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Guido van Rossum6db412b2001-04-18 04:37:57 +00001This is Python version 2.2
Jeremy Hyltonb6750812000-10-16 18:26:42 +00002==========================
Guido van Rossum91447632000-04-11 17:11:09 +00003
Guido van Rossuma0ea7c12001-03-22 15:29:37 +00004Copyright (c) 2001 Python Software Foundation.
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +00005All rights reserved.
6
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +00007Copyright (c) 2000 BeOpen.com.
8All rights reserved.
9
Guido van Rossum23f7aed2001-04-12 20:53:31 +000010Copyright (c) 1995-2001 Corporation for National Research Initiatives.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000011All rights reserved.
12
Guido van Rossum6ebd2992000-09-03 04:47:47 +000013Copyright (c) 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000014All rights reserved.
15
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000016
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000017License information
18-------------------
19
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000020See the file "LICENSE" for information on the history of this
21software, terms & conditions for usage, and a DISCLAIMER OF ALL
22WARRANTIES.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000023
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000024This Python distribution contains no GNU General Public Licensed
25(GPLed) code so it may be used in proprietary projects just like prior
26Python distributions. There are interfaces to some GNU code but these
27are entirely optional.
28
29All trademarks referenced herein are property of their respective
30holders.
Guido van Rossum79808261997-12-11 18:01:47 +000031
32
Guido van Rossum8d7d4ed1996-07-30 21:41:07 +000033What's new in this release?
34---------------------------
Guido van Rossum3ff96dd1996-07-30 18:05:04 +000035
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +000036See the file "Misc/NEWS".
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +000037
38If you don't read instructions
39------------------------------
40
41Congratulations on getting this far. :-)
42
43To start building right away (on UNIX): type "./configure" in the
Guido van Rossum2dcec0c2002-02-04 01:59:23 +000044current directory and when it finishes, type "make". This creates an
45executable "./python"; to install in /usr/local, first do "su root"
46and then "make install".
47
Guido van Rossum59b0b602002-02-08 22:22:35 +000048The section `Build instructions' below is still recommended reading,
Guido van Rossum2dcec0c2002-02-04 01:59:23 +000049especially the part on customizing Modules/Setup.
Guido van Rossum3ff96dd1996-07-30 18:05:04 +000050
51
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +000052What is Python anyway?
53----------------------
54
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000055Python is an interpreted object-oriented programming language suitable
56(amongst other uses) for distributed application development,
57scripting, numeric computing and system testing. Python is often
58compared to Tcl, Perl, Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic or Scheme. To
59find out more about what Python can do for you, point your browser to
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +000060http://www.python.org/.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +000061
62
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +000063How do I learn Python?
64----------------------
65
Fred Drake0e6444c1999-05-17 19:35:01 +000066The official tutorial is still a good place to start; see
Guido van Rossumd0a42e22000-03-31 20:16:45 +000067http://www.python.org/doc/ for online and downloadable versions, as
68well as a list of other introductions, and reference documentation.
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +000069
Guido van Rossumd0a42e22000-03-31 20:16:45 +000070There's a quickly growing set of books on Python. See
71http://www.python.org/psa/bookstore/ for a list.
Guido van Rossum8d90f9d1997-05-22 20:13:25 +000072
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +000073
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000074Documentation
75-------------
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +000076
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000077All documentation is provided online in a variety of formats. In
78order of importance for new users: Tutorial, Library Reference,
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000079Language Reference, Extending & Embedding, and the Python/C API. The
80Library Reference is especially of immense value since much of
81Python's power is described there, including the built-in data types
82and functions!
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +000083
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000084All documentation is also available online at the Python web site
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000085(http://www.python.org/doc/, see below). It is available online for
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000086occasional reference, or can be downloaded in many formats for faster
Fred Drake6caae142000-10-25 17:51:02 +000087access. The documentation is available in HTML, PostScript, PDF, and
88LaTeX formats; the LaTeX version is primarily for documentation
89authors, translators, and people with special formatting requirements.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000090
Barry Warsaw06557452001-12-14 20:47:12 +000091The best documentation for the new (in Python 2.2) type/class unification
92features is Guido's tutorial introduction, at
93
94 http://www.python.org/2.2/descrintro.html
95
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000096
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000097Web sites
98---------
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000099
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000100New Python releases and related technologies are published at
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000101http://www.python.org/. Come visit us!
