This is more like request for comment, rather than a bug. Currently, a major version upgrade of python requires users to run python-updater to upgrade a bunch of apps that were installed with previous. Wouldn't it be easier to export PYTHONPATH thru env.d with values like "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages:/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages". Keeping the newer version ahead makes sure that the latest versions of the modules are picked up. All that the ebuild needs to do is to update a /etc/env.d/ file with the latest version ahead of the previous versions in the env var or create a new file if no previous version is found. No more recompiles of py* packages and no more broken builds (like pygtk not found, when it is installed) for people who didn't read the fast scrolling warning messages. I wonder why its not done currently. Am I missing something?
(In reply to comment #0) > I wonder why its not done currently. Because it won't work... ;)
(In reply to comment #1) > (In reply to comment #0) > > I wonder why its not done currently. > > Because it won't work... ;) why wouldn't it? I have used PYTHONPATH in the past when I was not using gentoo and doing manual installs on the "other" unix, and it worked fairly well. Can you please elaborate?
- compiled (not pure python) extensions will explode in various interesting (often segfaulty) ways. One of those compiled modules is pycrypto, which is used by portage for checksums. Segfaulting portage is bad. - the newer python refuses to use .pyc and .pyo files written by the old python and vice versa. If you run as a normal user this means a slowdown if you use the "wrong" python (a small one, but noticable for things that do a lot of importing and little other work, like somescript --help). If you run something as root that ends up importing one of those modules it will trigger a .pyc/.pyo rewrite, which is nasty. Closing WONTFIX.
