Should I put #! (shebang) in Python scripts, and what form should it take?

Question

Should I put the shebang in my Python scripts? In what form?

#!/usr/bin/env python 

or

Answer 1

If you have different modules installed and need to use a specific python install, then shebang appears to be limited at first. However, you can do tricks like the below to allow the shebang to be invoked first as a shell script and then choose python. This is very flexible imo:

#!/bin/sh
#
# Choose the python we need. Explanation:
# a) '''\' translates to \ in shell, and starts a python multi-line string
# b) "" strings are treated as string concat by python, shell ignores them
# c) "true" command ignores its arguments
# c) exit before the ending ''' so the shell reads no further
# d) reset set docstrings to ignore the multiline comment code
#
"true" '''\'
PREFERRED_PYTHON=/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python
ALTERNATIVE_PYTHON=/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin/python3
FALLBACK_PYTHON=python3

if [ -x $PREFERRED_PYTHON ]; then
    echo Using preferred python $PREFERRED_PYTHON
    exec $PREFERRED_PYTHON "$0" "$@"
elif [ -x $ALTERNATIVE_PYTHON ]; then
    echo Using alternative python $ALTERNATIVE_PYTHON
    exec $ALTERNATIVE_PYTHON "$0" "$@"
else
    echo Using fallback python $FALLBACK_PYTHON
    exec python3 "$0" "$@"
fi
exit 127
'''

__doc__ = """What this file does"""
print(__doc__)
import platform
print(platform.python_version())

Or better yet, perhaps, to facilitate code reuse across multiple python scripts:

#!/bin/bash
"true" '''\'; source $(cd $(dirname ${BASH_SOURCE[@]}) &>/dev/null && pwd)/select.sh; exec $CHOSEN_PYTHON "$0" "$@"; exit 127; '''

and then select.sh has:

PREFERRED_PYTHON=/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python
ALTERNATIVE_PYTHON=/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin/python3
FALLBACK_PYTHON=python3

if [ -x $PREFERRED_PYTHON ]; then
    CHOSEN_PYTHON=$PREFERRED_PYTHON
elif [ -x $ALTERNATIVE_PYTHON ]; then
    CHOSEN_PYTHON=$ALTERNATIVE_PYTHON
else
    CHOSEN_PYTHON=$FALLBACK_PYTHON
fi