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Guido van Rossum5dee5e71994-11-10 23:06:54 +00001Python release 1.1.1
2====================
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +00003
Guido van Rossum5dee5e71994-11-10 23:06:54 +00004==> This is Python version 1.1.1.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +00005
Guido van Rossum5dee5e71994-11-10 23:06:54 +00006==> Python 1.1.1 is a pure bugfix release. It fixes two core dumps
7 related to the changed implementation of (new)getargs, some
8 portability bugs, and some very minor things here and there. If
9 you have 1.1, you only need to install 1.1 if bugs in it are
10 bugging you.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000011
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +000012==> If you don't know yet what Python is: it's an interpreted,
13 extensible, embeddable, interactive, object-oriented programming
14 language. For a quick summary of what Python can mean for a
15 UNIX/C programmer, read Misc/BLURB.LUTZ.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000016
Guido van Rossumb85ae1a1994-10-06 16:15:09 +000017==> If you want to start compiling right away (on UNIX): just type
18 "./configure" in the current directory and when it finishes, type
19 "make". See the section Build Instructions below for more
20 details.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000021
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +000022==> All documentation is in the subdirectory Doc in the form of LaTeX
23 files. In order of importance for new users: Tutorial (tut),
24 Library Reference (lib), Language Reference (ref), Extending
25 (ext). Note that especially the Library Reference is of immense
26 value since much of Python's power (including the built-in data
Guido van Rossumb85ae1a1994-10-06 16:15:09 +000027 types and functions!) is described there. [NB The ext document
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +000028 has not been updated to reflect this release yet.]
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000029
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +000030==> Python is COPYRIGHTED but free to use for all. See the copyright
Guido van Rossumb85ae1a1994-10-06 16:15:09 +000031 notice at the end of this file. Moreover, the Python distribution
32 is not affected by the GNU Public Licence (GPL). There is support
33 for interfaces to some GNU code but this is entirely optional and
34 no GNU code is distributed with Python. For all these packages,
35 GPL-free public domain versions also exist.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000036
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000037
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +000038Build instructions
39------------------
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000040
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +000041Before you start building Python, you must first configure it. This
42entails (at least) running the script "./configure", which figures out
43your system configuration and creates several Makefiles. (This will
44take a minute or two -- please be patient!) When it is done, you are
45ready to run make. Typing "make" in the toplevel directory will
46recursively run make in each of the subdirectories Parser, Objects,
47Python and Modules, creating a library file in each one. The
48executable of the interpreter is built in the Modules subdirectory but
49moved up here when it is built. If you want or need to, you can also
50chdir into each subdirectory in turn and run make there manually
51(do the Modules subdirectory last!). If you run into trouble, first
52see the section Troubleshooting later in this file.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000053
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +000054EXCEPTIONS: on SVR4 derived systems, you need to pass the configure
55script the option --with-svr4. See below for more options you can
56pass to the configure script.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000057
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +000058AIX users: read the file Misc/AIX-NOTES before trying to build.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000059
Guido van Rossum0a516c91994-09-12 10:58:40 +000060HP-UX users: read the file Misc/HPUX-NOTES if you want to be able to
61use shared libraries for dynamically loaded modules.
62
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +000063Minix users: when using ack, use "CC=cc AR=aal RANLIB=: ./configure"!
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000064
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +000065You can configure the interpreter to contain fewer or more built-in
66modules by editing the file Modules/Setup. This file is initially
67copied (when the toplevel Makefile makes Modules/Makefile for the
68first time) from Setup.in; if it does not exist yet, make a copy
69yourself. Never edit Setup.in -- always edit Setup. Read the
70comments in the file for information on what kind of edits you can
71make. When you have edited Setup, Makefile and config.c in Modules
72will automatically be rebuilt the next time you run make in the
Guido van Rossum9444ce01994-10-20 22:10:23 +000073toplevel directory.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000074
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +000075If you want to change the optimization level of the build, assign to
76the OPT variable on the toplevel make command; e.g. "make OPT=-g" will
Guido van Rossumc561e5d1994-08-23 13:52:46 +000077build a debugging version of Python on most platforms. The default is
78OPT=-O; a value for OPT in the environment when the configure script
79is run overrides this default (likewise for CC; and the initial value
80for LIBS is used as the base set of libraries to link with).
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +000081
82To test the interpreter that you have just built, type "make test".
83This runs the test set silently, twice (once with no compiled files,
84once with the compiled files left by the previous test run). Each
85test run should print "All tests OK." and nothing more. (The test set
86does not test the built-in modules, but will find most other problems
87with the interpreter.)
