[Zope] Re: ANNOUNCE: Zope 2.6.3 Release and Security Update

[kosh]

On Saturday 10 January 2004 05:14 pm, Chris McDonough wrote:
> On Sat, 2004-01-10 at 17:57, kosh wrote:
> > I have NEVER run into that problem with debian. I have been using zope
> > for years with the default install of python on debian and it has worked
> > without problems. Also when you use the dists version you can install
> > other packages for it easier. I can do apt-get install python2.1-imaging
> > and for many other extension types.
>
> I think Tres' point was really not that you can't use the system
> installed Python or that there *are* problems with any given default
> install of Python on any given distribution, it's just that a) nobody
> knows; it's too hard to keep track of... Red Hat patches Python in some
> fairly strange ways, for instance and b) when the sysadmin tasks are
> performed by someone who is not the developer, there's a potential for
> problems when the system Python gets upgraded.  It's cheap to build your
> own Python, and makes a lot of sense in the context of trying to deploy
> many systems for production use.  It's definitely possible to use the
> system-installed Python for Zope and might even make sense in a lot of
> cases but not for all.
>
> FWIW, on Debian, I've found that it's a pain in the ass to *build*
> Python because of weirdness with placement of libz.so (which Python
> requires in order to build the zlib library, which Zope in turn relies
> on to start), and I seem to also remember needing to play games with the
> readline libraries in order to have readline-capable interactive Python
> sessions.  All that said, I'd rather solve all of those problems and use
> my own Python because I do codevelopment with people on different
> platforms.  I'll usually build a set of "buildout" scripts that installs
> Python along with Zope and all the products I need.  I do this because
> the buildout needs to work on BSD, Linux, Cygwin, and Solaris.  It's a
> nobrainer in this case to *not* use the system installed Python.
>
> - C

I find that when I build stuff myself it creates a lot more work since you 
have to remember every package you have built by hand and to rebuild it when 
there are exploits. If I keep everything in the package system then it will 
take care of the upates with far less time on my part. That is also why when 
I do stuff I choose dependencies for my software based on what is in the 
debian archives since the stuff in those archives is the easiest to install 
and keep updated over time and it also tends to have the most popular 
packages so you end up using a library that most systems probably have easily 
available.

I do all of this for long term maintenance to make my life easier so I can 
spend more time doing devel and less time taking care of all of the upate 
stuff the system should be able to do for me.