Modify mssql-cli bash wrapper to look for and prefer python3

[JPvRiel]

On Ubuntu 20.04, the following install via pip does not work:

pip3 install --user mssqlcli

There are instructions to use a deb package for 18.04, but that's not an option. Related issues: #505, #482

In the bash wrapper to run this, I noticed python, and not python3, is assumed as the executable at

mssql-cli/mssql-cli

Line 16 in 53a7a8a

python -m mssqlcli.main "$@"

Some distributions (at least Debian/Ubuntu) facilitate the transition from python2 to python3 by having python point to python2 and python3 be a separate binary.

Instead of:

python -m mssqlcli.main "$@"

The following way of using command to check and match might help:

python_exe=$(command -v python3 || command -v python)
$python_exe -m mssqlcli.main "$@"

Then absolute path should be nicely resolved, e.g. /usr/bin/python3 for systems that have a binary found in the PATH.

[posguy99]

An install on macOS has the same problem, with the additional problem that it apparently assumes bash is the user's shell, without checking one way or the other.

[ethan-fox-capsule]

I've encountered this issue as well and just opened a ticket (#523) to elaborate on the problem further, specifically for my setup.

[joshuaclausen]

I have encountered the same thing - the /usr/local/bin/mssql-cli script hard-assumes "python" rather than looking for python3. I suppose another workaround might be creating a symbolic link so that the command "python" runs "python3".

The workarounds above worked for me.