| This is a port of Python 2.3 to OS/2 using the EMX development tools |
| ========================================================================= |
| |
| What's new since the previous release |
| ------------------------------------- |
| |
| This release of the port incorporates the following changes from the |
| April 14, 2002 release of the Python 2.2.1 port: |
| |
| - based on the Python v2.3 final release source. |
| - now setting higher number of file handles (250). |
| - defaults to building with PyMalloc enabled (Python 2.3 default). |
| - the port is now maintained in the Python CVS repository. |
| |
| Python 2.3 incorporates several changes which have resolved the |
| longstanding problems the EMX port has had with test_longexp (used |
| to be "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" item 1). |
| |
| |
| Licenses and info about Python and EMX |
| -------------------------------------- |
| |
| Please read the file README.Python-2.3 included in this package for |
| information about Python 2.3. This file is the README file from the |
| Python 2.3 source distribution available via http://www.python.org/ |
| and its mirrors. The file LICENCE.Python-2.3 is the text of the Licence |
| from the Python 2.3 source distribution. |
| |
| Note that the EMX package that this package depends on is released under |
| the GNU General Public Licence. Please refer to the documentation |
| accompanying the EMX Runtime libraries for more information about the |
| implications of this. A copy of version 2 of the GPL is included as the |
| file COPYING.gpl2. |
| |
| Readline and GDBM are covered by the GNU General Public Licence. I think |
| Eberhard Mattes' porting changes to BSD DB v1.85 are also GPL'ed (BSD DB |
| itself is BSD Licenced). ncurses and expat appear to be covered by MIT |
| style licences - please refer to the source distributions for more detail. |
| zlib is distributable under a very free license. GNU MP and GNU UFC are |
| under the GNU LGPL (see file COPYING.lib). |
| |
| My patches to the Python-2.x source distributions, and any other packages |
| used in this port, are placed in the public domain. |
| |
| This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. |
| In no event will the author be held liable for any damages arising from the |
| use of the software. |
| |
| I do hope however that it proves useful to someone. |
| |
| |
| Other ports |
| ----------- |
| |
| There have been ports of previous versions of Python to OS/2. |
| |
| The best known would be that by Jeff Rush, most recently of version |
| 1.5.2. Jeff used IBM's Visual Age C++ (v3) for his ports, and his |
| patches have been included in the Python 2.3 source distribution. |
| |
| Andrew Zabolotny implemented a port of Python v1.5.2 using the EMX |
| development tools. His patches against the Python v1.5.2 source |
| distribution have become the core of this port, and without his efforts |
| this port wouldn't exist. Andrew's port also appears to have been |
| compiled with his port of gcc 2.95.2 to EMX, which I have but have |
| chosen not to use for the binary distribution of this port (see item 21 |
| of the "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" section below). |
| |
| Previous Python port releases by me:- |
| - v2.0 on March 31, 2001; |
| - v2.0 on April 25, 2001 (cleanup release + Stackless variant); |
| - v2.1 on June 17, 2001; |
| - v2.0 (Stackless re-release) on June 18, 2001. |
| - v2.1.1 on August 5, 2001; |
| - v2.1.1 on August 12, 2001 (cleanup release); |
| - v2.1.1 (updated DLL) on August 14, 2001; |
| - v2.2b2 on December 8, 2001 (not uploaded to archive sites); |
| - v2.2c1 on December 16, 2001 (not uploaded to archive sites); |
| - v2.2 on December 24, 2001; |
| - v2.2.1c2 on March 31, 2002 (not uploaded to archive sites); |
| - v2.2.1 on April 14, 2002. |
| |
| It is possible to have these earlier ports still usable after installing |
| this port - see the README.os2emx.multiple_versions file, contributed by |
| Dr David Mertz, for a suggested approach to achieving this. |
| |
| |
| Software requirements |
| --------------------- |
| |
| This package requires the EMX Runtime package, available from the |
| Hobbes (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/) and LEO (http://archiv.leo.org/) |
| archives of OS/2 software. I have used EMX version 0.9d fix04 in |
| developing this port. |
| |
