Alan, Many people have machines with a single login that is shared with nobody.
I install lots of software on multiple machines that only I use and have often wondered what the purpose for me was to install for everyone. On some machines you then need to log in as whatever variant of superuser you have to be if you want to be able to write in restricted directories or make changes to the operating system or global configuration files. There can be tradeoffs in how long it takes to find a program on your PATH or PYTHONPATH or other such things. But, of course, if you have many users who might otherwise install their own personal copies of software on the same machine, especially one where many people may log in at once, then it may make more sense to share. But I wonder about the many modern languages that can be extended by also installing one of thousands of packages above and beyond the standard ones routinely in place. Do you want people to replace earlier versions for everyone or be able to install them in a global area at all? Among other considerations, if they have write access they might be able to modify something others use, like numpy, which is a serious security risk when you can sneak in a call to pop open a shell that reformats the hard disk or whatever. Avi -----Original Message----- From: Tutor <tutor-bounces+avigross=verizon....@python.org> On Behalf Of Alan Gauld via Tutor Sent: Friday, November 2, 2018 9:16 PM To: tutor@python.org Subject: Re: [Tutor] Installing python On 02/11/2018 23:44, Mats Wichmann wrote: > that's actually exactly the right path for a Python 3.5+ if you chose > a "user install", which you usually should. Ah, I always install for all users. That's why I've not seen that path presumably? But why *should* you install for a single user? I only ever do that for programs that I'm still writing and don't want other users to accidentally start. But I want everyone to be able to run my Python programs so I always install for everyone. > the "modern" answer for Windows is supposed to be the Python Launcher, I keep forgetting that thing exists. I really must spend some time getting to grips with it... -- Alan G Author of the Learn to Program web site http://www.alan-g.me.uk/ http://www.amazon.com/author/alan_gauld Follow my photo-blog on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
