[Python-Dev] PEP 370, open questions (original) (raw)

Tim Golden mail at timgolden.me.uk
Thu Jan 17 13:30:53 CET 2008

Christian Heimes wrote:

Tim Golden wrote:

The difference therefore is that installing large quantities of Python modules into a roaming profile path will involve their being copied to-and-fro on logon/logoff which, historically at least, was a known cause of slow startup/shutdown. I'll try to confirm if this is still the case. I can't comment on the matter. I've not used roaming user profiles on Windows for more than five years. Can someone with more experience shed some like on the matter?

I'll try to confirm with our support guys here.

My own feeling was to use ~/.local on Windows as well (or whatever is agreed on for *nix) and let os.path.expanduser handle it. But... from r54364, USERPROFILE takes priority over HOMEDRIVE/HOMEPATH. Obviously Georg had some rationale there although a quick search of python-dev doesn't throw anything up. If we decide anything else here, though, we would seem to be somewhat in conflict with that interpretation of home/~ as USERPROFILE. The PEP already explains why I don't want to write to ~/ on Windows. I had considered it shortly but MSDN advices against it.

Entirely understood, but then...

Is %USERPROFILE% not equal to %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%?

No. On my machine, for example:

HOMEDRIVE=H: HOMEPATH=
HOMESHARE=\vogbs022\it\goldent

USERPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\goldent

However, using an account without a mapped home drive then yes, they are the same.

TJG

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