[Python-Dev] hard linking executables (original) (raw)

Barry Warsaw barry at python.org
Wed Jul 27 00:32:50 CEST 2011

On Jul 27, 2011, at 12:19 AM, Antoine Pitrou wrote:

Ok, apparently the decision to make hard links for executables dates at least back to:

That still doesn't explain why hardlinks were originally chosen instead of symlinks. In the absence of any other compelling argument against it, I think they should all consistently be symlinks. I don't see any Ubuntu or Debian (where /usr/bin/python3 -> python3.2) bug reports indicating any problems, and I haven't experienced any issues with it personally.

changeset: 16221:588691f806f4 branch: legacy-trunk user: Neil Schemenauer <nascheme at enme.ucalgary.ca> date: Wed Jan 24 17:11:43 2001 +0000 files: Makefile.pre.in description: Flat makefile based on toplevel Makefile.in and makefiles in build subdirectories. Those other makefiles will go away eventually.

[...] +# Install the interpreter (by creating a hard link to python$(VERSION)) +bininstall: altbininstall _+ -if test -f (BINDIR)/(BINDIR)/(BINDIR)/(PYTHON); _ _+ then rm -f (BINDIR)/(BINDIR)/(BINDIR)/(PYTHON); _ _+ else true; _ + fi + (cd (BINDIR);(BINDIR); (BINDIR);(LN) python$(VERSION)$(EXEEXT) python$(EXEEXT)) +

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