[chef] COOK-3084 - wrong python on RHEL5

[Alex Kiernan < >]

Bringing this to the mailing list as requested...

The comments in the ticket seem to suggest folks think I'm trying to use the interpreter attribute, I'm not...

If you specify a straight virtualenv:

  python_virtualenv "mine" do

  end

on RHEL5 then the defaults in resources/virtualenv.rb:

  attribute :interpreter, :default => 'python'

mean that you end up pointing at /usr/bin/python (which is 2.4), not /usr/bin/python26. This was a regression (for RHEL5 at least) introduced by COOK-1415.

By contrast the code in recipes/package.rb:

  if platform_family?('rhel') && major_version < 6

    include_recipe 'yum::epel'

    python_pkgs = ["python26", "python26-devel"]

    node.set['python']['binary'] = "/usr/bin/python26"

Explicitly chooses /usr/bin/python26 on RHEL5.

All I'm trying to do with the patch on COOK-3084 is ensure that the value of python passed to the virtualenv is consistent.

There is a minor change in behaviour on other platforms in that previously the virtualenv provider would pass --python=python whereas now it will pass --python=/usr/bin/python.

In many ways, not passing --python in at all would seem more correct, but that's not how the provider's ever worked - something like (untested):

diff --git a/providers/virtualenv.rb b/providers/virtualenv.rb

index dfd9f4e..addb724 100644

--- a/providers/virtualenv.rb

+++ b/providers/virtualenv.rb

@@ -29,7 +29,8 @@ end

 action :create do

   unless exists?

     Chef::Log.info("Creating virtualenv #{new_resource} at #{new_resource.path}")

-    execute "#{virtualenv_cmd} --python=#{new_resource.interpreter} #{new_resource.options} #{new_resource.path}" do

+    interpreter = new_resource.interpreter ? " --python=#{new_resource.interpreter}" : ""

+    execute "#{virtualenv_cmd}#{interpreter} #{new_resource.options} #{new_resource.path}" do

       user new_resource.owner if new_resource.owner

       group new_resource.group if new_resource.group

     end

diff --git a/resources/virtualenv.rb b/resources/virtualenv.rb

index dcb282c..e9f7327 100644

--- a/resources/virtualenv.rb

+++ b/resources/virtualenv.rb

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ def initialize(*args)

 end

 

 attribute :path, :kind_of => String, :name_attribute => true

-attribute :interpreter, :default => 'python'

+attribute :interpreter, :kind_of => String

 attribute :owner, :regex => Chef::Config[:user_valid_regex]

 attribute :group, :regex => Chef::Config[:group_valid_regex]

 attribute :options, :kind_of => String

--
Alex Kiernan