[m_mueller]

I'd rather use docker over venv in that case. My host python is for horsing around, when something is to be deployed I document and isolate the dependencies in a dockerfile. venv would only solve half that problem and only for python, not including outside delendencies.

[pathsjs]

If the solution to packaging is "I'll use docker", i.e. I will need essentially an entire OS as a dependency of my application, this shows that Python packaging is broken. More sane packaging system allow to define dependencies per project, and only install packages globally when required

[jjnoakes]

Docker doesn't work if you don't have root.

[mikewhy]

You need to have access to the docker socket, if you're using sockets to connect. That's not necessarily only root.

[jjnoakes]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12291092

[m_mueller]

True. I also work in a HPC context where that's a problem. That's actually a place where I had to hack together something with venv in order to use an output analysis with a python that's compiled differently from the main Fortran executable. But that's quite an edge case.

[madmax96]

This is actually wrong. You can be added to the `docker` group. On Docker for OS X you also don't need root.

[jjnoakes]

In general if a tool requires root to run, of course a system administrator could make some changes to the system to allow a user to run it (adding the user to a privileged group, making the binary setuid, etc).

But that's not the point. The point is, if I'm on a system where I don't have the ability to make system-wide changes (run docker as root, add myself to a special group, etc), then I can't run docker on that system.