[Python-Dev] Deprecate PEP 370 Per user site-packages directory? (original) (raw)

Steven D'Aprano steve at pearwood.info
Sat Jan 13 19🔞38 EST 2018

On Sat, Jan 13, 2018 at 09:00:07PM +0100, Christian Heimes wrote:

You'd be surprised how many tools and programs are using Python these days. You can easily break important user programs by installing a package with --user.

Or by writing a Python script and innocently giving it the same name as a system module.

On the tutor@ and python-list@ mailing lists, it is very frequent for users to accidently break Python by accidently shadowing an installed module, e.g. installing xlrd and then calling their own script "xlrd.py". But I've never come across somebody breaking anything by installing a package with --user.

I presume it must happen, but I would be surprised if it happens often enough to justify removing what is otherwise a useful piece of functionality.

-- Steve

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