Mac Installer - Option to not overwrite existing python3 links in /usr/local/bin

[jvanasco]

Feature or enhancement

Proposal:

The current Mac installer has an option to disable all installation in /usr/local/bin

It would be wonderful if this were descoped into 2 options:
1- install the versioned links /usr/local/bin
2-install/overwrite the unversioned python3 links that point to the versioned links.

When Python3.13 is installed, for example, the symlink for /usr/local/bin/python3 is updated to point to the new Python3.13 install. This creates a headache for situations where the User's primary development environment is still Python3.12 and python3 (as well as associated binaries) should still point there -- but they are adding a newer (or older) Python to their system to debug something specific.

i.e. the ability to only install Python3.13 as python3.13, and not as the new python3 as well.

Related: #55173

Has this already been discussed elsewhere?

This is a minor feature, which does not need previous discussion elsewhere

Links to previous discussion of this feature:

No response

[brianschubert]

i.e. the ability to only install Python3.13 as python3.13, and not as the new python3 as well.

I believe this is what make altinstall already does. See https://docs.python.org/3/using/unix.html#building-python and https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/3.13/README.rst#installing-multiple-versions for details

edit: oops, I missed the fact that you're talking about the Mac installer, not just Mac installation. Sorry for the noise!

[jvanasco]

edit: oops, I missed the fact that you're talking about the Mac installer, not just Mac installation. Sorry for the noise!

No worries! As you said, it's possible to do this on a source build/install (I do this on cloud servers all the time). It would just be great to do this with on a Mac - and not have to rely on my own script that switches the default versions. (I'll hide this as outdated too)