[Reportbug-maint] Bug#484534: Bug#484534: reportbug: Possible solution

[Ben Finney]

On 12-Jun-2008, Sandro Tosi wrote:
> Hi Neil,
> 
> > The conventional shebang line for python scripts is #!/usr/bin/env
> > python. However, I can see that reportbug might want to eliminate the
> > possibility of a non-standard python (eg from /usr/local) so just taking
> > the -S off is probably the right thing to do.
> 
> Thanks a lot for this hint! I've checked and it works fine (may dirs
> were left out with "-S"), thus I've just committed that change to our
> svn repository (it will be included in the next release). In the
> meantime, I've prepared a preliminary package here[1]: it would be
> thankful if anyone with this problem can check it out.

It's true that one convention in the Python community is a shebang 
line of "#! /usr/bin/env python".

However, the Debian Python Policy, §1.3.2 
<URL:file:///usr/share/doc/python/python-policy.txt.gz> specifically 
recommends against that practice.

    1.3.2. Interpreter Location
    ---------------------------

         The preferred specification for the Python interpreter is
         `/usr/bin/python' or `/usr/bin/python<X>.<Y>'.  This ensures that a
         Debian installation of python is used and all dependencies on
         additional python modules are met.

         If a maintainer would like to provide the user with the possibility to
         override the Debian Python interpreter, he may want to use
         `/usr/bin/env python' or `/usr/bin/env python<X>.<Y>'.  However this
         is not advisable as it bypasses Debian's dependency checking and makes
         the package vulnerable to incomplete local installations of python.

So I'd advise that the minimal change for this bug would be to have a 
standard Debian shebang line of "#! /usr/bin/python".

-- 
 \     "Demagogue: One who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to |
  `\                  men he knows to be idiots."  -- Henry L. Mencken |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney <ben at benfinney.id.au>
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