Use python2 binary, since python can be an alias to python3

[flying-sheep]

would have been fixed in #911

[ioquatix]

I'm having issues trying to compile stuff

gyp ERR! configure error 
gyp ERR! stack Error: Python executable "/opt/local/bin/python" is v3.3.6, which is not supported by gyp.
gyp ERR! stack You can pass the --python switch to point to Python >= v2.5.0 & < 3.0.0.
gyp ERR! stack     at failPythonVersion (/Applications/User/Atom.app/Contents/Resources/app/apm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:454:14)
gyp ERR! stack     at /Applications/User/Atom.app/Contents/Resources/app/apm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:443:9
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:204:7)
gyp ERR! stack     at emitTwo (events.js:87:13)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:172:7)
gyp ERR! stack     at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:827:16)
gyp ERR! stack     at Socket.<anonymous> (internal/child_process.js:319:11)
gyp ERR! stack     at emitOne (events.js:77:13)
gyp ERR! stack     at Socket.emit (events.js:169:7)
gyp ERR! stack     at Pipe._onclose (net.js:477:12)
gyp ERR! System Darwin 16.0.0
gyp ERR! command "/Applications/User/Atom.app/Contents/Resources/app/apm/bin/node" "/Applications/User/Atom.app/Contents/Resources/app/apm/node_modules/.bin/node-gyp" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /Users/samuel/.atom/packages/autocomplete-ctags/node_modules/ctags
gyp ERR! node -v v4.4.5
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v3.4.0
gyp ERR! not ok 

Python defaults to 3.x but python2.6 and python2.7 are available. ??????????

[flying-sheep]

that’s OK. PEP 394 says:

python refers to python3 on at least Arch Linux […] so python should be used in the shebang line only for scripts that are source compatible with both Python 2 and 3.

in preparation for an eventual change in the default version of Python, Python 2 only scripts should either be updated to be source compatible with Python 3 or else to use python2 in the shebang line.

#911 would fix node-gyp to do this right and use python2 if available, but still falls back to python if it’s not available.

[ioquatix]

This allows you to work around the issue for atom:

apm config set python $(which python2.7)

Perhaps it works with npm too.

[ioquatix]

Just FYI:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/gyp-developer/FpZiX88f5ZU
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/gyp-developer/S75A6C2e3eA

Hopefully this will be fixed upstream too, soon.

[bnoordhuis]

I'm going to close this because I don't think we'll change the current behavior. node-gyp goes to some lengths to find a python2 binary with a fallback to just 'python'. IOW, this should work most of the time and when it doesn't you can pass --python <path> explicitly (or set it with npm config.)

[flying-sheep]

when this was created, it certainly didn’t thought 😉

[bnoordhuis]

It did, actually. The algorithm was tweaked a little, though.

[flying-sheep]

am i missing something?

look at #911’s diff (my PR from back then): i don’t see any attempt at the previous code to use anything but the “python” binary.