Eike, I have fixed this, so you should be able to remove your hack.

For reference: the problem is the following file:
/work/y07/y07/fdrake/ffc/lib/python2.7/site-packages/easy-install.pth

This file is (re)created *every time* the FFC installation is updated
since FFC uses the setuptools egg installation. Due to a setuptools
"feature" all the eggs contained in this file are *prepended* to
sys.path and end up *before* anything in PYTHONPATH and there is
*nothing* you can do to prevent this. The only fix is to edit this .pth
file and remove or comment the offending lines (first and last).

What we might be able to do is not actually install FFC but point the
module at the source try and build the extension modules in place. Thoughts?

On 29/01/15 11:25, Eike Mueller wrote:
> Hi Lawrence,
>
> ok, adding
>
> import sys
> sys.path.remove('/work/y07/y07/fdrake/ffc/lib/python2.7/site-packages/FFC-1.4.0_-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg')
>
>
> at the top of firedrake/__init__.py seems to fix it for me.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Eike
>
>
> On 29/01/15 10:37, Lawrence Mitchell wrote:

> On 29/01/15 10:23, Eike Mueller wrote:
>>>> Dear firedrakers,
>>>>
>>>> I need to install my own version of FFC, since the one already
>>>> installed in /work/y07/y07/fdrake appears not to be compatible with
>>>> the firedrake version I use:
>>>>
>>>> RuntimeError: Incompatible Firedrake version 0.12.0 and FFC
>>>> version unknown.
>>>>
>>>> So I installed FFC locally and added it to PYTHONPATH:
>>>>
>>>> /work/n02/n02/eike//git_workspace//firedrake-helmholtzsolver/source:/work/n02/n02/eike//git_workspace//firedrake-bench:/work/n02/n02/eike//git_workspace//pybench:/work/n02/n02/eike//git_workspace//firedrake:/work/n02/n02/eike//git_workspace//PyOP2:/work/n02/n02/eike//git_workspace//petsc4py/cray-gnu-shared/lib/python2.7/site-packages/:/work/n02/n02/eike//git_workspace//COFFEE/build/lib:/work/n02/n02/eike//git_workspace//ffc/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/:/work/n02/n02/eike//Library:/work/y07/y07/fdrake/ufl/lib/python2.7/site-packages:/work/y07/y07/fdrake/scientificpython/lib/python2.7/site-packages:/work/y07/y07/fdrake/psutil/lib/python2.7/site-packages:/work/y07/y07/fdrake/mpi4py/lib/python2.7/site-packages:/work/y07/y07/fdrake/instant/lib/python2.7/site-packages:/work/y07/y07/fdrake/fiat/lib/python2.7/site-packages:/work/y07/y07/fdrake/ffc/lib/python2.7/site-packages:/work/y07/y07/fdrake/decorator-3.4.0/lib/python2.7/site-packages:/work/y07/y07/fdrake/petsc/arch-linux2-cxx-opt/lib
/p
>>>>
>> y
> th
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> on2.7/site-packages:/work/y07/y07/cse/anaconda/1.9.2/lib/python2.7/site-packages:/work/y07/y07/cse/anaconda/1.9.2/lib/python2.7:/usr/local/packages/cse/bolt/0.6/modules
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> However, in python, the /work/y07/y07/fdrake version comes *first*,
>>>> so it always picked up when I import ffc and I keep getting the
>>>> error message above:
>
> This looks like the standard easy_install disaster.  I never know how
> to fix this unfortunately.
>
> Lawrence