Project:Python/PYTHON TARGETS

PYTHON_TARGETS and PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET are USE_EXPAND variables controlling support for various Python implementations (versions) in packages. These essentially control what version of Python the package will reference during and after installation.

Enabling Python implementations

The modern packages (using -r1 suite eclasses) use explicit USE flags aggregated in PYTHON_TARGETS and PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET USE_EXPAND variables. The variables are defaulted in profiles and can be changed in make.conf. The flags may be adjusted per-package using package.use as well.

The PYTHON_TARGETS variable is used for packages that support enabling more than a single Python implementation. Therefore, the variable may contain any number of implementations.

The PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET variable is used for packages that are built for a single implementation of choice only. It may contain only a single implementation. Due to technical limitations, the implementation specified as PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET must also be included in PYTHON_TARGETS for the package in question.

The possible values are listed in the PYTHON_COMPAT column of the Python project's implementations list.

FILE /etc/portage/package.useExamples of PYTHON_TARGETS/PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET

# Enabling additional implementation in addition to the profile default
*/* PYTHON_TARGETS: python3_7
# Replacing the profile default with specific implementation
*/* PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET: -python3_6 python3_7
# Build vim for python2.7 instead of the above
# (note: -* in PYTHON_TARGETS is optional but it makes it possible to avoid extraneous deps
app-editors/vim PYTHON_TARGETS: -* python2_7 PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET: -* python2_7
# Enable all Python implementation for Portage
sys-apps/portage PYTHON_TARGETS: *

Unmasking non-stable implementation on a stable system

If you'd like to use an implementation that is not stable on your architecture on a stable system, you need to:

Unmask the implementation using /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords,
Unmask the relevant USE flags using /etc/portage/profile/use.stable.mask. This also requires to set /etc/portage/profile to EAPI >= 5.

FILE /etc/portage/package.accept_keywordsUnmasking Python 3.5

dev-lang/python:3.5

FILE /etc/portage/profile/use.stable.maskUnmasking flags for Python 3.5

-python_targets_python3_5
-python_single_target_python3_5

FILE /etc/portage/profile/eapiSetting eapi 5