Symlink for Python 3.1 present and points at Python 3.10

[m3vaz]

Checklist

• I added a descriptive title
• I searched for other issues and couldn't find a solution or duplication
• I already searched in Google and didn't find any good information or help
• I looked at the docs and didn't see anything to help

What happened?

When installing the python=3.10 package, a symlink for python 3.1 is present and points at python 3.10. This is misleading since python 3.1 is no longer supported.

To repro:

1. Starting with a base miniconda3 docker container, create a new environment and install python=3.10
   conda create -n py310 python=3.10
   Switching to the environment and listing the installed packages

(py310) root@55c4f8b01e54:/# conda list
# packages in environment at /opt/conda/envs/py310:
#
# Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
_libgcc_mutex             0.1                        main
_openmp_mutex             4.5                       1_gnu
bzip2                     1.0.8                h7b6447c_0
ca-certificates           2022.3.29            h06a4308_0
certifi                   2020.6.20          pyhd3eb1b0_3
ld_impl_linux-64          2.35.1               h7274673_9
libffi                    3.3                  he6710b0_2
libgcc-ng                 9.3.0               h5101ec6_17
libgomp                   9.3.0               h5101ec6_17
libstdcxx-ng              9.3.0               hd4cf53a_17
libuuid                   1.0.3                h7f8727e_2
ncurses                   6.3                  h7f8727e_2
openssl                   1.1.1n               h7f8727e_0
pip                       21.2.4                   pypi_0    pypi
python                    3.10.4               h12debd9_0
readline                  8.1.2                h7f8727e_1
setuptools                61.2.0                   pypi_0    pypi
sqlite                    3.38.2               hc218d9a_0
tk                        8.6.11               h1ccaba5_0
tzdata                    2022a                hda174b7_0
wheel                     0.37.1             pyhd3eb1b0_0
xz                        5.2.5                h7b6447c_0
zlib                      1.2.12               h7f8727e_1

2. python3.1 symlink is present in the environment and points at python3.10

# ls -al /opt/conda/envs/py310/bin/python3.1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 19 18:08 /opt/conda/envs/py310/bin/python3.1 -> python3.10

Conda info

(py310) root@55c4f8b01e54:/# conda info

     active environment : py310
    active env location : /opt/conda/envs/py310
            shell level : 2
       user config file : /root/.condarc
 populated config files :
          conda version : 4.10.3
    conda-build version : not installed
         python version : 3.9.5.final.0
       virtual packages : __linux=5.10.16.3=0
                          __glibc=2.31=0
                          __unix=0=0
(py310) root@55c4f8b01e54:/#
       base environment : /opt/conda  (writable)
      conda av data dir : /opt/conda/etc/conda
  conda av metadata url : None
           channel URLs : https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/linux-64
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/noarch
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/linux-64
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/noarch
          package cache : /opt/conda/pkgs
                          /root/.conda/pkgs
       envs directories : /opt/conda/envs
                          /root/.conda/envs
               platform : linux-64
             user-agent : conda/4.10.3 requests/2.25.1 CPython/3.9.5 Linux/5.10.16.3-microsoft-standard-WSL2 debian/11 glibc/2.31
                UID:GID : 0:0
             netrc file : None
           offline mode : False

Conda config

(py310) root@55c4f8b01e54:/# conda config --show-sources

(py310) root@55c4f8b01e54:/#

Conda list

(py310) root@55c4f8b01e54:/# conda list --show-channel-urls
# packages in environment at /opt/conda/envs/py310:
#
# Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
_libgcc_mutex             0.1                        main    defaults
_openmp_mutex             4.5                       1_gnu    defaults
bzip2                     1.0.8                h7b6447c_0    defaults
ca-certificates           2022.3.29            h06a4308_0    defaults
certifi                   2020.6.20          pyhd3eb1b0_3    defaults
ld_impl_linux-64          2.35.1               h7274673_9    defaults
libffi                    3.3                  he6710b0_2    defaults
libgcc-ng                 9.3.0               h5101ec6_17    defaults
libgomp                   9.3.0               h5101ec6_17    defaults
libstdcxx-ng              9.3.0               hd4cf53a_17    defaults
libuuid                   1.0.3                h7f8727e_2    defaults
ncurses                   6.3                  h7f8727e_2    defaults
openssl                   1.1.1n               h7f8727e_0    defaults
pip                       21.2.4                   pypi_0    pypi
python                    3.10.4               h12debd9_0    defaults
readline                  8.1.2                h7f8727e_1    defaults
setuptools                61.2.0                   pypi_0    pypi
sqlite                    3.38.2               hc218d9a_0    defaults
tk                        8.6.11               h1ccaba5_0    defaults
tzdata                    2022a                hda174b7_0    defaults
wheel                     0.37.1             pyhd3eb1b0_0    defaults
xz                        5.2.5                h7b6447c_0    defaults
zlib                      1.2.12               h7f8727e_1    defaults

Additional Context

python3.10 vs python3.1 seems to have popped up previously in #11065, #10969, #10989, #11005, but these all seem to be in the context of environment resolution, so I don't think this is a duplicate.

[chenghlee]

This is not a bug; it's a deliberate decision by Anaconda (AnacondaRecipes/python-feedstock#47) and conda-forge (conda-forge/python-feedstock#511) to ensure that conda releases <=4.10 do not break when creating or updating environments that include Python >=3.10. (xref PRs: #10478, #10970)