[petsc-dev] Configure won't find python

[Jed Brown]

Satish Balay via petsc-dev <petsc-dev at mcs.anl.gov> writes:

> With older OS versions - python2 is system default, python3 is the add-on. So there is no special support to make the add-on python3 the default. In such cases - some minimal installs can potentially exclude some system defaults - i.e system default python. Is this the case for jedbrown/mpich-ccache or - is it that newer versions of debian have 'python3' as system-default - but don't have /usr/bin/python [because this now part of the add-on python2 package?]

A Debian/Ubuntu base image doesn't have any Python.  In the current
release, `apt install python` will get you python2.  I believe the goal
is that the next release doesn't use python2 at all.  I don't know what
names will be and what you'll have to do if you really want python2.