Ubuntu + virtualenv = a mess? virtualenv hates dist-packages, wants site-packages

Question

Can someone please explain to me what is going on with python in ubuntu 9.04?

I\'m trying to spin up virtualenv, and the --no-site-packages

Answer 1

I'd be tempted to hack it by making site-packages a link to dist-packages, but I guess this might affect other cases where you want to install some extension other than from the ubuntu dist. I can't think of another answer to 1 except tweaking virtualenv's sources (with both ubuntu and virtualenv being so popular I wouldn't be surprised to find tweaked versions already exist).

Re 2, if you're using /usr/local/bin/python you should use the /usr/local version of the lib (including site-packages) and conversely if you're using /usr/bin/python.

Re 3, there will be something there if you ever install an extension for /usr/bin/python from sources (not via easy_install or from ubuntu's distro).

Re 4, yes, earlier entries on the path take precedence.

Re 5, easy_install is easy only in its name -- it does so much dark magic that it's been carefully kept out of the standard python library despite its convenience because the consensus among us python committers is that deep dark magic for convenience is "easy" only on the surface.

Re 6, I think that's an ubuntu modification to easy_install -- if that's right then it's defined wherever Canonical or other ubuntu maintainers make their collective decisions.

Re 7, sorry, no idea -- I have no reasonably recent ubuntu at hand to check.