| My development system is running OS/2 v4 with fixpack 12. |
| |
| 3rd party software which has been linked into dynamically loaded modules: |
| - ncurses (see http://dickey.his.com/ for more info, v5.2) |
| - GNU Readline (Kai Uwe Rommel's port available from Hobbes or LEO, v2.1) |
| - GNU GDBM (Kai Uwe Rommel's port available from Hobbes or LEO, v1.7.3) |
| - zlib (Hung-Chi Chu's port available from Hobbes or LEO, v1.1.3) |
| - expat (distributed with Python, v1.95.2) |
| - GNU MP (Peter Meerwald's port available from LEO, v2.0.2) |
| - GNU UFC (Kai Uwe Rommel's port available from LEO, v2.0.4) |
| |
| The zlib module requires the Z.DLL to be installed - see the Installation |
| section and item 12 of the "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" section for more |
| information. |
| |
| About this port |
| --------------- |
| |
| I have attempted to make this port as complete and functional as I can, |
| notwithstanding the issues in the "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" section below. |
| |
| Core components: |
| |
| Python.exe is linked as an a.out executable, ie using EMX method E1 |
| to compile & link the executable. This is so that fork() works (see |
| "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" item 2). |
| |
| Python23.dll is created as a normal OMF DLL, with an OMF import |
| library and module definition file. There is also an a.out (.a) import |
| library to support linking the DLL to a.out executables. The DLL |
| requires the EMX runtime DLLs. |
| |
| This port has been built with complete support for multithreading. |
| |
| Modules: |
| |
| As far as possible, extension modules have been made dynamically loadable |
| when the module is intended to be built this way. I haven't yet changed |
| the building of Python's standard modules over to using the DistUtils. |
| |
| See "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" item 5 for notes about the fcntl module, and |
| "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" item 14 for notes about the pwd and grp modules. |
| |
| Support for case sensitive module import semantics has been added to match |
| the Windows release. This can be deactivated by setting the PYTHONCASEOK |
| environment variable (the value doesn't matter) - see "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" |
| item 16. |
| |
| Optional modules: |
| |
| Where I've been able to locate the required 3rd party packages already |
| ported to OS/2, I've built and included them. |
| |
| These include ncurses (_curses, _curses_panel), BSD DB (bsddb), |
| GNU GDBM (gdbm, dbm), zlib (zlib), GNU Readline (readline), expat |
| (pyexpat), GNU MP (mpz) and GNU UFC (crypt). |
| |
| I have built these modules statically linked against the 3rd party |
| libraries, with the exception of zlib. Unfortunately my attempts to use |
| the dll version of GNU readline have been a dismal failure, in that when |
| the dynamically linked readline module is active other modules |
| immediately provoke a core dump when imported. |
| |
| Only the BSD DB package (part of the BSD package distributed with EMX) |
| needed source modifications to be used for this port, pertaining to use |
| of errno with multithreading. |
| |
| The other packages, except for ncurses and zlib, needed Makefile changes |
| for multithreading support but no source changes. |
| |
| The _curses_panel module is a potential problem - see "YOU HAVE BEEN |
| WARNED" item 17. |
| |
| Upstream source patches: |
| |
| No updates to the Python 2.3 release have become available. |
| |
| Eberhard Mattes' EMXFIX04 update to his EMX 0.9d tools suite includes |
| bug fixes for the BSD DB library. The bsddb module included in this |
| port incorporates these fixes. |
| |
| Library and other distributed Python code: |
| |
| The Python standard library lives in the Lib directory. All the standard |
| library code included with the Python 2.3 source distribution is included |
| in the binary archive, with the exception of the dos-8x3 and tkinter |
| subdirectories which have been omitted to reduce the size of the binary |
| archive - the dos-8x3 components are unnecessary duplicates and Tkinter |
| is not supported by this port (yet). All the plat-* subdirectories in the |
| source distribution have also been omitted, and a plat-os2emx directory |
| included. |
| |
| The Tools and Demo directories contain a collection of Python scripts. |
