Accidental overwrite of OSX Python system framework

Question

I got ahead of myself and downloaded and installed the OSX Python 2.6 package from www.python.org/download/ on my OSX 10.5.5 Intel Mac and installed the full package contents. Only after this did I come across http://wiki.python.org/moin/MacPython/Leopard stating that you should do a partial install of the package to avoid interfering with the system install.

I'm afraid I've already overwritten the system framework through that installer and I remember reading somewhere after discovering this that I'd lose certain elements included in the OSX system install and not Python distributions.

Is there any way to reverse this or restore anything I may have lost? What exactly have I lost and is it going to be a problem?

Answer 1

Restore from a recent Time Machine backup or somehow from DVD?

Answer 2

This seems like a question for an Apple support group; it has nothing to do with python or programming.

Answer 3

You may have overwritten the system framework but it is more likely that you just overwrote the symlinks in /usr/bin to point to the new version. Try going to /usr/bin and seeing (with something like ls -alsh) where the python symlink points to. It may be python2.6 or 3.0, which is in turn a ln to /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions ... etc. First try resetting the python symlink to the stable or expected version, ie, sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python2.5 python (from the /usr/bin dir.)

Answer 4

Thank you bvmou, big help. Sorry if that question wasn't as python-oriented as it should be. I have a follow up question that may be more relevant.

The IDE refuses to launch. I've tried both that from the 2.6 package and even went back to a 2.3 second-build that claims to "fix an IDE startup bug" when that didn't work. To be clear, Python runs fine from the command line, but IDLE.app won't start.

I've seen this mentioned in forum posts but the majority of the references seem to be several years old in reference to the 2.3 build. Any ideas why this is still an issue?

Answer 5

I just ran into the same thing myself. I did find that the MacPython installer modified my search $PATH and added '/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin' which caused the python executable there to be found before the one in '/usr/bin'.

Hope this helps anyone else!