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000102
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000103There's also a Python community web site at http://starship.python.net/.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000104
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000105
106Newsgroups and Mailing Lists
107----------------------------
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000108
109Read comp.lang.python, a high-volume discussion newsgroup about
110Python, or comp.lang.python.announce, a low-volume moderated newsgroup
111for Python-related announcements. These are also accessible as
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000112mailing lists: see http://www.python.org/psa/MailingLists.html for an
113overview of the many Python-related mailing lists.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000114
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000115Archives are accessible via Deja.com Usenet News: see
116http://www.deja.com/usenet. The mailing lists are also archived, see
117http://www.python.org/psa/MailingLists.html for details.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000118
119
120Bug reports
121-----------
122
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000123To report or search for bugs, please use the Python Bug
124Tracker at http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=5470.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000125
126
127Patches and contributions
128-------------------------
129
Fred Drake6caae142000-10-25 17:51:02 +0000130To submit a patch or other contribution, please use the Python Patch
131Manager at http://sourceforge.net/patch/?group_id=5470. Guidelines
132for patch submission may be found at http://www.python.org/patches/.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000133
134If you have a proposal to change Python, it's best to submit a Python
135Enhancement Proposal (PEP) first. All current PEPs, as well as
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000136guidelines for submitting a new PEP, are list at
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000137http://python.sourceforge.net/peps/.
138
139
140Questions
141---------
142
143For help, if you can't find it in the manuals or on the web site, it's
144best to post to the comp.lang.python or the Python mailing list (see
145above). If you specifically don't want to involve the newsgroup or
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000146mailing list, send questions to help@python.org (a group of volunteers
147who answer questions as they can). The newsgroup is the most
148efficient way to ask public questions.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000149
Guido van Rossum901454e2000-06-29 22:28:44 +0000150
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000151Build instructions
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000152==================
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000153
Guido van Rossum59b0b602002-02-08 22:22:35 +0000154Before you can build Python, you must first configure it.
155Fortunately, the configuration and build process has been automated
156for Unix and Linux installations, so all you usually have to do is
157type a few commands and sit back. There are some platforms where
158things are not quite as smooth; see the platform specific notes below.
159If you want to build for multiple platforms sharing the same source
160tree, see the section on VPATH below.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000161
Guido van Rossum59b0b602002-02-08 22:22:35 +0000162Start by running the script "./configure", which determines your
163system configuration and creates the Makefile. (It takes a minute or
164two -- please be patient!) You may want to pass options to the
165configure script -- see the section below on configuration options and
166variables. When it's done, you are ready to run make.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000167
Guido van Rossum59b0b602002-02-08 22:22:35 +0000168To build Python, you normally type "make" in the toplevel directory.
169If you have changed the configuration, the Makefile may have to be
170rebuilt. In this case you may have to run make again to correctly
171build your desired target. The interpreter executable is built in the
172top level directory.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000173
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000174Once you have built a Python interpreter, see the subsections below on
Guido van Rossum59b0b602002-02-08 22:22:35 +0000175testing and installation. If you run into trouble, see the next
176section.
177
178Previous versions of Python used a manual configuration process that
179involved editing the file Modules/Setup. While this file still exists
180and manual configuration is still supported, it is rarely needed any
181more: almost all modules are automatically built as appropriate under
182guidance of the setup.py script, which is run by Make after the
183interpreter has been built.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000184
Guido van Rossum0a516c91994-09-12 10:58:40 +0000185
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000186Troubleshooting
187---------------
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000188
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000189See also the platform specific notes in the next section.
190
Guido van Rossum49523691997-08-15 18:30:14 +0000191If you run into other trouble, see section 3 of the FAQ
Guido van Rossum901454e2000-06-29 22:28:44 +0000192(http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw.py or
Guido van Rossum49523691997-08-15 18:30:14 +0000193http://www.python.org/doc/FAQ.html) for hints on what can go wrong,
194and how to fix it.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000195
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000196If you rerun the configure script with different options, remove all
197object files by running "make clean" before rebuilding. Believe it or
198not, "make clean" sometimes helps to clean up other inexplicable
199problems as well. Try it before sending in a bug report!
200
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000201If the configure script fails or doesn't seem to find things that
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000202should be there, inspect the config.log file. When you fix a
203configure problem, be sure to remove config.cache!
204
205If you get a warning for every file about the -Olimit option being no
206longer supported, you can ignore it. There's no foolproof way to know
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000207whether this option is needed; all we can do is test whether it is
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000208accepted without error. On some systems, e.g. older SGI compilers, it
209is essential for performance (specifically when compiling ceval.c,
210which has more basic blocks than the default limit of 1000). If the
211warning bothers you, edit the Makefile to remove "-Olimit 1500" from
212the OPT variable.
