Pyenv – lets you easily switch between multiple versions of Python

Re:Pyenv – lets you easily switch between multiple versions ... by BiteCode_dev on Monday March 25, 2024 @07:50AM (#39815118)

That happens way more often than people want to admit, and I think it's not genuine to present the tool that way.

E.G, I'm on Ubuntu 20.04 on an Dell XPS, a fairly standard machine, I'll get:

    pyenv install 3.9 -v
    /tmp/python-build.20240325124651.73089 ~
    Downloading Python-3.9.19.tar.xz...
    -> https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.9.19/Python-3.9.19.tar.xz
    ...
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/tmp/python-build.20240325124651.73089/Python-3.9.19 CC='gcc -pthread' LDSHARED='gcc -pthread -shared -L/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.9.19/lib -Wl,-rpath,/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.9.19/lib -L/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.9.19/lib -Wl,-rpath,/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.9.19/lib  ' OPT='-DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall'  _TCLTK_INCLUDES='' _TCLTK_LIBS=''  ./python -E ./setup.py  build
    running build
    running build_ext
    ... etc

There are obviously binaries for this Python, since I can apt install it and I didn't specify the minor version.

But by default it downloads the source, and compiles it.

On top of that it will use a shim which comes with its own world of possible pain.

Again, I don't want to bash on pyenv.

But I do want to lower people's expectations.

It's a tool for experts, not beginners.

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Re:Pyenv – lets you easily switch between multiple versions ... by orf on Monday March 25, 2024 @10:17AM (#39816639)

I’ve quite literally never seen it download a pre-compiled Python - I didn’t actually know it had that functionality, and have been using it for probably a decade.

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Re:Pyenv – lets you easily switch between multiple versions ... by cqqxo4zV46cp on Monday March 25, 2024 @11:17AM (#39817388)

Ditto. I had no idea that it ever looked for a pre-compiled version.

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Re:Pyenv – lets you easily switch between multiple versions ... by ejj28 on Monday March 25, 2024 @10:52AM (#39817066)

Actually, I'm pretty sure that binaries for Python 3.9 aren't available on Ubuntu 20.04 without adding an apt repository to get them from, so your statement that you "can apt install it" isn't entirely correct in this case - by default, binaries aren't available, and therefore pyenv has to compile Python 3.9.

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Re:Pyenv – lets you easily switch between multiple versions ... by BiteCode_dev on Monday March 25, 2024 @01:13PM (#39818834)

Just tried, I get the same result with 3.7, 3.8, 3.10 and 3.11.

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