macOS: python3t shortcuts missing(?)

[henryiii]

Bug report

Bug description:

Installing Python creates python3 aliases, but there doesn't seem to be a matching python3t alias. There's a python3.13t, but python3t would be more future proof for a shabang, etc. This is what macOS installs:

cibuildwheel % find /Library/Frameworks/PythonT.framework/Versions/3.13/bin/
/Library/Frameworks/PythonT.framework/Versions/3.13/bin/
/Library/Frameworks/PythonT.framework/Versions/3.13/bin//python3.13t
/Library/Frameworks/PythonT.framework/Versions/3.13/bin//python3.13t-config
/Library/Frameworks/PythonT.framework/Versions/3.13/bin//pip3.13
/Library/Frameworks/PythonT.framework/Versions/3.13/bin//pip3
/Library/Frameworks/PythonT.framework/Versions/3.13/bin//pip
/Library/Frameworks/PythonT.framework/Versions/3.13/bin//python3.13

There's pip aliases, but no python3t (this is also missing python3, though it has python3.13. I'm not sure if this is macOS specific, or if python3t is being avoided for now, or if it's just not come up yet, I didn't see it mentioned in issues.

From pypa/cibuildwheel#1856 (comment).

CPython versions tested on:

3.13

Operating systems tested on:

macOS

Linked PRs

• gh-120286: Add versionless symlinks with ABI flags #120457

[hugovk]

Is this only for macOS, or also Windows?

[mayeut]

It's the same on Windows (looking at the nugget package):

~ % find Downloads/python-freethreaded.3.13.0-b2.nupkg/tools -name 'python*.exe'
Downloads/python-freethreaded.3.13.0-b2.nupkg/tools/pythonw3.13t.exe
Downloads/python-freethreaded.3.13.0-b2.nupkg/tools/pythonw.exe
Downloads/python-freethreaded.3.13.0-b2.nupkg/tools/python.exe
Downloads/python-freethreaded.3.13.0-b2.nupkg/tools/python3.13t.exe

[zooba]

Windows has never included any aliases. We only have python3.13t because that's what the steering council said would be the equivalent of python.

Adding python3 aliases to Windows is a huge topic of its own, which I'm not prepared to approach just yet (massive back-compat risks, basically). The Store package includes them because we don't have the same risks there.

[encukou]

As long as the free-threaded build is experimental, it should be used with a specific version number. If and when it stops being experimental, the t suffix will be dropped entirely.
python3t is not future-proof.

See the Steering Council decision:

Lets not have a generic python3t so long as we're in "experimental" phase as is the case for 3.13 until a future SC is asked to declare otherwise based on future core dev consensus on Discuss when the time feels right.

I'll close the issue.

[nineteendo]

Thanks, I wasn't aware of this.