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000213
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000214If you get failures in test_long, or sys.maxint gets set to -1, you
215are probably experiencing compiler bugs, usually related to
216optimization. This is a common problem with some versions of gcc and
217egcs, and some vendor-supplied compilers, which can sometimes be
218worked around by turning off optimization. Consider switching to
219stable versions (gcc 2.7.2.3, egcs 1.1.2, or contact your vendor.)
220
221From Python 2.0 onward, all Python C code is ANSI C. Compiling using
222old K&R-C-only compilers is no longer possible. ANSI C compilers are
223available for all modern systems, either in the form of updated
224compilers from the vendor, or one of the free compilers (gcc, egcs).
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000225
226Platform specific notes
227-----------------------
228
Guido van Rossum0447a321995-10-08 01:22:33 +0000229(Some of these may no longer apply. If you find you can build Python
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000230on these platforms without the special directions mentioned here,
231submit a documentation bug report to SourceForge (see Bug Reports
232above) so we can remove them!)
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000233
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +000023464-bit platforms: The modules audioop, imageop and rgbimg don't work.
Guido van Rossum59b0b602002-02-08 22:22:35 +0000235 The setup.py script disables them on 64-bit installations.
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000236 Don't try to enable them in the Modules/Setup file. They
237 contain code that is quite wordsize sensitive. (If you have a
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000238 fix, let us know!)
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000239
Guido van Rossum4462e931997-01-22 21:00:32 +0000240Solaris: When using Sun's C compiler with threads, at least on Solaris
241 2.5.1, you need to add the "-mt" compiler option (the simplest
242 way is probably to specify the compiler with this option as
243 the "CC" environment variable when running the configure
244 script).
245
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000246Linux: A problem with threads and fork() was tracked down to a bug in
247 the pthreads code in glibc version 2.0.5; glibc version 2.0.7
248 solves the problem. This causes the popen2 test to fail;
249 problem and solution reported by Pablo Bleyer.
Guido van Rossum4462e931997-01-22 21:00:32 +0000250
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000251 Under Linux systems using GNU libc 2 (aka libc6), the crypt
Guido van Rossum59b0b602002-02-08 22:22:35 +0000252 module now needs the -lcrypt option. The setup.py script
253 takes care of this automatically.
Fred Drake61280911997-12-08 14:10:40 +0000254
Guido van Rossum2dcec0c2002-02-04 01:59:23 +0000255Red Hat Linux: There's an executable /usr/bin/python which is Python
256 1.5.2 on most Red Hat installations; several key Red Hat tools
257 require this version. Python 2.1.x may be installed as
258 /usr/bin/python2. The Makefile installs Python as
259 /usr/local/bin/python, which may or may not take precedence
260 over /usr/bin/python, depending on how you have set up $PATH.
261
Guido van Rossum59230501999-06-21 20:51:46 +0000262FreeBSD 3.x and probably platforms with NCurses that use libmytinfo or
263 similar: When using cursesmodule, the linking is not done in
264 the correct order with the defaults. Remove "-ltermcap" from
265 the readline entry in Setup, and use as curses entry: "curses
266 cursesmodule.c -lmytinfo -lncurses -ltermcap" - "mytinfo" (so
267 called on FreeBSD) should be the name of the auxiliary library
268 required on your platform. Normally, it would be linked
269 automatically, but not necessarily in the correct order.
270
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000271BSDI: BSDI versions before 4.1 have known problems with threads,
272 which can cause strange errors in a number of modules (for
273 instance, the 'test_signal' test script will hang forever.)
274 Turning off threads (with --with-threads=no) or upgrading to
275 BSDI 4.1 solves this problem.
276
277DEC Unix: Run configure with --with-dec-threads, or with
278 --with-threads=no if no threads are desired (threads are on by
279 default). When using GCC, it is possible to get an internal
280 compiler error if optimization is used. This was reported for
281 GCC 2.7.2.3 on selectmodule.c. Manually compile the affected
282 file without optimization to solve the problem.
Guido van Rossum8eca2c21996-02-14 18:37:46 +0000283
Guido van Rossume1cdb161999-04-10 16:04:07 +0000284DEC Ultrix: compile with GCC to avoid bugs in the native compiler,
285 and pass SHELL=/bin/sh5 to Make when installing.
286
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000287AIX: A complete overhaul of the shared library support is now in
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000288 place. See Misc/AIX-NOTES for some notes on how it's done.
