pymacs installer should not install to default location

[tlroche]

summary: currently (v0.24-beta2), if one's python is installed under /opt, pymacs will install to /usr/local. I claim this is a bug, and assert that pymacs should raise an error if it cannot install to the $(which python).

details:

I recently tried to install pymacs to satisfy python-mode's requirement (see

https://bugs.launchpad.net/python-mode/+bug/835868

) onto a box with

$ lsb_release -ds
Linux Mint Debian Edition
$ uname -rv
2.6.39-2-amd64 #1 SMP Tue Jul 5 02:51:22 UTC 2011
$ emacs --version
GNU Emacs 23.3.1
$ which python
/opt/EPD/epd-7.1-2-rh5-x86_64/bin/python
$ python --version
Python 2.7.2 -- EPD 7.1-2 (64-bit)

Note that this `python` is

* EPD=="Enthought Python Distribution" (for numpy, scipy, etc)
* on the search path
* not under /usr

To install pymacs, I did

URI="https://github.com/pinard/Pymacs/tarball/v0.24-beta2" # current latest version
DIR="${HOME}/.emacs.d/site-lisp/python/pymacs-v0.24-beta2"
mkdir -p "${DIR}"
pushd "${DIR}"
wget -O - "${URI}" | tar xfz -
mv pinard-Pymacs-016b0bc/* ./
rm -fr pinard-Pymacs-016b0bc/
cd ..
ln -s ./pymacs-v0.24-beta2 ./pymacs
cd pymacs/
make check EMACS="$(which emacs)" PYTHON="$(which python)"

Last line was specifically motivated by

http://pymacs.progiciels-bpi.ca/pymacs.html#installation
> To check a particular Emacs and Python combination, use
> make check EMACS=some_Emacs PYTHON=some_Python.

and resulted in

> Summary: 353 good tests in 10.14 seconds.

I then did

me@it:~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/python/pymacs$ sudo make install

without noting that

http://pymacs.progiciels-bpi.ca/pymacs.html#installation
> From the top-level of the Pymacs distribution, execute make install.
> If the Python interpreter has a non-standard name or location, rather do
> make install PYTHON=Some_Python

As one would guess, if one had RTFMed, pymacs proceeded to install incorrectly

> creating /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Pymacs
> copying build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.6/Pymacs/pymacs.py -> /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Pymacs
> copying build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.6/Pymacs/__init__.py -> /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Pymacs
> byte-compiling /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Pymacs/pymacs.py to pymacs.pyc
> byte-compiling /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Pymacs/__init__.py to __init__.pyc
> running install_egg_info
> Writing /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Pymacs-0.24_beta2.egg-info

which then caused a second bug, involving the the error message

> Pymacs helper did not start within 30 seconds

in the minibuffer, about which I will create a separate bug report.

HTH, Tom Roche <email address hidden>

[tlroche (tom-roche)]

The separate bug report is

https://bugs.launchpad.net/python-mode/+bug/852293

(I'd edit this bug=852287 if I could see how to do so--I should put a FR on launchpad.)

[Andreas Roehler (a-roehler)]

Hi Tom.

think that's an issue you should report at pymacs home. Would welcome a cc at the mailing list, so we notice should something related go on elsewhere.

However, don't think we should track bugs from third-party stuff here - unless python-mode itself is affected.

Cheers,

Andreas