[Python-Dev] [Pydotorg] Should we help pythonmac.org? (original) (raw)

Jesse Noller jnoller at gmail.com
Tue Aug 19 22:44:00 CEST 2008

On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 1:28 PM, Bill Janssen <janssen at parc.com> wrote:

> My understanding is that if there is a system Python, you shouldn't > change it. Ever.

Huge, big, honkin' +1 from me on that. Besides, for a system Python, you want your distribution to manage packages, not setuptools, otherwise you confuse -- and probably break -- your system. I find this discussion fascinating. I install new packages into my system Python all the time, with "/usr/bin/python setup.py install", and that includes setuptools. I've got PIL, ReportLab, Twisted, Xlib, appscript, docutils, email-4.0.1, fuse, PyLucene, medusa, mutagen, roman, setuptools, and SSL installed in the Leopard machine I'm writing from. They don't wind up in /System/Library/.../site-packages/, they wind up in /Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/, which is sort of the right place, from an Apple point of view. I do this on lots of Macs -- I've got a regular posse of them at work. And I've never had any problems with it. I agree that there are some things I'd be very wary of installing into the system Python, like PyObjC, and Zope. Usually, I don't install anything which appears to already be there. Bill

Bill is correct - using /usr/bin/python does install packages to /Library/... - this is sort of the right place because it still installs it to a "system path", where it can side-effect other users, but it is a "mostly correct" way for Apple framework installs.

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