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Python 3.0a2, Gentoo Linux, x86
"make altinstall" installs idle, pydoc, and smtpd.py
This can partially break the previous Python install, which is counter
to the idea of altinstall being safe to use in parallel with an existing
install of a different version of Python.
IMO altinstall should install no files that lack a version number
somewhere in their path. I suggest having altinstall simply not install
pydoc, idle, and smtpd.py.

Agreed. Please provide a patch. Isn't this a 2.5-2.6 issue as well?

Yes, 2.5 and 2.6 are affected, too. The scripts are install by setup.py
in sharedinstall.

Here's a patch, against the 3.0a2 tarball.

Same patch appears to work fine against the 2.5.1 tarball.

I see this has been marked as "test needed", but this patch is a change
to Makefile.pre.in, and it's not clear to me how to unit test it using
the existing Python test framework.
FWIW, I've manually tested it (on Linux) by doing ./configure; make;
sudo make install and verifying the absence of (newly installed) idle,
pydoc, and smtpd.py in /usr/local/bin

That's good enough a test for me :)
Pinging gutworth so we can have this in 3.1.

Fixed in r71372. Thanks for the patch!

Refixed in r71400.

r71400 breaks installer builds. See issue5756.