| To reduce the size of the binary archive, the Demo/sgi, Demo/Tix, |
| Demo/tkinter, Tools/audiopy and Tools/IDLE subdirectories have been |
| omitted as not being supported by this port. The Misc directory has |
| also been omitted. |
| |
| All subdirectories omitted from the binary archive can be reconstituted |
| from the Python 2.3 source distribution, if desired. |
| |
| Support for building Python extensions: |
| |
| The Config subdirectory contains the files describing the configuration |
| of the interpreter and the Makefile, import libraries for the Python DLL, |
| and the module definition file used to create the Python DLL. The |
| Include subdirectory contains all the standard Python header files |
| needed for building extensions. |
| |
| As I don't have the Visual Age C++ compiler, I've made no attempt to |
| have this port support extensions built with that compiler. |
| |
| |
| Packaging |
| --------- |
| |
| This port is packaged into several archives: |
| - python-2.3-os2emx-bin-02????.zip (binaries, library modules) |
| - python-2.3-os2emx-src-03????.zip (source patches and makefiles) |
| |
| Documentation for the Python language, as well as the Python 2.3 |
| source distibution, can be obtained from the Python website |
| (http://www.python.org/) or the Python project pages at Sourceforge |
| (http://sf.net/projects/python/). |
| |
| |
| Installation |
| ------------ |
| |
| Obtain and install, as per the included instructions, the EMX runtime |
| package. |
| |
| If you wish to use the zlib module, you will need to obtain and install |
| the Z.DLL from Hung-Chi Chu's port of zlib v1.1.3 (zlib113.zip). See also |
| "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" item 12 below. |
| |
| Unpack this archive, preserving the subdirectories, in the root directory |
| of the drive where you want Python to live. |
| |
| Add the Python directory (eg C:\Python23) to the PATH and LIBPATH |
| variables in CONFIG.SYS. |
| |
| You should then set the PYTHONHOME and PYTHONPATH environment variables |
| in CONFIG.SYS. |
| |
| PYTHONHOME should be set to Python's top level directory. PYTHONPATH |
| should be set to the semicolon separated list of principal Python library |
| directories. |
| I use: |
| SET PYTHONHOME=F:/Python23 |
| SET PYTHONPATH=F:/Python23/Lib;F:/Python23/Lib/plat-os2emx; |
| F:/Python23/Lib/lib-dynload;F:/Python23/Lib/site-packages |
| |
| NOTE!: the PYTHONPATH setting above is linewrapped for this document - it |
| should all be on one line in CONFIG.SYS! |
| |
| If you wish to use the curses module, you should set the TERM and TERMINFO |
| environment variables appropriately. |
| |
| If you don't already have ncurses installed, I have included a copy of the |
| EMX subset of the Terminfo database included with the ncurses-5.2 source |
| distribution. This can be used by setting the TERMINFO environment variable |
| to the path of the Terminfo subdirectory below the Python home directory. |
| On my system this looks like: |
| SET TERMINFO=F:/Python23/Terminfo |
| |
| For the TERM environment variable, I would try one of the following: |
| SET TERM=ansi |
| SET TERM=os2 |
| SET TERM=window |
| |
| You will have to reboot your system for these changes to CONFIG.SYS to take |
| effect. |
| |
| If you wish to compile all the included Python library modules to bytecode, |
| you can change into the Python home directory and run the COMPILEALL.CMD |
| batch file. |
| |
| You can execute the regression tests included with the Python 2.3 source |
| distribution by changing to the Python 2.3 home directory and executing the |
| REGRTEST.CMD batch file. The following tests are known to fail at this |
| time: |
| - test_longexp (see "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" item 1); |
| - test_mhlib (I don't know of any port of MH to OS/2); |
| - test_pwd (see "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" item 14, probably a bug in my code); |
| - test_grp (as per test_pwd); |
| - test_strftime (see "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" item 20); |
| - test_socketserver (fork() related, see "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" item 2). |
| |
| |
| YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!! |
| ---------------------- |
| |
| I know about a number of nasties in this port. |
| |
| {1. Issue resolved...} |
| |
