On 07/11/2012 01:22 PM, Wade Leftwich wrote:
In case anyone is still interested in this topic, a caveat on compiling
Python, at least on Ubuntu and related distros. Compiling with standard
configuration creates /usr/local/bin/python, which can cause problems
with system utilities.
This is a problem with lots of stuff. E.g.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntuone-client/+bug/984089
I've been trying to get Barry Warsaw to shame the various system utility
developers at Canonical to use an explicit #!/usr/bin/python rather than
#!/usr/bin/env python in their scripts. Hopefully the next major
release will have fewer problems like this.
- C
On Linux Mint 13, after rolling my own Python, I ran into a problem
where Cinnamon desktop manager would not load its settings screens.
Turned out that it was calling just plain old `python`, not
`/usr/bin/python`, so it was getting /usr/local/bin/python which did not
have some expected modules installed. Deleting /usr/local/bin/python,
which is a symlink to python2.7, corrected the fault.
Also: if you have /usr/local/bin/python, then `sudo python`, `sudo
easy_install`, etc will not call the same executables as `python` and
`easy_install`.
On Thursday, June 14, 2012 10:28:05 PM UTC-4, Chris McDonough wrote:
On 06/14/2012 09:24 PM, Eric Ongerth wrote:
> Seems unnecessarily scary to newcomers to mention compiling your own
> Python early in the docs, even if we know it's no big deal.
> Particularly when the main concern at hand (that many people's
system
> instance of python tends to be a poor choice for their Pyramid
> development) is easily and almost trivially solved by using a
> virtualenv.
It would be unnecessarily scary if it was unncessary, but like I
mentioned in the text included in this email it is effectively
necessary
on some platforms.
Would it not be enough to simply phrase the
> recommendation of using a virtualenv in fairly strong terms? With a
> reference to a deeper document location that discusses the
compile-yer-
> own-python approach for those interested.
No, it's a separate issue.
- C
>
> - Eric
>
>
> On Jun 13, 6:21 am, Chris McDonough<[email protected]> wrote:
>> On 06/12/2012 06:36 PM, Wade Leftwich wrote:
>>
>>> With the Pyramid docs in ebook form on my phone I tend to
browse them
>>> at odd times. Today, standing in line at the post office, I
stopped at
>>> this paragraph right near the beginning:
>>> """
>>> It s useful to use a Python interpreter that isn t the system
Python
>>> interpreter to develop your software. The authors of Pyramid
tend not
>>> to use the system Python for development purposes; always a self-
>>> compiled one. Compiling Python is usually easy, and often the
system
>>> Python is compiled with options that aren t optimal for web
>>> development.
>>> """
>>> ... and wondered what the best compilation options for web
development
>>> might be. I generally use whatever comes with Ubuntu, which
seems to
>>> work OK. Does anyone have config tips to share?
>>
>> That wording should probably be revisited because you're not the
first
>> to ask. More accurate is the statement "it's a real pain in the
ass
>> when someone walks into IRC and gives us a Python compilation
scenario
>> that can only be replicated with their particular OS/platform
combination".
>>
>> This tends to happen all the time on Mac, in particular, and fairly
>> often on Ubuntu as well. This is usually because OS vendors
tend to
>> actually use the system Python and consider it more "part of the
OS"
>> than a development tool for third-party developers. OS vendors
don't
>> compile Python for usage by you; they compile it and configure
it for
>> usage by themselves. Their requirements may not be yours.
>>
>> I don't use a Mac anymore, but when I did, and when I tried to help
>> people get things running on their system Python, I was continually
>> surprised by the number of things that went wrong and the amount
of time
>> people would spend trying to fix them without just compiling and
>> installing another Python. If I sat down at a machine and tried
to make
>> the system Python work with Pyramid, with enough time and effort, I
>> probably could. But someone new to Python probably could not,
at least
>> within a reasonable amount of time, and in that case, it's
literally
>> easier to just compile another one.
>>
>> There's not one cause; each combination of Python version/OS
>> version/platform combination tends to have its own set of endearing
>> niggles that aren't much fun. In general, it's just a shortcut to
>> consider the "system" Python the domain of the OS vendor and
compile
>> your own Python for your own work to shortcut all the potential
landmines.
>>
>> For example, Python on Ubuntu has the following default sys.path:
>>
>> Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 20 2012, 22:39:59)
>> [GCC 4.6.3] on linux2
>> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more
information.
>> >>> import sys
>> >>> sys.path
>> ['', '/usr/lib/python2.7', '/usr/lib/python2.7/plat-linux2',
>> '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk', '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-old',
>> '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload',
>> '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages',
>> '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages',
>> '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/PIL',
>> '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gst-0.10',
>> '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gtk-2.0',
>> '/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7',
>> '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ubuntu-sso-client',
>> '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ubuntuone-client',
>> '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ubuntuone-control-panel',
>> '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ubuntuone-couch',
>> '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ubuntuone-installer',
>> '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ubuntuone-storage-protocol']
>>
>> Note the inclusion of Ubuntu-specific locations by default.
This isn't
>> a problem unless you don't use a virtualenv. But some
(insanely) don't.
>> I've seen some weird things happen as the result of these
nonstandard
>> dirs being included on sys.path by default in any case.
>>
>> The system Python on Ubuntu (and many other Linux distros) is also
>> compiled with UCS4 Unicode, which effectively doubles the space
required
>> in memory for each Unicode string without much benefit, as the
99% case
>> for webapps doesn't include characters outside the UCS2 range
(at least
>> if those webapps don't use Asian scripts).
>>
>> - C
>
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