Guido van Rossum | 6ca3def | 1998-08-10 16:36:48 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | Q. I want to port Python to a new platform. How do I begin? |
| 2 | |
| 3 | A. I guess the two things to start with is to familiarize yourself |
| 4 | with are the development system for your target platform and the |
| 5 | generic build process for Python. Make sure you can compile and run a |
| 6 | simple hello-world program on your target platform. Make sure you can |
| 7 | compile and run the Python interpreter on a platform to which it has |
| 8 | already been ported (preferably Unix, but Mac or Windows will do, |
| 9 | too). |
| 10 | |
| 11 | I also would never start something like this without at least |
| 12 | medium-level understanding of your target platform (i.e. how it is |
| 13 | generally used, how to write platform specific apps etc.) and Python |
| 14 | (or else you'll never know how to test the results). |
| 15 | |
| 16 | The build process for Python, in particular the Makefiles in the |
| 17 | source distribution, will give you a hint on which files to compile |
| 18 | for Python. Not all source files are relevant -- some are platform |
| 19 | specific, others are only used in emergencies (e.g. getopt.c). The |
| 20 | Makefiles tell the story. |
| 21 | |
Martin v. Löwis | 4f1cd8b | 2001-07-26 13:41:06 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 22 | You'll also need a pyconfig.h file tailored for your platform. You can |
| 23 | start with pyconfig.h.in, read the comments and turn on definitions that |
Guido van Rossum | 6ca3def | 1998-08-10 16:36:48 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 24 | apply to your platform. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | And you'll need a config.c file, which lists the built-in modules you |
| 27 | support. Start with Modules/config.c.in. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | Finally, you'll run into some things that aren't supported on your |
| 30 | target platform. Forget about the posix module for now -- simply take |
| 31 | it out of the config.c file. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | Bang on it until you get a >>> prompt. (You may have to disable the |
| 34 | importing of "site.py" and "exceptions.py" by passing -X and -S |
| 35 | options. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | Then bang on it until it executes very simple Python statements. |
| 38 | |
| 39 | Now bang on it some more. At some point you'll want to use the os |
Georg Brandl | eeb575f | 2009-06-24 06:42:05 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 40 | module; this is the time to start thinking about what to do with the |
Guido van Rossum | 6ca3def | 1998-08-10 16:36:48 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 41 | posix module. It's okay to simply #ifdef out those functions that |
| 42 | cause problems; the remaining ones will be quite useful. |