You know what you could do is something like rm /usr/bin/python echo > /usr/bin/python << HERE #! /bin/bash [ -z "$_PYTHON" ] && _PYTHON=/usr/bin/python2 $_PYTHON "$@" HERE chmod 755 /usr/bin/python if the transition is bothering you too much. Then when things calm down a little you just delete that file and put the symlink back. Kaiting.