88
89To install the interpreter as /usr/local/bin/python, type "make
90install". To install the library as /usr/local/lib/python, type "make
91libinstall". To install the manual page as
92/usr/local/man/man1/python.1, type "make maninstall". To install the
93Emacs editing mode for python, manually copy the file
94Misc/python-mode.el to your local Emacs lisp directory. The directory
95/usr/local can be overridden at configuration time by passing
96--prefix=DIRECTORY to the configure script, or at make time by passing
97"prefix=DIRECTORY" to make. See below for more information on --prefix.
98
99If you plan to do development of extension modules or to embed Python
100in another application and don't want to reference the original source
101tree, you can type "make inclinstall" and "make libainstall" to
102install the include files and lib*.a files, respectively, as
103/usr/local/include/Py/*.h and /usr/local/lib/python/lib/lib*.a. The
104make libainstall target also installs copies of several other files
105used or produced during the build process which are needed to build
106extensions or to generate their Makefiles.
107
108To print the documentation, cd into the Doc subdirectory, type "make"
109(let's hope you have LaTeX installed!), and send the four resulting
110PostScript files (tut.ps, lib.ps, ref.ps, and ext.ps) to the printer.
111See the README file there; you can also build a texinfo version of the
112library manual and from that construct an Emacs info version (the
113hypertext format used by the Emacs "info" command) and an HTML version
114(the hypertext format used by the World Wide Web distributed
115information initiative). You don't need to have LaTeX installed for
116this. Note that the Python archive sites also carry the resulting
117PostScript files, in case you have a PostScript printer but not LaTeX.
118
119Some special cases are handled by passing environment variables or
120options to the configure script:
121
122- The configure script uses gcc (the GNU C compiler) if it finds it.
123If you don't want this, or if this compiler is installed but broken on
124your platform, pass "CC=cc" (or whatever the name of the proper C
125compiler is) in the environment.
126
127- On System V, Release 4 derived systems (e.g. SOLARIS 2, but not
128IRIX 5) you need to call the configure script with the option
129--with-svr4. This is needed so the libraries -lnsl and -lsocket are
130found. (On some other systems, e.g. IRIX 5, these libraries exist but
131are incompatible with other system libraries such as X11 and GL.)
132
133- If you want to install the binaries and the Python library somewhere
134else than in /usr/local/{bin,lib}, you can pass the option
135--prefix=DIRECTORY; the interpreter binary will be installed as
136DIRECTORY/bin/python and the library files as DIRECTORY/lib/python/*.
137If you pass --exec-prefix=DIRECTORY (as well) this overrides the
138installation prefix for architecture-dependent files (like the
139interpreter binary). Note that --prefix=DIRECTORY also affects the
140default module search path (sys.path), when Modules/config.c is
141compiled. Passing make the option prefix=DIRECTORY (and/or
142exec_prefix=DIRECTORY) overrides the prefix set at configuration time;
143this may be more convenient than re-running the configure script if
144you change your mind about the install prefix...
145
Guido van Rossum03d8f741994-08-12 12:45:02 +0000146- You can use the GNU readline library to improve the interactive user
147interface: this gives you line editing and command history when
148calling python interactively. You need to configure build the GNU
149readline library before running the configure script. Its sources are
Guido van Rossumb85ae1a1994-10-06 16:15:09 +0000150not distributed with Python; you can ftp them from any GNU mirror
151site, or from its home site:
Guido van Rossum03d8f741994-08-12 12:45:02 +0000152ftp://slc2.ins.cwru.edu/pub/dist/readline-2.0.tar.gz (or a higher
Guido van Rossumb85ae1a1994-10-06 16:15:09 +0000153version number -- using version 1.x is not recommended).
154
155A GPL-free version was posted to comp.sources.misc in volume 31 and is
156widely available from FTP archive sites. One URL for it is:
157ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/.b/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume31/editline/part01.Z
158
159Pass the Python configure script the option --with-readline=DIRECTORY
160where DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the directory where you've
161built the readline library. Some hints on building and using the
162readline library:
Guido van Rossum03d8f741994-08-12 12:45:02 +0000163
164 - On SGI IRIX 5, you may have to add the following
165 to rldefs.h:
166
167 #ifndef sigmask
168 #define sigmask(sig) (1L << ((sig)-1))
169 #endif
170
Guido van Rossumc561e5d1994-08-23 13:52:46 +0000171 - On most systems, you will have to add #include "rldefs.h" to the
172 top of several source files, and if you use the VPATH feature, you
173 will have to add dependencies of the form foo.o: foo.c to the
174 Makefile for several values of foo.
175
Guido van Rossum03d8f741994-08-12 12:45:02 +0000176 - The readline library requires use of the termcap library. A
177 known problem with this is that it contains entry points which
178 cause conflicts with the STDWIN and SGI GL libraries. The stdwin
179 conflict can be solved (and will be, in the next release of
180 stdwin) by adding a line saying '#define werase w_erase' to the
181 stdwin.h file (in the stdwin distribution, subdirectory H). The
182 GL conflict has been solved in the Python configure script by a
183 hack that forces use of the static version of the termcap library.
