[Mageia-dev] Minimal patching vs. fixing the whole Universe

Thu Jun 23 00:08:35 CEST 2011

'Twas brillig, and David W. Hodgins at 22/06/11 22:51 did gyre and gimble:
+> On Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:47:40 -0400, Radu-Cristian FOTESCU
+> <beranger5ca at yahoo.ca> wrote:
+> 
+>> As long as '/usr/bin/env python' _works_, I see no point in trying to
+>> rewrite other people's work.
+> 
+> Excluding the calibre scripts, in /usr/bin of a Mageia 1 kde clean
+> installation ...
+> # grep -I python *|grep '#!'|grep env
+> ebook-convert:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> ebook-device:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> ebook-meta:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> ebook-viewer:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> epub-fix:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> fetch-ebook-metadata:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> gsettings-schema-convert:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> jack_control:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> lrf2lrs:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> lrfviewer:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> lrs2lrf:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> markdown-calibre:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> pdfmanipulate:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> pykdeuic4:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> pykdeuic4:header = """#!/usr/bin/env python
+> web2disk:#!/usr/bin/env python
+> 
+> In general, I agree with you.  If it isn't broken, don't fix it.
+> 
+> However, in this case, the python2 had to be changed to python.
+> 
+> The environment is not being modified, so it is adding an unneeded process,
+> which should be discouraged.
+> 
+> Since you have to change the line anyway, I have to agree with Ahmad, that
+> it should be changed to #!/usr/bin/python.
+
+
+I think it's relatively unimportant overall, but:
+
+ 1) /usr/bin/python should be marginally faster
+ 2) /usr/bin/python prevents you testing easily with a new python
+version (or just a new build) in a custom prefix).
+
+So 1) is a (very slight) pro for everyone, but 2) is a pretty big con
+for developers playing with python builds.... of course in that case a
+simple "sudo mv /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/python.orig; ln -s
+/path/to/my/custom/build/of/python /usr/bin/python" should allow said
+developer to test fine.
+
+Col
+
+-- 
+
+Colin Guthrie
+mageia(at)colin.guthr.ie
+http://colin.guthr.ie/
+
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+