Guido van Rossum9ac9a261998-02-16 22:19:21 +0000289 (The optimizer bug reported at this place in previous releases
Thomas Wouters8ee06142001-02-15 11:45:29 +0000290 has been worked around by a minimal code change.) If you get
291 errors about ptread_* functions, during compile or during
292 testing, try setting CC to a thread-safe (reentrant) compiler,
293 like "cc_r". For full C++ module support, set CC="xlC_r" (or
294 CC="xlC" without thread support).
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000295
Guido van Rossum59a88f41999-04-12 18:16:09 +0000296HP-UX: Please read the file Misc/HPUX-NOTES for shared libraries.
297 When using threading, you may have to add -D_REENTRANT to the
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000298 OPT variable in the top-level Makefile; reported by Pat Knight,
Guido van Rossum59a88f41999-04-12 18:16:09 +0000299 this seems to make a difference (at least for HP-UX 10.20)
300 even though config.h defines it.
Guido van Rossum2094e041998-05-14 15:47:35 +0000301
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000302Minix: When using ack, use "CC=cc AR=aal RANLIB=: ./configure"!
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000303
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000304SCO: The following apply to SCO 3 only; Python builds out of the box
305 on SCO 5 (or so we've heard).
Guido van Rossuma16e2751998-04-13 20:14:05 +0000306
307 1) Everything works much better if you add -U__STDC__ to the
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000308 defs. This is because all the SCO header files are broken.
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000309 Anything that isn't mentioned in the C standard is
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000310 conditionally excluded when __STDC__ is defined.
311
312 2) Due to the U.S. export restrictions, SCO broke the crypt
313 stuff out into a separate library, libcrypt_i.a so the LIBS
314 needed be set to:
315
316 LIBS=' -lsocket -lcrypt_i'
317
Martin v. Löwis387c5472001-09-06 08:16:17 +0000318UnixWare: There are known bugs in the math library of the system, as well as
319 problems in the handling of threads (calling fork in one
320 thread may interrupt system calls in others). Therefore, test_math and
321 tests involving threads will fail until those problems are fixed.
322
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000323SunOS 4.x: When using the SunPro C compiler, you may want to use the
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000324 '-Xa' option instead of '-Xc', to enable some needed non-ANSI
325 Sunisms.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000326
Jack Jansena39ef862001-08-19 21:17:03 +0000327NeXT: Not supported anymore. Start with the MacOSX/Darwin code if you
328 want to revive it.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000329
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000330QNX: Chris Herborth (chrish@qnx.com) writes:
331 configure works best if you use GNU bash; a port is available on
332 ftp.qnx.com in /usr/free. I used the following process to build,
Guido van Rossumd4493421998-12-22 16:37:01 +0000333 test and install Python 1.5.x under QNX:
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000334
Guido van Rossumec95c7b1998-08-04 17:59:56 +0000335 1) CONFIG_SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash CC=cc RANLIB=: \
336 ./configure --verbose --without-gcc --with-libm=""
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000337
Fred Drake80078492000-10-26 17:13:19 +0000338 2) edit Modules/Setup to activate everything that makes sense for
339 your system... tested here at QNX with the following modules:
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000340
Guido van Rossum6fa49e21998-08-11 17:31:39 +0000341 array, audioop, binascii, cPickle, cStringIO, cmath,
342 crypt, curses, errno, fcntl, gdbm, grp, imageop,
343 _locale, math, md5, new, operator, parser, pcre,
344 posix, pwd, readline, regex, reop, rgbimg, rotor,
345 select, signal, socket, soundex, strop, struct,
Guido van Rossumd4493421998-12-22 16:37:01 +0000346 syslog, termios, time, timing, zlib, audioop, imageop, rgbimg
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000347
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000348 3) make SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash
349
Guido van Rossumec95c7b1998-08-04 17:59:56 +0000350 or, if you feel the need for speed:
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000351
Guido van Rossumec95c7b1998-08-04 17:59:56 +0000352 make SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash OPT="-5 -Oil+nrt"
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000353
Guido van Rossumec95c7b1998-08-04 17:59:56 +0000354 4) make SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash test
355
Guido van Rossum6fa49e21998-08-11 17:31:39 +0000356 Using GNU readline 2.2 seems to behave strangely, but I
357 think that's a problem with my readline 2.2 port. :-\
Guido van Rossumec95c7b1998-08-04 17:59:56 +0000358
359 5) make SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash install
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000360
Guido van Rossum6fa49e21998-08-11 17:31:39 +0000361 If you get SIGSEGVs while running Python (I haven't yet, but
362 I've only run small programs and the test cases), you're
363 probably running out of stack; the default 32k could be a
364 little tight. To increase the stack size, edit the Makefile
Neil Schemenauer73f8ab22001-01-26 22:18:55 +0000365 to read: LDFLAGS = -N 48k
Guido van Rossum40d63581997-08-14 19:45:30 +0000366
Guido van Rossumec95c7b1998-08-04 17:59:56 +0000367BeOS: Chris Herborth (chrish@qnx.com) writes:
368 See BeOS/README for notes about compiling/installing Python on
Guido van Rossum6fa49e21998-08-11 17:31:39 +0000369 BeOS R3 or later. Note that only the PowerPC platform is
Guido van Rossumd4493421998-12-22 16:37:01 +0000370 supported for R3; both PowerPC and x86 are supported for R4.
