ports/UPDATING instructions and Python 2.4

[Nikola Lecic]

On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 09:15:52 -0500
Kirk Strauser <kirk at strauser.com> wrote:

> I need to keep Python 2.4 on my system to run Zope (which isn't  
> compatible with 2.5).  So, I dutifully followed the instructions  
> under /usr/ports/UPDATING starting with "If want to keep 2.4.x  
> installed alongside 2.5.x [...]".  When I came back a little later,  
> all of my dependent ports had been upgraded from py24-* to py25-*,  
> effectively killing my webserver.
> 
> Could someone else take a look at those instructions and see if they  
> make sense - they look a little suspicious to me - or if there is  
> some gotcha that I might have missed?  Thanks.

Hello Kirk,

A couple of thoughts that could be useful.

The instructions explain how to keep both 2.4 and 2.5 versions of
_Python_itself_, that's all. The "PYTHON_DEFAULT_VERSION=python2.5" line
of /etc/make.conf serves as an indicator to all new applications to
avoid confusion if python-2.4 is installed alongside.

You now probably have something like:

  # ls -d /var/db/pkg/py*
  /var/db/pkg/python24-2.4.4_1
  /var/db/pkg/python25-2.5.1
  /var/db/pkg/py25-cairo-1.4.0_1
  /var/db/pkg/py25-chardet-1.0_3
  [... etc., py25-* only ...]

Zope feels fine in this situation:

  # cd /usr/ports/www/zope3
  # make configure
  [...]
  ===>  Patching for zope-3.3.1
  ===>  Applying FreeBSD patches for zope-3.3.1
  ===>   zope-3.3.1 depends on file: /usr/local/bin/python2.4 - found
  ===>  Configuring for zope-3.3.1
  Configuring Zope installation
  Using Python interpreter at /usr/local/bin/python2.4

(The same for other py-* ports that are fixed to 2.4 interpreter (i.e.
www/py-pylons).)

Now, I'm trying to understand what happened to your webserver: you said
that changing py24-* to py25-* broke it. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I
see just 7 py-* ports that have any relationship with Zope. These are: 

  databases/py-psycopg   [WITH_ZOPE optional]
  devel/py-zopeInterface
  devel/py-twistedCore   [dependent on devel/py-zopeInterface]
  lang/py-mx-base        [WITH_ZOPE optional]
  x11-toolkits/py-kiwi   [optionally linked with devel/py-zopeInterface]
  devel/py-zconfig       [not sure about this one]
  textproc/py-zpt        [not sure about this one]

The presence of 'WITH_ZOPE' flag will force the port to use correct
version of Python: 

  # cd /usr/ports/lang/py-mx-base/
  # make USE_ZOPE=yes
  ===>   py23-mx-base-2.0.6 depends on file: /usr/local/bin/python2.3 - not found
  ===>    Verifying install for /usr/local/bin/python2.3 in /usr/ports/lang/python23

(ZOPE_VERSION is also available.) So where is the connection between
zope and py-* ports that crashed your webserver? Please elaborate on
this, i.e. how does you webserver depend on py24-*?

In meantime, if you just need py24- versions of several ports, you can
do something like this:

  # portupgrade -f -r -m "PYTHON_VERSION=2.4" py25-imaging

This will install py24-imaging and rebuild ports dependent on it (e.g.
graphics/skencil). Use '-n' flag to see what will happen first.

This is a quick and non-elegant help to get your webserver working
again. If you provide more information you will surely get more
in-depth explanation and more elegant solution from someone, preferably
from other Zope users.

Nikola Lečić