Mercurial for Windows - Python version?

Question

What version of Python is needed to run Mercurial? I see that the website says it requires 2.4. Does that mean 2.4, or 2.x? or something higher than 2.4, i.e., could I install 3.x?

I've installed Mercurial without reading the requirements and I installed it anyway and hg.exe executes fine. Looking in the directory that hg.exe lives (C:\Program Files\Mercurial\), it has a python26.dll in there. Does that mean i won't have to install Python - i.e. it's bundled with Mercurial?

Thanks

Answer 1

Python 3.x is not compatible with 2.x.

If Mercurial supports 2.4 and above, then you are better off installing python 2.6.x.

Yes there are installers available that come bundled with python.

You run the following on command line and if you do not get any errors then you are on your way to use mercurial

> hg version
> hg debuginstall
> hg test_mercurial
> cd test_mercurial

Answer 2

Yes, it comes bundled. If you install Mercurial using the Windows installer, then you don't need to worry about which version of Python you are using. Mercurial uses py2exe to create an executable that runs without a Python installation.