From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 22030 invoked by alias); 3 Oct 2012 15:39:09 -0000 Received: (qmail 21855 invoked by uid 22791); 3 Oct 2012 15:39:07 -0000 X-SWARE-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.5 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,RCVD_IN_HOSTKARMA_NO,TBC X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from rock.gnat.com (HELO rock.gnat.com) (205.232.38.15) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.43rc1) with ESMTP; Wed, 03 Oct 2012 15:39:03 +0000 Received: from localhost (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by filtered-rock.gnat.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id B1CB71C7D3E; Wed, 3 Oct 2012 11:39:02 -0400 (EDT) Received: from rock.gnat.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (rock.gnat.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id da-sj23Wu4k2; Wed, 3 Oct 2012 11:39:02 -0400 (EDT) Received: from joel.gnat.com (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by rock.gnat.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F3AF1C7D4A; Wed, 3 Oct 2012 11:39:02 -0400 (EDT) Received: by joel.gnat.com (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 3A66BC67FF; Wed, 3 Oct 2012 17:38:54 +0200 (CEST) Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2012 15:39:00 -0000 From: Joel Brobecker To: Jan Kratochvil Cc: Doug Evans , Meador Inge , gdb@sourceware.org Subject: Re: Using Py_SetPythonHome Message-ID: <20121003153854.GC13994@adacore.com> References: <20120917170657.GB5716@adacore.com> <20120917174611.GA27891@host2.jankratochvil.net> <20120919080410.GA12296@host2.jankratochvil.net> <20120921153645.GD5439@adacore.com> <20120921154345.GA30615@host2.jankratochvil.net> <20120921155758.GE5439@adacore.com> <20120921172735.GA4341@host2.jankratochvil.net> <20121002130854.GL30746@adacore.com> <20121003151244.GA22734@host2.jankratochvil.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20121003151244.GA22734@host2.jankratochvil.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) Mailing-List: contact gdb-help@sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: gdb-owner@sourceware.org X-SW-Source: 2012-10/txt/msg00022.txt.bz2 > Show me any common GNU/Linux distro [...] There lies the problem. You are being focused on distros, whereas I am saying that we should cater to the needs of people who do not provide a distribution, but just a binary package. This is why we disagree so strongly. You need to understand that there are uses of Free Software other than distribution-provided binaries. It may be a lot less common today, compared to 15 years ago, but to this day, I still build a lot of software from sources, and I move it around from time to time. Example: For GDB development, I build specific versions of the auto tools, as well as flex, etc. I install them at a specific location to start somewhere in my home directory. But then, the sysadmin asked me to move it elsewhere because it takes too much room. Should I have to recompile everything just because the world is now distro-centric? Should every company out there that provides binary packages deal with the problem on their own rather than share the feature just because it isn't a necessary feature in distro-style binaries? Yes, it would be great if glibc dealt with it automatically for us. But what about Solaris, HP-UX, IRIX, Windows? Right now, there is no standard cross-platform way to deal with the problem. So each project is on its own. Not ideal, but still a fact that we have to deal with. > > Going back to the actual subject of this discussion, would it cause > > a problem to call Py_SetPythonHome in your situation where everything > > is static and installed at the default location? > > Yes, it is a problem because 99.9% of other Python-using packages behave > differently. With this reasoning, would people ever inovate? -- Joel