Command line prompt broken on XP with Python 2.5 - help!

[Endless Story]

My last version of Python was 2.4, running smoothly on XP with path c:
\Python24 - no need even to include this path in PATH; everything
worked as it's supposed to at the command line.

Just installed Python 2.5, after uninstalling 2.4 (and also 2.3 which
had lingered). Now if I open a shell in Windows Python is not
available! Here are the symptoms:

- If I open a shell using "Command line here" with XP Powertools, then
enter "python" at the prompt, nothing happens. I don't get a message
that the command is not recognized, but neither do I get the Python
prompt. Instead the Windows prompt comes back. No messages, no Python,
no nothing.

- If I go so far as to specify the full path to the Python executable,
I do get the Python prompt and Python appears to work properly -
except that I can't exit with CTRL-Z.

- If I open a shell from the Start menu, e.g. Start > run "command",
then try entering "python", the shell simply blows up.

What is going on here? I have uninstalled and reinstalled Python 2.5,
to no avail. I have gone so far as to specify c:\Python25 (the install
path) in my PATH variable, but this makes no difference. Right now
Python is unusable to me from the command prompt, meaning all of my
automation scripts that I run at the command line are gone too.

 

[Jim]

My last version of Python was 2.4, running smoothly on XP with path c:
\Python24 - no need even to include this path in PATH; everything
worked as it's supposed to at the command line.

Just installed Python 2.5, after uninstalling 2.4 (and also 2.3 which
had lingered). Now if I open a shell in Windows Python is not
available! Here are the symptoms:

- If I open a shell using "Command line here" with XP Powertools, then
enter "python" at the prompt, nothing happens. I don't get a message
that the command is not recognized, but neither do I get the Python
prompt. Instead the Windows prompt comes back. No messages, no Python,
no nothing.

- If I go so far as to specify the full path to the Python executable,
I do get the Python prompt and Python appears to work properly -
except that I can't exit with CTRL-Z.

- If I open a shell from the Start menu, e.g. Start > run "command",
then try entering "python", the shell simply blows up.

What is going on here? I have uninstalled and reinstalled Python 2.5,
to no avail. I have gone so far as to specify c:\Python25 (the install
path) in my PATH variable, but this makes no difference. Right now
Python is unusable to me from the command prompt, meaning all of my
automation scripts that I run at the command line are gone too.

Are you talking about the Environment Variables-->System Variable--

path?

You may want to right click on My Computer-->System Properties--

Advanced-->Environment Variables-->System variables-->Path-->Edit.

And check to see if it's there, if not then add it.
Thanks,
Jim

 

[Endless Story]

Are you talking about the Environment Variables-->System Variable-->path?
You may want to right click on My Computer-->System Properties-->Advanced-->
Environment Variables-->System variables-->Path-->Edit.
And check to see if it's there, if not then add it.

I've already added the new python to my path in this fashion, but to
no avail.

Besides, if it were a path problem in the usual sense, the symptom
would be a message at the command line saying that "python" is not
recognized. Since I don't get this message, it's not a typical path
problem. What it is, I don't know - that's my quandry.

 

[Tim Golden]

I've already added the new python to my path in this fashion, but to
no avail.

Besides, if it were a path problem in the usual sense, the symptom
would be a message at the command line saying that "python" is not
recognized. Since I don't get this message, it's not a typical path
problem. What it is, I don't know - that's my quandry.

I've certainly never seen anything like what you've described,
and I've had Python 2.5 installed and uninstalled on several
different machines (Win2k & WinXP). I would ask if you had
*any* other Python installation -- say a cygwin one -- which
might just be getting in the way? Are you an administrator on
the machine you're on? Sometimes (a while ago and with the
ActiveState distro rather than python.org one) it has been
known to cause problems if you're not. Do the previous
installations still work?

Clutching at straws, really.

TJG

 

[Endless Story]

I would ask if you had *any* other Python installation
-- say a cygwin one -- which might just be getting in the way?

It's a cygwin problem, guddammit. I was wondering if this might be the
case - I should have mentioned in my initial post that I've got a
whole Cygwin setup, including Python.

I know the conflict is the problem because just now I opened up a
command shell in XP (not the Cywgin bash window), and instead of
typing "python" and getting nothing, I tried "which python" - which
when you think about it, shouldn't even work in a XP shell. But
somehow Cygwin is mingling some of its capabilities with the XP shell,
because "which python" actually gets an answer - "/usr/bin/python,"
which is Cygwin.

Now the question is how to fix this - I don't want to uninstall the
Cygwin version. Instead I need some way of unknotting Cygwin's
intrusion into what should be an XP-only shell, or else a way of
giving priority when in that shell (and not the bash shell, which I
also use) to the Python executable residing at C:\Python25.

 

[Steve Holden]

It's a cygwin problem, guddammit. I was wondering if this might be the
case - I should have mentioned in my initial post that I've got a
whole Cygwin setup, including Python.

I know the conflict is the problem because just now I opened up a
command shell in XP (not the Cywgin bash window), and instead of
typing "python" and getting nothing, I tried "which python" - which
when you think about it, shouldn't even work in a XP shell. But
somehow Cygwin is mingling some of its capabilities with the XP shell,
because "which python" actually gets an answer - "/usr/bin/python,"
which is Cygwin.

Now the question is how to fix this - I don't want to uninstall the
Cygwin version. Instead I need some way of unknotting Cygwin's
intrusion into what should be an XP-only shell, or else a way of
giving priority when in that shell (and not the bash shell, which I
also use) to the Python executable residing at C:\Python25.

It sounds like you may have mistakenly added Cygwin binary directories
to your Windows path. This isn't normally necessary, since the Cygwin
shell makes all necessary path adjustments as it starts.

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com
Skype: holdenweb http://del.icio.us/steve.holden
Blog of Note: http://holdenweb.blogspot.com
See you at PyCon? http://us.pycon.org/TX2007

 

[Endless Story]

It sounds like you may have mistakenly added Cygwin binary directories
to your Windows path. This isn't normally necessary, since the Cygwin
shell makes all necessary path adjustments as it starts.

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com
Skype: holdenweb http://del.icio.us/steve.holden
Blog of Note: http://holdenweb.blogspot.com
See you at PyCon? http://us.pycon.org/TX2007

 

[Endless Story]

It sounds like you may have mistakenly added Cygwin binary directories
to your Windows path. This isn't normally necessary, since the Cygwin
shell makes all necessary path adjustments as it starts.

I did add c:/cywgin to the path, don't remember why now.

For the moment I've moved c:\cygwin to the end of my path, so that it
comes after c:\Python25, and reinstalled Python 2.5. That seems to
have cured at least this particular problem with Python. When I have a
spare moment I will take cygwin out of the path altogether and see if
I can remember why I put it in there to begin with ...

 

[Endless Story]

Okay - here is from the Cygwin manual available online at http://
cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/cygwin-ug-net.html:

"The PATH environment variable is used by Cygwin applications as a
list of directories to search for executable files to run. This
environment variable is converted from Windows format (e.g. C:\WinNT
\system32;C:\WinNT) to UNIX format (e.g., /WinNT/system32:/WinNT) when
a Cygwin process first starts. Set it so that it contains at least the
x:\cygwin\bin directory where "x:\cygwin is the "root" of your cygwin
installation if you wish to use cygwin tools outside of bash."

 

[Endless Story]

I did add c:/cywgin to the path, don't remember why now.

Having looked at the Cygwin user manual, I think I probably did this
as the result of misunderstanding the installation process. A PATH
variable is needed, but it can go into cygwin.bat.