Allow creating a python shim on python install

[zanieb]

When installing Python, I should be able to opt-in to adding a python shim to my PATH.

[ophiry]

not sure this was the original intention, but if the shim will work the same as uv run (in terms of environment resolution) it would be very useful

this will allow simpler integration with IDEs

(instead of explicitly providing a venv, they could be pointed to the uv shim that will do the environment resolution)

[tux-type]

This would be very useful, and is also what is missing in uv compared to pyenv.

[zanieb]

Please just 👍 the original post if you want this. If you have commentary on the implementation or behavior of the shim, that's totally welcome but let's keep the noise down for those subscribing to updates.

not sure this was the original intention, but if the shim will work the same as uv run (in terms of environment resolution) it would be very useful

We don't think we can do this by default because people have specific expectations about python behavior but I think an opt-in mode makes sense.

[pietrodn]

This would be a great improvement for the entire Python ecosystem user-friendliness. Currently we manage Python projects like this where I work:

1. Install pyenv.
2. Install Python versions from source, compiling them (this is a huge pain especially for nontechnical users which get stuck with environment issues and compilation errors).
3. Use Poetry which automatically detects the correct Python version from the constraint in pyproject.toml.

Having uv install binary version of Python with pyenv-style shims would allow us to entirely drop pyenv and remove the burden of compiling Python from the users... even if we don't switch to uv for package management. 😄

[tats-u]

I want to migrate from rye to uv, but the migration is blocked by this issue.
This feature is especially wanted by Windows users because Windows doesn't bundle Python.
If you run python command without a global Python, an annoying Microsoft Store window is launched.

[pietrodn]

I am currently using this workaround to expose uv's Pythons to my shell's PATH:

for dir in $(uv python dir)/*/bin; do PYTHON_PATHS="$dir:$PYTHON_PATHS"; done
export PATH="$PYTHON_PATHS:$PATH"

The problem is that there are multiple python3.10, python3.11, ... executables, only one version for each minor would be exposed. But I typically pick only one version for each Python minor version.

[vivienm]

As a workaround, I wrote the following script python3.x:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

SCRIPT_NAME="$(basename "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")"

if [[ "${SCRIPT_NAME}" =~ ^python3\.[0-9]+$ ]]; then
  PYTHON_VERSION="${SCRIPT_NAME#python}"
else
  2>&1 echo "Error: Invalid script name: ${SCRIPT_NAME}"
  exit 1
fi

exec uv run --no-project --python "${PYTHON_VERSION}" --python-preference only-managed --no-config python "$@"

And I have symlinks python3.x pointing to this script:

~/.local/bin/python3.8  -> ~/.local/share/python3.x
~/.local/bin/python3.9  -> ~/.local/share/python3.x
~/.local/bin/python3.10 -> ~/.local/share/python3.x
~/.local/bin/python3.11 -> ~/.local/share/python3.x
~/.local/bin/python3.12 -> ~/.local/share/python3.x

It's not great, but it works.