Guido van Rossumec95c7b1998-08-04 17:59:56 +0000371
Guido van Rossum1bf0bf41997-08-20 23:50:51 +0000372Cray T3E: Konrad Hinsen writes:
Guido van Rossum6fa49e21998-08-11 17:31:39 +0000373 1) Don't use gcc. It compiles Python/graminit.c into something
374 that the Cray assembler doesn't like. Cray's cc seems to work
375 fine.
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000376 2) Comment out modules md5 (won't compile) and audioop (will
Guido van Rossum6fa49e21998-08-11 17:31:39 +0000377 crash the interpreter during the test suite).
378 If you run the test suite, two tests will fail (rotate and
379 binascii), but these are not the modules you'd expect to need
380 on a Cray.
Guido van Rossum1bf0bf41997-08-20 23:50:51 +0000381
Guido van Rossum0078aaf1997-08-21 03:05:11 +0000382SGI: SGI's standard "make" utility (/bin/make or /usr/bin/make)
383 does not check whether a command actually changed the file it
384 is supposed to build. This means that whenever you say "make"
385 it will redo the link step. The remedy is to use SGI's much
Guido van Rossum7be8ca02001-04-14 13:09:53 +0000386 smarter "smake" utility (/usr/sbin/smake), or GNU make. If
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000387 you set the first line of the Makefile to #!/usr/sbin/smake
388 smake will be invoked by make (likewise for GNU make).
Guido van Rossum0078aaf1997-08-21 03:05:11 +0000389
Guido van Rossum7be8ca02001-04-14 13:09:53 +0000390 WARNING: There are bugs in the optimizer of some versions of
391 SGI's compilers that can cause bus errors or other strange
392 behavior, especially on numerical operations. To avoid this,
393 try building with "make OPT=".
Fred Drake0b5fb2b2000-09-29 17:45:05 +0000394
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000395OS/2: If you are running Warp3 or Warp4 and have IBM's VisualAge C/C++
396 compiler installed, just change into the pc\os2vacpp directory
397 and type NMAKE. Threading and sockets are supported by default
398 in the resulting binaries of PYTHON15.DLL and PYTHON.EXE.
399
Fred Drake36ed5602000-10-06 01:58:48 +0000400Monterey (64-bit AIX): The current Monterey C compiler (Visual Age)
401 uses the OBJECT_MODE={32|64} environment variable to set the
402 compilation mode to either 32-bit or 64-bit (32-bit mode is
403 the default). Presumably you want 64-bit compilation mode for
404 this 64-bit OS. As a result you must first set OBJECT_MODE=64
405 in your environment before configuring (./configure) or
406 building (make) Python on Monterey.
407
408Reliant UNIX: The thread support does not compile on Reliant UNIX, and
409 there is a (minor) problem in the configure script for that
410 platform as well. This should be resolved in time for a
411 future release.
Trent Mick635f6fb2000-08-23 21:33:05 +0000412
Jack Jansen61fec302002-01-04 15:59:57 +0000413Mac OS X 10: One of the regular expression tests fails with a segmentation
414 violation (SIGSEGV) due to the small stack size used by default,
415 if you give the command "limit stacksize 2048" before "make test"
416 it should work.
Barry Warsaw06557452001-12-14 20:47:12 +0000417
Jack Jansen6a77cf12001-12-06 21:49:02 +0000418 On naked Darwin you may want to add the configure option
Jack Jansen4c398fd2001-10-08 13:21:15 +0000419 "--disable-toolbox-glue" to disable the glue code for the Carbon
Jack Jansen6a77cf12001-12-06 21:49:02 +0000420 interface modules. The modules themselves are currently only built
421 if you add the --enable-framework option, see below.
