Description

pfmoore

opened on May 9, 2025

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Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
One thing I often need to know is the executable name of the Python interpreter (although to be fair, with the new pythonX.Y aliases, that need might not be as great any more). It would be nice if this was part of the default output of py list.

Describe the solution you'd like
Add the executable path (or sys.prefix, it's not critical which) to the default display of py list.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Given that there's limited screen space, removing the "aliases" column in favour of "executable" might be worthwhile. The aliases are fairly easy to deduce from the version, so seem less helpful to have available by default.

It's possible to get the data via py list --format=json | jq, but the schema is rather complex (and undocumented?) and jq isn't the easiest language to use.

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1. pfmoore

   added

   enhancementNew feature or requestNew feature or request

   on May 9, 2025
2. pfmoore commented on May 9, 2025

   

   pfmoore

   on May 9, 2025

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   Actually, I just found --format=prefix. This addresses at last part of my request. My confusion arose because the "Some columns were truncated" message in a plain py list command mentions JSON format, but nothing else. I'm not convinced the JSON suggestion is of much use there, as py list --format=json is hardly a good way of seeing the remainder of the truncated "alias" column.

   Maybe just say "Some columns were truncated. See py list --help for information on other ways to display this data." The key thing being to direct people to the actual help information rather than trying to guess what would be useful to them.
3. zooba

   closed this as completedin 321a9e6on May 9, 2025
4. pfmoore commented on May 10, 2025

   

   pfmoore

   on May 10, 2025

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   I'd still prefer it if the executable path (or prefix) were displayed rather than the list of aliases in the default output. Should this issue be reopened to cover that, or should I take the fact that you've closed it as meaning that you disagree and have rejected the suggestion? (It's not a major matter to me, so I'm more interested in getting a clear resolution than insisting that this needs to be done).
5. zooba commented on May 11, 2025

   

   zooba

   on May 11, 2025

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   I'd still prefer it if the executable path (or prefix) were displayed rather than the list of aliases in the default output

   I think consider it gently rejected. Using the full path ought to be rare, and the aliases are intentionally preferred (to try and match how POSIX systems work, so that docs can be compatible).

   For CPython (anything with a recent enough python3.dll anyway) the aliases will just load and run it directly, so they aren't doing an extra subprocess like the current venv redirector does - there's no loss in launching them compared to the "original" executable. But if possible I do want to try and move Windows users to think about either py -V:... or (to match POSIX) pythonX.Y. Everything in between is to smooth out muscle memory.
6. zooba

   added a commit that references this issue on May 12, 2025

   py list: When columns are truncated, direct the user to --help for mo…

   This issue will close once commit 321a9e6 is merged into the 'main' branch.

   321a9e6

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