cli.py is marked executable but is missing a shebang

[gotlougit]

I was encountering issue #1323, so I executed the program by directly calling ./cli.py, however I would get an error on line 13 due to the big comment block there. Upon further inspection I found that there was no shebang in the file, and upon adding one (#!/usr/bin/env python3.9), it worked just fine. In both situations, python3.9 cli.py works.

I decided to create an issue to gather some feedback on what should be done:

1. Should the file not be marked executable?
2. Should a shebang be added?

[XDRAGON2002]

Can you elaborate on what you mean by both situations? Does is resolve the entry point error?
Can you also share what error did you face on line 13?

[terriko]

We haven't got one because we don't recommend people run cli.py directly (it can cause weird behaviour with the checkers where sometimes they won't load). We prefer that people install it for the most consistent user experience (and recommend virutalenvs for folk who don't want to system-wide install it). The issue's described a bit in #677. We have a workaround that re-generated the egg for installed copies, but it currently doesn't work if you run cli.py directly.

If we want to do add the line anyhow, I'd suggest we go with something more system-neutral #!python (or possibly #!python3) if we can. I don't know if those work on windows but I think they work on many linux systems. I'd prefer it if we found a good consistent solution for #677 first.

(Incidentally, if you want to run something without a shebang you can always use python <filename> so not having the shebang has never stopped anyone determined to run it directly, it's a speed hump at best. Maybe a comment in the file warning people about #677 would be more useful?)

[gotlougit]

A comment would probably be more useful, or rather some sort of warning about running ./cli.py directly. I was just confused seeing it be marked executable and was then promptly confused when it didn't run right, so created the issue to get some more clarification.

[terriko]

Looking at the docs, I don't think we've been unclear about how to run the tool, but in the interest of making this easier let's do the following:

• mark cli.py as non-executable (test that this doesn't affect installed versions but it shouldn't)
• put a comment or docstring near the top of the file pointing people to the docs and indicating that it should be installed so the checkers will load correctly

[gotlougit]

This seems like a good course of action

[gotlougit]

A comment would probably be more useful, or rather some sort of warning about running ```./cli.py``` directly. I was just confused seeing it be marked executable and was then promptly confused when it didn't run right, so created the issue to get some more clarification.