Barry Warsaw06557452001-12-14 20:47:12 +0000422
423 On a clean OSX /usr/local does not exist. Do a
Jack Jansen61fec302002-01-04 15:59:57 +0000424 "sudo mkdir -m 775 /usr/local"
Jack Jansen6a77cf12001-12-06 21:49:02 +0000425 before you do a make install. Alternatively, do "sudo make install"
Jack Jansenf8197d42001-11-12 14:11:13 +0000426 which installs everything as superuser.
Barry Warsaw06557452001-12-14 20:47:12 +0000427
428 You may want to try the configure option "--enable-framework"
429 which installs Python as a framework. The location can be set
430 as argument to the --enable-framework option (default
431 /Library/Frameworks). You may also want to check out ./Mac/OSX
432 for building a Python.app. You may also want to manually
433 install a symlink in /usr/local/bin/python to the executable
434 deep down in the framework.
Fred Drakedabed752001-02-01 19:41:13 +0000435
Michael W. Hudson1c4523f2001-12-19 19:49:58 +0000436Cygwin: With recent (relative to the time of writing, 2001-12-19)
437 Cygwin installations, there are problems with the interaction
438 of dynamic linking and fork(). This manifests itself in build
439 failures during the execution of setup.py.
Tim Peters42fc7cc2001-04-04 18:35:19 +0000440
Michael W. Hudson1c4523f2001-12-19 19:49:58 +0000441 There are two workarounds that both enable Python (albeit
442 without threading support) to build and pass all tests on
443 NT/2000 (and most likely XP as well, though reports of testing
444 on XP would be appreciated).
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000445
Michael W. Hudson1c4523f2001-12-19 19:49:58 +0000446 The workarounds:
447
448 (a) the band-aid fix is to link the _socket module statically
449 rather than dynamically (which is the default).
450
451 To do this, run "./configure --with-threads=no" including any
452 other options you need (--prefix, etc.). Then in Modules/Setup
453 uncomment the lines:
Tim Peters42fc7cc2001-04-04 18:35:19 +0000454
Michael W. Hudsonbe5ce182001-12-12 11:46:52 +0000455 #SSL=/usr/local/ssl
456 #_socket socketmodule.c \
457 # -DUSE_SSL -I$(SSL)/include -I$(SSL)/include/openssl \
458 # -L$(SSL)/lib -lssl -lcrypto
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000459
Michael W. Hudson1c4523f2001-12-19 19:49:58 +0000460 and remove "local/" from the SSL variable. Finally, just run
461 "make"!
Tim Peters42fc7cc2001-04-04 18:35:19 +0000462
Michael W. Hudsonb6554642001-12-19 22:09:09 +0000463 (b) The "proper" fix is to rebase the Cygwin DLLs to prevent
Michael W. Hudson1c4523f2001-12-19 19:49:58 +0000464 base address conflicts. Details on how to do this can be
465 found in the following mail:
466
467 http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin/2001-12/msg00894.html
468
469 It is hoped that a version of this solution will be
Michael W. Hudsonb6554642001-12-19 22:09:09 +0000470 incorporated into the Cygwin distribution fairly soon.
Michael W. Hudson1c4523f2001-12-19 19:49:58 +0000471
472 Two additional problems:
473
474 (1) Threading support should still be disabled due to a known
475 bug in Cygwin pthreads that causes test_threadedtempfile to
476 hang.
477
Neal Norwitz4ebde092001-12-19 20:44:13 +0000478 (2) The _curses module does not build. This is a known
Michael W. Hudson1c4523f2001-12-19 19:49:58 +0000479 Cygwin ncurses problem that should be resolved the next time
480 that this package is released.
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000481
Michael W. Hudsonbe5ce182001-12-12 11:46:52 +0000482 On older versions of Cygwin, test_poll may hang and test_strftime
483 may fail.
Tim Peters42fc7cc2001-04-04 18:35:19 +0000484
Michael W. Hudson1c4523f2001-12-19 19:49:58 +0000485 The situation on 9X/Me is not accurately known at present.
486 Some time ago, there were reports that the following
487 regression tests failed:
Tim Peters42fc7cc2001-04-04 18:35:19 +0000488
489 test_pwd
490 test_select (hang)
491 test_socket
492
Michael W. Hudson1c4523f2001-12-19 19:49:58 +0000493 Due to the test_select hang on 9X/Me, one should run the
494 regression test using the following:
Tim Peters42fc7cc2001-04-04 18:35:19 +0000495
Michael W. Hudsonbe5ce182001-12-12 11:46:52 +0000496 make TESTOPTS='-l -x test_select' test
Tim Peters42fc7cc2001-04-04 18:35:19 +0000497
Michael W. Hudson1c4523f2001-12-19 19:49:58 +0000498 News regarding these platforms with more recent Cygwin
499 versions would be appreciated!