| 2. Eberhard Mattes, author of EMX, writes in his documentation that fork() |
| is very inefficient in the OS/2 environment. It also requires that the |
| executable be linked in a.out format rather than OMF. Use the os.exec |
| and/or the os.spawn family of functions where possible. |
| |
| {3. Issue resolved...} |
| |
| 4. In the absence of GNU Readline, terminating the interpreter requires a |
| control-Z (^Z) followed by a carriage return. Jeff Rush documented this |
| problem in his Python 1.5.2 port. With Readline, a control-D (^D) works |
| as per the standard Unix environment. |
| |
| 5. EMX only has a partial implementation of fcntl(). The fcntl module |
| in this port supports what EMX supports. If fcntl is important to you, |
| please review the EMX C Library Reference (included in .INF format in the |
| EMXVIEW.ZIP archive as part of the complete EMX development tools suite). |
| Because of other side-effects I have modified the test_fcntl.py test |
| script to deactivate the exercising of the missing functionality. |
| |
| 6. The BSD DB module is linked against DB v1.85. This version is widely |
| known to have bugs, although some patches have become available (and are |
| incorporated into the included bsddb module). Unless you have problems |
| with software licenses which would rule out GDBM (and the dbm module |
| because it is linked against the GDBM library) or need it for file format |
| compatibility, you may be better off deleting it and relying on GDBM. I |
| haven't looked at porting the version of the module supporting the later |
| SleepyCat releases of BSD DB, which would also require a port of the |
| SleepyCat DB package. |
| |
| 7. The readline module has been linked against ncurses rather than the |
| termcap library supplied with EMX. |
| |
| {8. Workaround implemented} |
| |
| 9. I have configured this port to use "/" as the preferred path separator |
| character, rather than "\" ('\\'), in line with the convention supported |
| by EMX. Backslashes are still supported of course, and still appear in |
| unexpected places due to outside sources that don't get normalised. |
| |
| 10. While the DistUtils components are now functional, other |
| packaging/binary handling tools and utilities such as those included in |
| the Demo and Tools directories - freeze in particular - are unlikely to |
| work. If you do get them going, I'd like to know about your success. |
| |
| 11. I haven't set out to support the [BEGIN|END]LIBPATH functionality |
| supported by one of the earlier ports (Rush's??). If it works let me know. |
| |
| 12. There appear to be several versions of Z.DLL floating around - the one |
| I have is 45061 bytes and dated January 22, 1999. I have a report that |
| another version causes SYS3175s when the zlib module is imported. |
| |
| 14. As a result of the limitations imposed by EMX's library routines, the |
| standard extension module pwd only synthesises a simple passwd database, |
| and the grp module cannot be supported at all. |
| |
| I have written substitutes, in Python naturally, which can process real |
| passwd and group files for those applications (such as MailMan) that |
| require more than EMX emulates. I have placed pwd.py and grp.py in |
| Lib/plat-os2emx, which is usually before Lib/lib-dynload (which contains |
| pwd.pyd) in the PYTHONPATH. If you have become attached to what pwd.pyd |
| supports, you can put Lib/lib-dynload before Lib/plat-os2emx in PYTHONPATH |
| or delete/rename pwd.py & grp.py. |
| |
| pwd.py & grp.py support locating their data files by looking in the |
| environment for them in the following sequence: |
| pwd.py: $ETC_PASSWD (%ETC_PASSWD%) |
| $ETC/passwd (%ETC%/passwd) |
| $PYTHONHOME/Etc/passwd (%PYTHONHOME%/Etc/passwd) |
| grp.py: $ETC_GROUP (%ETC_GROUP%) |
| $ETC/group (%ETC%/group) |
| $PYTHONHOME/Etc/group (%PYTHONHOME%/Etc/group) |
| |
| Both modules support using either the ":" character (Unix standard) or |
| ";" (OS/2, DOS, Windows standard) field separator character, and pwd.py |
| implements the following drive letter conversions for the home_directory and |
| shell fields (for the ":" separator only): |
| $x -> x: |
| x; -> x: |
| |
| Example versions of passwd and group are in the Etc subdirectory. Note |
| that as of this release, this code fails the regression test. I'm looking |
| into why, and hope to have this fixed. |
| |
| 15. As of Python 2.1, termios support has mutated. There is no longer a |
