[Python-Dev] PEP 514: Python environment registration in the Windows Registry (original) (raw)

Steve Dower steve.dower at python.org
Tue Mar 1 12:46:30 EST 2016

On 01Mar2016 0524, Paul Moore wrote:

On 1 March 2016 at 11:37, David Cournapeau <cournape at gmail.com> wrote:

I am not clear about 3., especially on what should be changed. I know that for 2.7, we need to change PC\getpathp.c for sys.path, but are there any other places where the registry is used by python itself ? My understanding from the earlier discussion was that you should not patch Python at all. The sys.path building via PythonPath is not covered by the PEP and you should continue as at present. The new keys are all for informational purposes - your installer should write to them, and read them if looking for your installations. But the Python interpreter itself should not know or care about your new keys. Steve can probably clarify better than I can, but that's how I recall it being intended to work. Paul

Yes, the intention was to not move sys.path building out of the PythonCore key. It's solely about discovery by external tools.

If you want to patch your own distribution to move the paths you are welcome to do that - there is only one string literal in getpathp.c that needs to be updated - but it's not a requirement and I deliberately avoided making a recommendation either way. (Though as discussed earlier in the thread, I'm very much in favour of deprecating and removing any use of the registry by the runtime itself in 3.6+, but still working out the implications of that.)

Cheers, Steve

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