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000500
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000501Configuring threads
502-------------------
503
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000504As of Python 2.0, threads are enabled by default. If you wish to
505compile without threads, or if your thread support is broken, pass the
506--with-threads=no switch to configure. Unfortunately, on some
507platforms, additional compiler and/or linker options are required for
508threads to work properly. Below is a table of those options,
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000509collected by Bill Janssen. We would love to automate this process
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000510more, but the information below is not enough to write a patch for the
511configure.in file, so manual intervention is required. If you patch
512the configure.in file and are confident that the patch works, please
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000513send in the patch. (Don't bother patching the configure script itself
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000514-- it is regenerated each the configure.in file changes.)
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000515
516Compiler switches for threads
517.............................
518
Martin v. Löwis1c24f9c2001-03-06 12:07:27 +0000519The definition of _REENTRANT should be configured automatically, if
520that does not work on your system, or if _REENTRANT is defined
521incorrectly, please report that as a bug.
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000522
Martin v. Löwis1c24f9c2001-03-06 12:07:27 +0000523 OS/Compiler/threads Switches for use with threads
524 (POSIX is draft 10, DCE is draft 4) compile & link
525
526 SunOS 5.{1-5}/{gcc,SunPro cc}/solaris -mt
527 SunOS 5.5/{gcc,SunPro cc}/POSIX (nothing)
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000528 DEC OSF/1 3.x/cc/DCE -threads
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000529 (butenhof@zko.dec.com)
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000530 Digital UNIX 4.x/cc/DCE -threads
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000531 (butenhof@zko.dec.com)
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000532 Digital UNIX 4.x/cc/POSIX -pthread
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000533 (butenhof@zko.dec.com)
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000534 AIX 4.1.4/cc_r/d7 (nothing)
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000535 (buhrt@iquest.net)
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000536 AIX 4.1.4/cc_r4/DCE (nothing)
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000537 (buhrt@iquest.net)
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000538 IRIX 6.2/cc/POSIX (nothing)
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000539 (robertl@cwi.nl)
540
541
542Linker (ld) libraries and flags for threads
543...........................................
544
545 OS/threads Libraries/switches for use with threads
546
547 SunOS 5.{1-5}/solaris -lthread
548 SunOS 5.5/POSIX -lpthread
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000549 DEC OSF/1 3.x/DCE -lpthreads -lmach -lc_r -lc
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000550 (butenhof@zko.dec.com)
551 Digital UNIX 4.x/DCE -lpthreads -lpthread -lmach -lexc -lc
552 (butenhof@zko.dec.com)
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000553 Digital UNIX 4.x/POSIX -lpthread -lmach -lexc -lc
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000554 (butenhof@zko.dec.com)
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000555 AIX 4.1.4/{draft7,DCE} (nothing)
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000556 (buhrt@iquest.net)
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000557 IRIX 6.2/POSIX -lpthread
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000558 (jph@emilia.engr.sgi.com)
559
560
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000561Configuring additional built-in modules
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000562---------------------------------------
Guido van Rossum19e0c261995-01-17 16:36:34 +0000563
Andrew M. Kuchlingebe30452001-02-27 03:24:24 +0000564Starting with Python 2.1, the setup.py script at the top of the source
565distribution attempts to detect which modules can be built and
566automatically compiles them. Autodetection doesn't always work, so
Guido van Rossum59b0b602002-02-08 22:22:35 +0000567you can still customize the configuration by editing the Modules/Setup
568file; but this should be considered a last resort. The rest of this
569section only applies if you decide to edit the Modules/Setup file.
570You also need this to enable static linking of certain modules (which
571is needed to enable profiling on some systems).
572
Andrew M. Kuchlingebe30452001-02-27 03:24:24 +0000573This file is initially copied from Setup.dist by the configure script;
574if it does not exist yet, create it by copying Modules/Setup.dist
575yourself (configure will never overwrite it). Never edit Setup.dist
576-- always edit Setup or Setup.local (see below). Read the comments in
577the file for information on what kind of edits are allowed. When you
578have edited Setup in the Modules directory, the interpreter will
Guido van Rossumef67ded2001-10-05 17:04:42 +0000579automatically be rebuilt the next time you run make (in the toplevel
580directory).
