[Python-modules-team] Bug#815631: sphinx: Use alternatives to provide scripts under /usr/bin

[Dmitry Shachnev]

Hi Kevin,

On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 11:24:40PM +1100, Kevin Murray wrote:
> Ah yes, that's true about hardcoding. This is actually why I need this:
> hardcoded occurrences of sphinx-build in makefiles that aren't in python
> projects but use (and only work with) python3 packages. And thanks for the tip
> about python -m sphinx, I hadn't considered that. Though for the current use
> case still means patching a makefile, in which case I'll just include the full
> path to the installed script under /usr/share/sphinx.
>
> The problem was to use python3-sphinx from a Makefile (not an auto-generated
> sphinx-quickstart one) without patching the makefile. Given your descriptions
> above, I think that there are better ways of solving this problem than what I
> proposed.

Yes, in case it's hardcoded, you probably need to either patch Makefile or
execute sphinx-build from debian/rules by hand (and bug your upstream about
using configurable Make variables like in Sphinx-generated ones). 

> *However*, there is a supplementary issue: AFAICT, which package provides the
> /usr/bin/sphinx-* scripts depends on the order of installation. To me this
> sounds a little off, but I'm not sure. What is your opinion of this?

No, it shouldn't depend on the order of installation. If the Python 2 version
is present, it's used, otherwise the Python 3 one.

This is mostly for compatibility with old Python 2 only stuff…

--
Dmitry Shachnev
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