Gentoo Archives: gentoo-python

From: Rafael Goncalves Martins <rafaelmartins@g.o>
To: Mike Gilbert <floppym@g.o>
Cc: gentoo-python <gentoo-python@l.g.o>
Subject: Re: [gentoo-python] Python 3 in Gentoo
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 05:38:56
Message-Id: CAHgY3qeEnNxibXx3KR6W4CSmyLyhjSxhX33MO5R9Ku7rOFL3vQ@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: [gentoo-python] Python 3 in Gentoo by Mike Gilbert
1 Hi Mike,
2
3 On Sun, Jul 29, 2012 at 11:13 PM, Mike Gilbert <floppym@g.o> wrote:
4 > This past weekend, the topic of the current state of Python 3 in Gentoo
5 > was raised once again in the #gentoo-dev IRC channel. Here's where we
6 > currently stand:
7 >
8 > 1. Python 3.2 is installed by default on major arches due to its
9 > presence in the stage3 tarball.
10 >
11 > 2. Python 2 is NOT installed by default as nothing in the system set
12 > actually depends on it.
13 >
14 > 3. In most cases, users end up building and installing Python 2.7 as a
15 > dependency of some other package once they have their system set up.
16 > Users end up having two versions of Python installed.
17 >
18 > This third point is the cause of some annoyance for several (many?)
19 > developers and users. In most cases, there really is no reason for a
20 > user to have two versions of Python installed; it is simply a redundant
21 > set of code. However, if you attempt to remove Python 3, portage will
22 > just pull it back on the next world upgrade unless you mask it.
23 >
24 > I don't think this makes for a very good user experience. So, how can we
25 > change that?
26 >
27 > As I see it, we need a way to avoid portage's overly optimistic upgrade
28 > mechanic. One way to do that is to drop the stable keywords on Python 3,
29 > but I feel that is dishonest; Python 3 itself is perfectly stable, so we
30 > should not force users to unmask it.
31 >
32 > The other way that occurs to me (and others) is to rename
33 > dev-lang/python-3* to dev-lang/python3, treating it as an entirely
34 > separate package. I believe this has been proposed in the past, and I'm
35 > honestly not sure why it never gained traction. It would take some work,
36 > but we have already had a couple of non-python devs volunteer to help out.
37 >
38 > We can work out the technical details in follow-up discussion.
39 >
40 > Is anyone in favor or opposed to this package rename idea? Are there any
41 > better ideas?
42 >
43
44 I agree with any changes regarding have just python-2* installed by
45 default, including rename python-3* to python3.
46
47 Best Regards.
48
49 --
50 Rafael Goncalves Martins
51 Gentoo Linux developer
52 http://rafaelmartins.eng.br/