Jean-Paul Calderone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >What has changed is that the tools in common use for Debian > >packaging of Python libraries have taken on the role of generating > >those per-version copies at install time. > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ ls -l /usr/lib/python2.{4,5}/site-packages/sqlite/main.py > lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 63 2007-12-27 15:29 > /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/sqlite/main.py -> > /usr/share/pycentral/python-sqlite/site-packages/sqlite/main.py > lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 63 2007-12-27 15:29 > /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/sqlite/main.py -> > /usr/share/pycentral/python-sqlite/site-packages/sqlite/main.py > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ > > That doesn't seem to agree with your statement. Am I missing something?
You are missing an inspection of the contents of the actual package file. The package file itself contains only a single copy of the Python module (at /usr/share/pycentral/site-packages/sqlite/main.py). What you see there on your filesystem was created at install time; the installation tool figures out, at install time, which Python versions need to be supported on this particular system, and creates those symlinks. Thus, the change that's occurred is that the user doesn't need to choose between "Python SQLite library for Python 2.4" and "Python SQLite library for Python 2.5". There is no longer a separation at the package level by Python version, so the user merely needs to choose (given your example) the single "Python SQLite library", and the install process takes care of setting it up for all supported versions of Python on the system. -- \ “[Freedom of speech] isn't something somebody else gives you. | `\ That's something you give to yourself.” —_Hocus Pocus_, | _o__) Kurt Vonnegut | Ben Finney -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list