a feature.
> That *is* astounding. I've been using Ubuntu for several years now, > and I blush to admit I never noticed that until just the other day when > I tried installing Python 2.6 from source (into the default /usr/local > location, of course) and it broke all my running web stuff, so I hastily > removed it -- sheesh! > As I mentioned, I've been "lazy" about using the system Python for my > own apps and development, but I would feel much more comfortable if > the system Python had its own space. > > I've reported bugs on this and had discussions with some of the Debian > > Python packaging folks. I'm hoping that we'll find a solution that > > doesn't collide with a from-source default Python build. Well, I am not too happy about what I hear here. It seems to me as if Ubuntu is headed the macOS X way, where (it seems) that a second Python needs to be installed on top of the system Python to add modules to it. I know it is not exactly the case, but this change is _really_ going to confuse people and I can this the mailing lists of module developper pilling up with requests for help. There needs to be a way for the user to install his own modules and keep using the system Python. I think it is a very bad idea to do it in /usr. Yes, you can teach your users to add things to their PYTHONPATH, but this put one additional thing to learn for people who just want to get things done. I think users are going to hate this. Maybe something less drastic can be done, by making sure that the /usr/local is far in the PYTHONPATH, that way packages installed in /usr/local do not override the system packages. Of course setuptools will break this, because it adds itsef to front of the PYTHONPATH, and totally break the PYTHONPATH semantics (Grrr). I still think you guys have it wrong, and if you want a new Python install, you do it in /opt. For me /usr/local is for user programs that cooperate for system programs. My 2 cents, Gaël _______________________________________________ Distutils-SIG maillist - Distutils-SIG@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/distutils-sig
