12 ms·

Why assume python? It's huge compared to bash or perl. Lots of minimal configuration operational systems won't have python. More likely than go/ruby/node though

Why assume python? It's huge compared to bash or perl. Lots of minimal configuration operational systems won't have python. More likely than go/ruby/node though.

vog 9y ago
I had the impression that more an more system/initialization scripts are written in Python, at places where shell and perl were used in the past. And having a system using Python on startup is a pretty good indicator that Python will be preinstalled. However, I see that the situation may be different in specialized distros.
kefka 9y ago
If you're on RH derived systems, you're going to have a python 2.6 installed for rpm and yum to work. This bit us in our ass with centos 6.8 , when another package required python 2.7... If you install 2.7 directly, your system fails with a thousand cuts. A chroot is needed for that, unfortunately.
- sigjuice 9y ago
  chroot is unnecessary. You just install python 2.7 in its own directory and run it from there. The system-provided python 2.6 and your desired version of python should co-exist. As a general rule, never try to replace any program or library supplied by your distribution.
- Pete_D 9y ago
  I had this problem recently. The solution was to install Python 2.7 as a software collection: https://www.softwarecollections.org/en/scls/rhscl/python27/ https://www.softwarecollections.org/en/scls/rhscl/python27/ This installs it to /opt/rh, and you can run commands that need them with "scl enable python27 mything" or by sourcing /opt/rh/python27/enable in a script to set up PATH, etc.
chrisper 9y ago
You don't need to install go. It has the runtime thing built into the compiled executable.
- vog 9y ago
  Same with C. However, the binaries are then architecture dependent, so not really portable either. Nevertheless, statically linked binaries are indeed a good alternative, and provide good-enough portability in a wide range of cases.
- angry_octet 9y ago
  You do if you want to modify the code... Which is kind of the point.
oblio 9y ago
Is Python that much bigger than Perl? And from your list, Go doesn't really belong there, it outputs statically linked binaries. You can just plonk them anywhere.

Why assume python? It's huge compared to bash or perl. Lots of minimal configuration operational systems won't have python. More likely than go/ruby/node though.

vog 9y ago

I had the impression that more an more system/initialization scripts are written in Python, at places where shell and perl were used in the past. And having a system using Python on startup is a pretty good indicator that Python will be preinstalled. However, I see that the situation may be different in specialized distros.

kefka 9y ago

If you're on RH derived systems, you're going to have a python 2.6 installed for rpm and yum to work. This bit us in our ass with centos 6.8 , when another package required python 2.7... If you install 2.7 directly, your system fails with a thousand cuts. A chroot is needed for that, unfortunately.

sigjuice 9y ago
chroot is unnecessary. You just install python 2.7 in its own directory and run it from there. The system-provided python 2.6 and your desired version of python should co-exist. As a general rule, never try to replace any program or library supplied by your distribution.
Pete_D 9y ago
I had this problem recently. The solution was to install Python 2.7 as a software collection: https://www.softwarecollections.org/en/scls/rhscl/python27/ https://www.softwarecollections.org/en/scls/rhscl/python27/ This installs it to /opt/rh, and you can run commands that need them with "scl enable python27 mything" or by sourcing /opt/rh/python27/enable in a script to set up PATH, etc.

chrisper 9y ago

You don't need to install go. It has the runtime thing built into the compiled executable.

vog 9y ago
Same with C. However, the binaries are then architecture dependent, so not really portable either. Nevertheless, statically linked binaries are indeed a good alternative, and provide good-enough portability in a wide range of cases.
angry_octet 9y ago
You do if you want to modify the code... Which is kind of the point.

oblio 9y ago

Is Python that much bigger than Perl? And from your list, Go doesn't really belong there, it outputs statically linked binaries. You can just plonk them anywhere.