184
185 - Check the newsgroup gnu.bash.bugs for specific problems with the
Guido van Rossumc561e5d1994-08-23 13:52:46 +0000186 readline library (I don't get this group here but I've been told
187 that it is the place for readline bugs.)
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000188
189- On SGI IRIX, and on Sun SOLARIS 2, you can use multiple threads. To
190enable this, pass --with-thread. In the Modules/Setup file, enable
191the thread module. (Threads aren't enabled automatically because
192there are run-time penalties when support for them is compiled in even
193if you don't use them.)
194
195- On SGI IRIX, there are modules that interface to many SGI specific
196system libraries, e.g. the GL library and the audio hardware. To
197enable these modules, you must edit the Modules/Setup file (or copy the
198Setup.irix4 file to it).
199
200- On SGI IRIX 4, dynamic loading of extension modules is supported by
201the "dl" library by Jack Jansen, which is ftp'able from
202ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-1.6.tar.Z. This is enabled (after
203you've ftp'ed and compiled the dl library!) by passing
204--with-sgi-dl=DIRECTORY where DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of
205the dl library. (Don't bother on IRIX 5, it already has dynamic
Guido van Rossumc561e5d1994-08-23 13:52:46 +0000206linking using SunOS style shared libraries.) Support for this feature
207is deprecated.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000208
209- Dynamic loading of modules is rumoured to be supported on some other
210systems: VAX (Ultrix), Sun3 (SunOS 3.4), Sequent Symmetry (Dynix), and
211Atari ST. This is done using a combination of the GNU dynamic loading
212package (ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-dld-1.1.tar.Z) and an
213emulation of the SGI dl library mentioned above (the emulation can be
214found at ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dld-3.2.3.tar.Z). To enable
215this, ftp and compile both libraries, then call the configure passing
216it the option --with-dl-dld=DL_DIRECTORY,DLD_DIRECTORY where
217DL_DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the dl emulation library and
218DLD_DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the GNU dld library. (Don't
219bother on SunOS 4 or 5, they already have dynamic linking using shared
Guido van Rossumc561e5d1994-08-23 13:52:46 +0000220libraries.) Support for this feature is deprecated.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000221
222- It is possible to specify alternative versions for the Math library
223(default -lm) and the C library (default the empty string) using the
224options --with-libm=STRING and --with-libc=STRING, respectively. E.g.
225if your system requires that you pass -lc_s to the C compiler to use
226the shared C library, you can pass --with-libc=-lc_s. These libraries
227are passed after all other libraries, the C library last.
228
229You can also build an "extended" interpreter, using modules that are
230not contained in the Modules directory. Extensions are distributed as
231a separate tar file (currently extensions.tar.Z). See the README file
232there.
233
234
235Building for multiple architectures (using the VPATH feature)
236-------------------------------------------------------------
237
238If your file system is shared between multiple architectures, it
239usually is not necessary to make copies of the sources for each
240architecture you want to support. If the make program supports the
241VPATH feature, you can create an empty build directory for each
242architecture, and in each directory run the configure script (on the
243appropriate machine with the appropriate options). This creates the
244necessary subdirectories and the Makefiles therein. The Makefiles
245contain a line VPATH=... which points to directory containing the
Guido van Rossum6b111b01994-10-11 15:03:34 +0000246actual sources. (On SGI systems, use "smake" instead of "make" if you
247use VPATH -- don't try gnumake.)
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000248
249For example, the following is all you need to build a minimal Python
250in /usr/tmp/python (assuming ~guido/src/python is the toplevel
251directory and you want to build in /usr/tmp/python):
252
253 $ mkdir /usr/tmp/python
254 $ cd /usr/tmp/python
255 $ ~guido/src/python/configure
256 [...]
257 $ make
258 [...]
259 $
260
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000261Note that Modules/Makefile copies the original Setup file to the build
262directory if it finds no Setup file there. This means that you can
263edit the Setup file for each architecture independently. For this
264reason, subsequent changes to the original Setup file are not tracked
265automatically, as they might overwrite local changes. To force a copy
266of a changed original Setup file, delete the target Setup file. (The
267makesetup script supports multiple input files, so if you want to be
268fancy you can change the rules to create an empty Setup.local if it
269doesn't exist and run it with arguments $(srcdir)/Setup Setup.local;
270however this assumes that you only need to add modules.)
