Subject: Re: python binary
To: None <tech-pkg@netbsd.org>
From: Joerg Sonnenberger <joerg@britannica.bec.de>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 10/10/2005 01:38:29
On Mon, Oct 10, 2005 at 08:52:24AM +0930, Berndt Josef Wulf wrote:
> pkgsrc doesn't install a ${LOCALBASE}/bin/python but a binary that has a 
> version number attached to it. I presume that this was done to enable the 
> concurrent installation of multiple python versions. How do I deal with the 
> above problem when creating new packages? Is there an option that I can set 
> to create a link from python${PYVERSION} to python as to enable standard 
> script to find the python binary, 

pkg_alternatives.

> I believe that it is impractical to patch hundreds of python scripts that get 
> installed with packages such as GNU Radio, especially when they do the right 
> thing.

No, they don't do The Right Thing (TM). For once, they depend on PATH to
have a sane value, which might result in security problems or not work
at all depending on the context. It also doesn't work with the
dependency framework, since a package build against Python 2.4 should
not start using 2.3 just because the admin wants that as default for new
users. The Right Thing for the scripts would be to allow easy patching
e.g. via sed. The replace support in pkgsrc for that.

Joerg