[Python-Dev] PEP397 no command line options to python? (original) (raw)

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Mon Oct 24 03:32:09 CEST 2011

On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 11:15 AM, Mark Hammond <mhammond at skippinet.com.au> wrote:

So I don't actually see any particularly new design decisions to be made in relation to a "--which" option - it's just a workaround for the lack of a native 'which' equivalent on Windows, Actually I don't think that is true - even with a 'which' on Windows you can't get this information from it.  Indeed, this functionality is quite distinct from that offered by which.

True, that comparison was a bad one - the launcher takes into account more than just path entries the way the *nix equivalent does. Still, it's a tool in the same spirit, even if the mechanics differs.

TBH I'm not that bothered - I just have a slight uneasiness to this new special option which really just helps describe what a different special option does.

So - in an effort to talk myself out of my idea... :)  one advantage --which would have is that it could work without any version qualifiers at all - eg: % py --which path/to/script.py could also tell you what version of Python would be used to execute the named script, taking into account the current defaults, environment variables and shebang line found in the script.

I was actually just thinking of the simple "py --which" use case, but you're right, it could be extended to shebang line checking as well.

Cheers, Nick.

-- Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia

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