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Re: Please do not drop Python 2 modules



On 2018-04-25 at 06:46, Scott Kitterman wrote:

> On April 25, 2018 5:51:54 AM UTC, Andrea Bolognani <eof@kiyuko.org>
> wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 11:17:08PM +0000, Jeremy Stanley wrote:

>>> Given that "software collections" provides a containerized Python
>>> 3 build and basically none of the rest of the Python ecosystem 
>>> modules outside the stdlib (which would all require manual 
>>> rebuilding against it), this is nowhere close to the same as 
>>> providing an optional Python interpreter within the global
>>> system context as Debian has done. At least the projects I work
>>> on don't see RHEL software collections Python 3 as remotely
>>> supportable.
>> 
>> Fair enough; the point about distribution with lifecycles closer
>> to Debian's keeping Python 2 around for a while after switching
>> their default to Python 3 still stands.
> 
> In Debian there's no such thing as a 'default' python.  There's none
> in a minimal install.  All that ends up on a system is what is pulled
> in by dependency.

The word "default" means different things in different contexts and to
different people, and the one you cite (which I parse as being roughly
"installed automatically as part of the distribution") is only one of
them.

It is true that there is no such thing as "the version of Python which
will be present in a (default / minimal) install of Debian". However,
there is such a thing as "the version of Python which will be present in
a default install of Python on Debian" - meaning, an install of Python
on Debian with no version explicitly specified - and it is reasonable to
refer to that latter as "Debian's default version of Python".

The simple, obvious means of installing Python in Debian - either
manually, or as a dependency of another package - is via the package
named 'python'. At present, in current testing, doing this will pull in
python2.7 and will not (as far as I can see) pull in anything named
python3*.

That is enough to qualify Python 2 as "the Python which will be present
in a default install of Python on Debian", and therefore as "Debian's
default version of Python".

-- 
   The Wanderer

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man.         -- George Bernard Shaw

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