On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:09:38 +1100, Mark Hammond <skippy.hamm...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 21/03/2012 5:50 AM, Merlijn van Deen wrote: > > I asked a question about this on IRC, to which the response was that > > there were two main reasons to install python in c:\pythonxy: > > > > 1 - issues due to spaces ('Program Files') or non-ascii characters in > > the path ('FiÈiere Program' on a Romanian windows). These issues are > > supposed to be fixed by now (?). > > 2 - issues due to permissions - installing python / packages in > > %programfiles% may require administrator rights. > > Apart from personal preference (ie, I prefer the status quo here), the > second issue is a bit of a killer. Even an administrator can not write > to Program Files unless they are using an "elevated" process (ie, > explicitly use "Run as Administrator" and confirm the prompt. > > This means that any installer wanting to write .py files into the Python > install must be elevated, and any Python process wanting to generate > .pyc files must also be elevated. So even if an installer does arrange > elevation, unless that installer also compiles all .pyc and .pyo files > at install time, Python would fail to generate the .pyc files on first > use. While Python will probably fail silently and still continue to > work, it will have a significant performance impact.
So windows requires admin privileges to install to Program Files, but not to install to '/'? How novel. (You can perhaps tell that I'm not a windoows user). My understanding, though, is that Python does make a distinction between a system install of Python and a per-user one, so I don't think your objection really applies. That said, there is an open bug in the tracker about the insecurity of a system install of python (exactly that the files are writable by anyone). So that would have to be solved first. I'd say this is definitely a separate issue from Van's discussion, and the *only* reason one might want to tie them together at all is "well, we're changing the directory layout anyway". --David
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