| platform specific TERMIOS.py containing the symbolic constants - these |
| now live in the termios module. EMX's termios routines don't support all |
| of the functionality now exposed by the termios module - refer to the EMX |
| documentation to find out what is supported. |
| |
| 16. The case sensitive import semantics introduced in Python 2.1 for other |
| case insensitive but case preserving file/operating systems (Windows etc), |
| have been incorporated into this port, and are active by default. Setting |
| the PYTHONCASEOK environment variable (to any value) reverts to the |
| previous (case insensitive) semantics. |
| |
| 17. Because I am statically linking ncurses, the _curses_panel |
| module has potential problems arising from separate library data areas. |
| To avoid this, I have configured the _curses_.pyd (imported as |
| "_curses_panel") to import the ncurses symbols it needs from _curses.pyd. |
| As a result the _curses module must be imported before the _curses_panel |
| module. As far as I can tell, the modules in the curses package do this. |
| If you have problems attempting to use the _curses_panel support please |
| let me know, and I'll look into an alternative solution. |
| |
| 18. I tried enabling the Python Object Allocator (PYMALLOC) code. While |
| the port built this way passes the regression test, the Numpy extension |
| (I tested v19.0.0) as built with with the port's DistUtils code doesn't |
| work. Specifically, attempting to "import Numeric" provokes a core dump. |
| Supposedly Numpy v20.1.0 contains a fix for this, but for reason outlined |
| in item 1 above, PYMALLOC is not enabled in this release. |
| |
| 19. sys.platform now reports "os2emx" instead of "os2". os.name still |
| reports "os2". This change was to make it easier to distinguish between |
| the VAC++ build (being maintained by Michael Muller) and the EMX build |
| (this port), principally for DistUtils. |
| |
| 20. it appears that the %W substitution in the EMX strftime() routine has |
| an off-by-one bug. strftime was listed as passing the regression tests |
| in previous releases, but this fact appears to have been an oversight in |
| the regression test suite. To fix this really requires a portable |
| strftime routine - I'm looking into using one from FreeBSD, but its not |
| ready yet. |
| |
| 21. previous releases of my Python ports have used the GCC optimisations |
| "-O2 -fomit-frame-pointer". After experimenting with various optimisation |
| settings, including deactivating assert()ions, I have concluded that "-O2" |
| appears the best compromise for GCC 2.8.1 on my hardware. Curiously, |
| deactivating assert() (via defining NDEBUG) _negatively_ impacts |
| performance, allbeit only slightly, so I've chosen to leave the assert()s |
| active. |
| |
| I did try using Andrew Zabolotny's (p)gcc 2.95.2 compiler, and in |
| general concluded that it produced larger objects that ran slower |
| than Mattes' gcc 2.8.1 compiler. |
| |
| Pystone ratings varied from just over 2000/s (no optimisation at all) |
| to just under 3300/s (gcc 2.8.1, -O2) on my K6/2-300 system, for |
| 100,000 iterations per run (rather than the default 10000). |
| |
| As a result of the optimisation change, the Python DLL is about 10% |
| smaller than in the 2.1 release, and many of the dynamically loadable |
| modules are smaller too. |
| |
| [2001/08/12] |
| |
| 22. As of this release, os.spawnv() and os.spawnve() now expose EMX's |
| library routines rather than use the emulation in os.py. |
| |
| In order to make use of some of the features this makes available in |
| the OS/2 environment, you should peruse the relevant EMX documentation |
| (EMXLIB.INF in the EMXVIEW.ZIP archive accompanying the EMX archives |
| on Hobbes or LEO). Be aware that I have exposed all the "mode" options |
| supported by EMX, but there are combinations that either cannot be |
| practically used by/in Python or have the potential to compromise your |
| system's stability. |
| |
| 23. pythonpm.exe in previous releases was just python.exe with the |
| WINDOWAPI linker option set in the pythonpm.def file. In practice, |
| this turns out to do nothing useful. |
| |
| I have written a replacement which wraps the Python DLL in a genuine |
| Presentation Manager application. This version actually runs the |
| Python interpreter in a separate thread from the PM shell, in order |
