[AWIPS #KGT-118648]: PYTHONPATH question

Hi Gyorgyi,

>Dear AWIPS Support,
>
>We have installed the latest CAVE on CentOS 7 for our new lab machines at
>Texas A&M.

Nice to hear you have gotten some of your new lab machines!  Congrats, that's 
exciting.

>CAVE installation adds /awips2/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages to
>PYTHONPATH.
>
>It breaks some other applications.

About the python path: I am fairly confident you can remove that from the 
environment, so as to not
affect other systems.  Also, you might want to look at the PATH and 
LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment 
variables as well for instances of /awips2/python... and remove them from there 
too, otherwise I
believe the machine will still use the AWIPS python by default.
The .sh file that is running CAVE will set the python correctly to start up 
CAVE and it doesn't 
affect the rest of the machine or the environment after it has been ran and 
then closed.

>Our IT technicians are  asking why we need it, and if any functionality of
>CAVE
>would break if they do not set it system-wise.
>
>Since I am not entirely sure, I figured that I should just ask you.

As for why AWIPS changes your system variables, I believe that is legacy 
code/functionality from when
AWIPS was first built and designed.  Originally, it was meant to run on its own 
individual hardware
and so the software was written with that in mind and they used many system 
wide settings to help run
and configure AWIPS.
Since then they seem to have compartmentalized it a bit, but not all of the old 
functionality (setting
system variables) has been removed.

Let me know if this helps!

--Shay Carter

Software Engineer II
UCAR - Unidata

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: KGT-118648
Department: Support AWIPS
Priority: Normal
Status: Open
===================
NOTE: All email exchanges with Unidata User Support are recorded in the Unidata 
inquiry tracking system and then made publicly available through the web.  If 
you do not want to have your interactions made available in this way, you must 
let us know in each email you send to us.