I had nodegit 0.0.74 installed and recently got the update to 77. On 'npm update' i got the error posted below. Obviously, the gyp expects 'python' to be version 2.x. I have python 2 and 3 installed. 'python' is a symlink to python 3.3, while python2 is available on my system for python 2.7.

So: Wouldn't it be possible to try multiple binaries / symlinks via gyp? Maybe: If 'python' is version 3.x, try 'python2'?

Here is the stderr output:
gyp ERR! configure error
gyp ERR! stack Error: Python executable "python" is v3.3.0, which is not supported by gyp.
gyp ERR! stack You can pass the --python switch to point to Python >= v2.5.0 & < 3.0.0.
gyp ERR! stack at failPythonVersion (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:118:14)
gyp ERR! stack at /usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:107:9
gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:600:7)
gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:98:17)
gyp ERR! stack at maybeClose (child_process.js:700:16)
gyp ERR! stack at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (child_process.js:767:5)
gyp ERR! System Linux 3.8.4-1-ARCH
gyp ERR! command "node" "/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "configure" "--python" "python"
gyp ERR! cwd /home/david/Dokumente/Development/reason/node_modules/nodegit
gyp ERR! node -v v0.10.1
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v0.8.5
gyp ERR! not ok
npm ERR! nodegit@0.0.77 install: node install.js
npm ERR! sh "-c" "node install.js" failed with 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the nodegit@0.0.77 install script.
npm ERR! This is most likely a problem with the nodegit package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR! node install.js
npm ERR! You can get their info via:
npm ERR! npm owner ls nodegit
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! System Linux 3.8.4-1-ARCH
npm ERR! command "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/bin/npm" "update"
npm ERR! cwd /home/david/Dokumente/Development/reason
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.1
npm ERR! npm -v 1.2.15
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE