[Bug 668309] New: as-python.m4 should be updated or removed in favor of standard automake AM_PATH_PYTHON

[GStreamer (bugzilla.gnome.org)]

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=668309
  GStreamer | gst-plugins-base | 0.10.22

           Summary: as-python.m4 should be updated or removed in favor of
                    standard automake AM_PATH_PYTHON
    Classification: Platform
           Product: GStreamer
           Version: 0.10.22
        OS/Version: Solaris
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: normal
          Priority: Normal
         Component: gst-plugins-base
        AssignedTo: gstreamer-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
        ReportedBy: mooney at dogbert.cc.ndsu.nodak.edu
         QAContact: gstreamer-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
     GNOME version: ---


Building gst-plugins-base-0.10.35 on x86_64-sun-solaris2.10.

There are several minor issues with the common/m4/as-python.m4 macro.

- its version checks are out of date.  It checks for a python binary named
  "python2.2", but not python2.7, python2.6, etc.

- much of the code in the checks that actually uses python to determine things
  (like PYTHON_VERSION & PYTHON_PLATFORM) is not compatible with python3.  A
  few of the Linux distributions are planning to convert to python3, so the
  version check should really be modified so that it prefers a binary named
  "python2" over one just named "python", as the day is coming when "python"
  is a 3.x binary.

- it just assumes that whatever python binary it finds, the prefix it's
  installed under is going to be the same as ${prefix}.  That's a bad 
  assumption, and it's not needed; you can just ask python what its prefix
  is, similar to how a test is already asking python what its platform
  and version are.  The test is just

    PYTHON_PREFIX=`$PYTHON -c "import sys; print sys.prefix"`

- same is true for PYTHON_EXEC_PREFIX:

    PYTHON_EXEC_PREFIX=`$PYTHON -c "import sys; print sys.exec_prefix"`

- same is true for pythondir and pkgpyexecdir; just ask python:

    # note distutils requires python > 1.5
    pythondir=`$PYTHON -c "from distutils import sysconfig; print
sysconfig.get_python_lib()"`

    pyexecdir=`$PYTHON -c "from distutils import sysconfig; print
sysconfig.get_python_lib(plat_specific=1)"`

I have a patch that addresses all of these things, but I'm also kind of
wondering if the common/as/as-python.m4 could just be removed, in favor of the
standard AM_PATH_PYTHON macro that comes with automake.  That macro even
appears to work with python3.x, though that isn't much help with the python
code in gst-plugins-base doesn't work with 3.x.

Let me know if you want the patch, or if you would like me to instead provide a
patch that just converts to using AM_PATH_PYTHON.

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