[gentoo-user] Properly isolating system Python to nuke PEP 668 from orbit forever?

[Matthew Brooks <matthewfbrooks@posteo.net>]

Hello!


Not sure where the most appropriate place to ask this is, so if some other list or something would be more appropriate, please let me know.

I'm interested in trying to solve the potential system python breakage that PEP 668 was meant to address, but solving it in a way that *doesn't* irrevocably break users' python package install workflows for all eternity like PEP 668 does. From what I've read, it looks like the issue is at least potentially addressable from the distro side, and since Gentoo is the only distro I care about, I figured I'd check here first.

So, does anyone know if there was any particular discussions of what alternatives might have been available, or what things specifically could/would break in Gentoo as a result of user-installed python packages interacting with system ones? I know I can't be the only one who was rather bothered by the manner it was addressed, so I figure there was probably at least some exploratory testing or theorizing done before PEP 668 was addopted into Gentoo, which would give me a starting point to work from.


For clarity, I'm *not* looking for a workaround for my particular system. My end goal (and not an easy one, granted) is to hopefully eventually make a proper fix that makes it so no user of any distro ever needs to touch a venv again if they don't want to.

I'm only a hobbyist programmer, but since nearly every distro under the sun went with the "externally managed environment" thing, it's clearly more an issue of motivation/time rather than raw skill. So I figure maybe my extreme distaste for the current solution might allow me to bash my head against the problem long enough to make some headway.