| that PythonPM has a functioning message queue as good PM apps should. |
| In its current state, PythonPM's window is hidden. It can be displayed, |
| although it will have no content as nothing is ever written to the |
| window. Only the "hide" button is available. Although the code |
| has support for shutting PythonPM down when the Python interpreter is |
| still busy (via the "control" menu), this is not well tested and given |
| comments I've come across in EMX documentation suggesting that the |
| thread killing operation has problems I would suggest caution in |
| relying on this capability. |
| |
| PythonPM processes commandline parameters normally. The standard input, |
| output and error streams are only useful if redirected, as PythonPM's |
| window is not a console in any form and so cannot accept or display |
| anything. This means that the -i option is ineffective. |
| |
| Because the Python thread doesn't create its own message queue, creating |
| PM Windows and performing most PM operations is not possible from within |
| this thread. How this will affect supporting PM extensions (such as |
| Tkinter using a PM port of Tcl/Tk, or wxPython using the PM port of |
| WxWindows) is still being researched. |
| |
| Note that os.fork() _DOES_NOT_WORK_ in PythonPM - SYS3175s are the result |
| of trying. os.spawnv() _does_ work. PythonPM passes all regression tests |
| that the standard Python interpreter (python.exe) passes, with the exception |
| of test_fork1 and test_socket which both attempt to use os.fork(). |
| |
| I very much want feedback on the performance, behaviour and utility of |
| PythonPM. I would like to add a PM console capability to it, but that |
| will be a non-trivial effort. I may be able to leverage the code in |
| Illya Vaes' Tcl/Tk port, which would make it easier. |
| |
| [2001/08/14] |
| |
| 24. os.chdir() now uses EMX's _chdir2(), which supports changing |
| both drive and directory at once. Similarly, os.getcwd() now uses |
| EMX's _getcwd() which returns drive as well as path. |
| |
| [2001/12/08] - 2.2 Beta 2 |
| |
| 25. pyconfig.h (previously known as config.h) is now located in the |
| Include subdirectory with all other include files. |
| |
| [2001/12/16] - 2.2 Release Candidate 1 |
| |
| [2001/12/08] - 2.2 Final |
| |
| [2002/03/31] - 2.2.1 Release Candidate 2 |
| |
| [2002/04/14] - 2.2.1 Final |
| |
| [2002/8/18] |
| |
| 26. now explicitly set the number of file handles available to a |
| Python process to 250. EMX default is 40, which is insufficient for the |
| recently checked in security improvments to the tempfile regression |
| test (test_tempfile) which tries to create 100 temporary files. |
| |
| This setting can be overridden via the EMXOPT environment variable: |
| set EMXOPT=-h250 |
| is equivalent to the setting currently used. The emxbind utility (if you |
| have it installed) can also be used to permanently change the setting in |
| python.exe - please refer to the EMX documentation for more information. |
| |
| ... probably other issues that I've not encountered, or don't remember :-( |
| |
| If you encounter other difficulties with this port, which can be |
| characterised as peculiar to this port rather than to the Python release, |
| I would like to hear about them. However I cannot promise to be able to do |
| anything to resolve such problems. See the Contact section below... |
| |
| |
| To do... |
| -------- |
| |
| In no particular order of apparent importance or likelihood... |
| |
| - support Tkinter and/or alternative GUI (wxWindows??) |
| |
| |
| Credits |
| ------- |
| |
| In addition to people identified above, I'd like to thank: |
| - the BDFL, Guido van Rossum, and crew for Python; |
| - Dr David Mertz, for trying out a pre-release of this port; |
| - the Python-list/comp.lang.python community; |
| - John Poltorak, for input about pwd/grp. |
| |
| Contact |
| ------- |
| |
| Constructive feedback, negative or positive, about this port is welcome |
| and should be addressed to me at the e-mail addresses below. |
| |
| I intend creating a private mailing list for announcements of fixes & |
| updates to this port. If you wish to receive such e-mail announcments, |
| please send me an e-mail requesting that you be added to this list. |
| |
| Andrew MacIntyre |
| E-mail: andymac@bullseye.apana.org.au, or andymac@pcug.org.au |
| Web: http://www.andymac.org/ |
| |
| 18 August, 2001. |