271
272
273Troubleshooting
274---------------
275
Guido van Rossumc561e5d1994-08-23 13:52:46 +0000276See section 3 of the FAQ (in subdirectory Misc of the distribution)
277for hints on what can go wrong, and how to fix it.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000278
279
280Building on non-UNIX systems
281----------------------------
282
283On non-UNIX systems, you will have to fake the effect of running the
284configure script manually. A good start is to copy the file
285config.h.in to config.h and edit the latter to reflect the actual
286configuration of your system. Most symbols must simply be defined as
2871 only if the corresponding feature is present and can be left alone
288otherwise; however RETSIGTYPE must always be defined, either as int or
289as void, and the *_t type symbols must be defined as some variant of
290int if they need to be defined at all. Then arrange that the symbol
291HAVE_CONFIG_H is defined during compilation (usually by passing an
292argument of the form `-DHAVE_CONFIG_H' to the compiler, but this is
293necessarily system-dependent).
294
Guido van Rossumc561e5d1994-08-23 13:52:46 +0000295I have tried to collect instructions, Makefiles and additional sources
296for various platforms in this release. The following directories
297exist:
298
299Mac/ Apple Macintosh, using THINK C 6.0 or MPW 3.2.
300Dos/ MS-DOS and Windows 3.1, using Microsoft C.
301Nt/ Windows NT, using Microsoft Visual C/C++.
302Os2/ OS/2.
303
304Most of these instructions were last tested with a previous Python
305release, so you may still experience occasional problems. If you have
306fixes or suggestions, please let me know and I'll try to incorporate
307them in the next release.
308
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000309
310Distribution structure
311----------------------
312
313Most subdirectories have their own README file. Most files have
314comments.
315
316ChangeLog A raw list of changes since the first 1.0.0 BETA release
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000317Demo/ Demonstration scripts, modules and programs
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000318Doc/ Documentation (in LaTeX)
Guido van Rossumc561e5d1994-08-23 13:52:46 +0000319Extensions/ Extension modules (distributed separately)
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000320Grammar/ Input for the parser generator
321Include/ Public header files
322Lib/ Python library modules
323Makefile Rules for building the distribution
324Misc/ Miscellaneous files
325Modules/ Implementation of most built-in modules
326Objects/ Implementation of most built-in object types
327Parser/ The parser and tokenizer and their input handling
328Python/ The "compiler" and interpreter
329README The file you're reading now
330acconfig.h Additional input for the autoheader program
331config.h Configuration header (generated)
332config.h.in Source from which config.status creates config.h
333config.status status from last run of configure script (generated)
334configure Configuration shell script (GNU autoconf output)
335configure.in Configuration specification (GNU autoconf input)
336tags, TAGS Tags files for vi and Emacs (generated)
337python The executable interpreter (generated)
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000338
339
340Ftp access
341----------
342
Guido van Rossum03d8f741994-08-12 12:45:02 +0000343The latest Python source distribution can be ftp'ed from
344ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/python/python<version>.tar.gz. You can also find
345PostScript of the main Python documentation there, Macintosh and PC
346binaries, and the latest STDWIN source distribution (in directory
347/pub/stdwin). oFr mirror sites, see the list in the FAQ (Misc/FAQ
348this directory).
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000349
350
Guido van Rossum03d8f741994-08-12 12:45:02 +0000351Mailing list and Newsgroup
352--------------------------
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000353
Guido van Rossum03d8f741994-08-12 12:45:02 +0000354There are a mailing list and a newsgroup devoted to Python
355programming, design and bugs. The newsgroup, comp.lang.python,
356contains exactly the same messages as the mailing list. To subscribe
357to the mailing list, send mail containing your real name and e-mail
358address in Internet form to "python-list-request@cwi.nl".
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000359
360
361Author
362------
363
364Guido van Rossum
365CWI, dept. CST
366P.O. Box 94079
3671090 GB Amsterdam
368The Netherlands
369
370E-mail: Guido.van.Rossum@cwi.nl
371
372
373Copyright Notice
374----------------
375
376The Python source is copyrighted, but you can freely use and copy it
377as long as you don't change or remove the copyright:
378
379Copyright 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 by Stichting Mathematisch Centrum,
380Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
381
382 All Rights Reserved
383
Guido van Rossumc561e5d1994-08-23 13:52:46 +0000384Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
385documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000386provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
Guido van Rossumc561e5d1994-08-23 13:52:46 +0000387both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000388supporting documentation, and that the names of Stichting Mathematisch
389Centrum or CWI not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to
390distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission.
391
392STICHTING MATHEMATISCH CENTRUM DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO
393THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
394FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL STICHTING MATHEMATISCH CENTRUM BE LIABLE
395FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
396WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
397ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT
398OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
399
400
401Signature
402---------
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000403
404--Guido van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam <Guido.van.Rossum@cwi.nl>
Guido van Rossumc561e5d1994-08-23 13:52:46 +0000405<URL:http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Guido.van.Rossum.html>