Re: [gpsd-dev] python2 and absolute paths

[Greg Troxel]

Please explain how it is sane for a program to build against one python
version, including building modules that link a path to a specific
library, and then just magically change to a different version with a
different ABI.  Have you actually tested this?  It obviously can't work
in the general case.  What I mean is to build gpsd with python2.6
installed and python2.7 not installed, with python2 pointing to 2.6.
Then with the package management system, add 2.7 and remove 2.6, telling
it to point python2 at 2.7.  Then run gpsd from the installed binaries,
including things that use the python stuff in PYSITELIB.  Are you saying
that this really works?

The logical extension of your argument is that gpsd cannot install
anything into a versioned path, like
$PREFIX/lib/python2.7/gps/clienthelpers.so.   You either have to support
swapping out the underlying python implementation or avoid it.

My point is that the only time this less-than-fully-qualified symlink
helps is exactly the case where it is unsound.

You're right that this requires every python program that depends on
external modules and particularly that builds extensions to bind to
particular version.  Failure to support that as the normal case is a bug
in python.

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