Build Fails on ArchLinux due to Python version mismatch

[TheNeikos]

While I am aware that Atom does not seem to officially support ArchLinux I am certain that it should be able to be used on it.

The build fails due to node-gyp expecting Python 2.7, but ArchLinux has switch it's default version to python 3.

This could be fixed by providing the --python argument to node-gyp on build.

Taken from here:

https://github.com/TooTallNate/node-gyp#installation

I am not sure what would be the best option to fix this.

I got it to work by symlinking /usr/bin/python to python2 (temporarily) but this is hardly a convenient solution.

[xolan]

You can export PYTHON=python2 before using the build script.

There's also a couple of packages in the AUR; "atom-editor" and "atom-editor-git".

[TheNeikos]

That is true, but in that case it should be added to the build requirements (of atom in this case)

[xolan]

ArchLinux is an edge case where "python" refers to Python3, and "python2" to Python2. In other distros it's usually the other way around ("python" for Python2, "python3" for Python3). I think it's fine for the build script to cater to the most common distros, and have those with edge cases handle quirks in their own packaging, like what's been done in the "atom-editor-git" package (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/at/atom-editor-git/PKGBUILD).

On the other hand, if this could be detected on build time to use the proper binary/version, that would obviously be the best solution.

EDIT: An extra build requirement has popped up in Atom's README now. (atom/atom@0cdce9c)

[kevinsawicki]

As @xolan mentioned, the build requirements now mention Python and how to configure the right version so I think this can be closed out now.