[01:52:38] <dstufft> lifeless: if you're looking for something to do, https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/2683 would be great. the next version of OSX has "rootless" mode (basically like SELinux afaik) and --user is gonna be important there soon I think since people won't be able to upgrade things soon without it. If not I'll poke at it tomorrow
[01:56:04] <dstufft> it's not exactly related to a mac, you just need a ~/.pydistutils.cfg that specifies a prefix option
[01:56:05] <tchaypo> next version meaning el capitan?
[01:56:32] <dstufft> the error just happens alot on a mac because Homebrew is popular and Homebrew python ships a distutils config that has a prefix option
[02:00:09] <tchaypo> ah - have pip always act as though “—install-option=—prefix” was on the commandline
[02:00:45] <tchaypo> that seems simple enough that I can probably get it done today, and getting 7.1 out the door is important enough that I can pretend I’m doing something useful instead of just distracting myself from harder work
[02:02:31] <tchaypo> I’ve never done any pip dev on my mac though, because too many of the tests fail because I’m missing things like svnadmin and don’t want to install them
[02:02:39] <lifeless> from the sounds of it you don't need to
[02:02:49] <tchaypo> in my head mac is a “it’s nice if it works there but we don’t really support it” platform
[02:03:05] <lifeless> add a phunctional test doing install with a .pydistutils.cfg in the temp homedir that the fixtures create
[20:50:49] <tchaypo> oh, and that’s what .pth files do
[20:53:01] <tchaypo> Can not perform a '--user' install. User site-packages are not visible in this virtualenv.
[20:54:09] <tchaypo> So in order to test this, I need to make pip believe it’s not running in a virtualenv, and give it a user site-packages folder it can play with
[22:03:37] <tchaypo> I'd be much happier with "your instructions aren't clear, try again" then "your instructions aren't clear so I made a guess, good luck!"
[22:04:58] <dstufft> in the face of ambigiuity, refuse the temptation to guess
[22:05:09] <dstufft> setuptools forgot that particular rule, and look where that left us :)
[22:15:56] <lifeless> I think it would be ok to add 'it errors' as a 7.1.1
[22:16:13] <lifeless> but if tchaypo or Nakato could pick up making this error as a thing that would be super helpful