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000581
Andrew M. Kuchlingebe30452001-02-27 03:24:24 +0000582Many useful modules can be built on any Unix system, but some optional
583modules can't be reliably autodetected. Often the quickest way to
584determine whether a particular module works or not is to see if it
585will build: enable it in Setup, then if you get compilation or link
Fred Drake6caae142000-10-25 17:51:02 +0000586errors, disable it -- you're either missing support or need to adjust
587the compilation and linking parameters for that module.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000588
589On SGI IRIX, there are modules that interface to many SGI specific
Andrew M. Kuchlingebe30452001-02-27 03:24:24 +0000590system libraries, e.g. the GL library and the audio hardware. These
591modules will not be built by the setup.py script.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000592
Guido van Rossum4462e931997-01-22 21:00:32 +0000593In addition to the file Setup, you can also edit the file Setup.local.
594(the makesetup script processes both). You may find it more
595convenient to edit Setup.local and leave Setup alone. Then, when
596installing a new Python version, you can copy your old Setup.local
597file.
598
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000599
600Setting the optimization/debugging options
601------------------------------------------
602
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000603If you want or need to change the optimization/debugging options for
604the C compiler, assign to the OPT variable on the toplevel make
605command; e.g. "make OPT=-g" will build a debugging version of Python
606on most platforms. The default is OPT=-O; a value for OPT in the
607environment when the configure script is run overrides this default
608(likewise for CC; and the initial value for LIBS is used as the base
609set of libraries to link with).
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000610
Fred Drake6caae142000-10-25 17:51:02 +0000611When compiling with GCC, the default value of OPT will also include
612the -Wall and -Wstrict-prototypes options.
613
614Additional debugging code to help debug memory management problems can
615be enabled by using the --with-pydebug option to the configure script.
616
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000617
Guido van Rossuma68ca352001-10-04 17:00:07 +0000618Profiling
619---------
620
621If you want C profiling turned on, the easiest way is to run configure
622with the CC environment variable to the necessary compiler
623invocation. For example, on Linux, this works for profiling using
624gprof(1):
625
626 CC="gcc -pg" ./configure
627
628Note that on Linux, gprof apparently does not work for shared
629libraries. The Makefile/Setup mechanism can be used to compile and
630link most extension module statically.
631
632
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000633Testing
634-------
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000635
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000636To test the interpreter, type "make test" in the top-level directory.
Guido van Rossum6ae5d3d1997-05-14 21:39:05 +0000637This runs the test set twice (once with no compiled files, once with
638the compiled files left by the previous test run). The test set
639produces some output. You can generally ignore the messages about
Guido van Rossum59b0b602002-02-08 22:22:35 +0000640skipped tests due to optional features which can't be imported.
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000641If a message is printed about a failed test or a traceback or core
642dump is produced, something is wrong. On some Linux systems (those
Guido van Rossum24df6841997-12-30 04:32:30 +0000643that are not yet using glibc 6), test_strftime fails due to a
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000644non-standard implementation of strftime() in the C library. Please
645ignore this, or upgrade to glibc version 6.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000646
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000647IMPORTANT: If the tests fail and you decide to mail a bug report,
648*don't* include the output of "make test". It is useless. Run the
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000649failing test manually, as follows:
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000650
Guido van Rossum6ae5d3d1997-05-14 21:39:05 +0000651 python ../Lib/test/test_whatever.py
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000652
653(substituting the top of the source tree for .. if you built in a
Guido van Rossum6ae5d3d1997-05-14 21:39:05 +0000654different directory). This runs the test in verbose mode.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000655
656
657Installing
658----------
659
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000660To install the Python binary, library modules, shared library modules
661(see below), include files, configuration files, and the manual page,
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000662just type
663
664 make install
665
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000666This will install all platform-independent files in subdirectories of
667the directory given with the --prefix option to configure or to the
668`prefix' Make variable (default /usr/local). All binary and other
669platform-specific files will be installed in subdirectories if the
670directory given by --exec-prefix or the `exec_prefix' Make variable
671(defaults to the --prefix directory) is given.
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000672
673All subdirectories created will have Python's version number in their
674name, e.g. the library modules are installed in
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000675"/usr/local/lib/python<version>/" by default, where <version> is the
676<major>.<minor> release number (e.g. "2.1"). The Python binary is
677installed as "python<version>" and a hard link named "python" is
678created. The only file not installed with a version number in its
679name is the manual page, installed as "/usr/local/man/man1/python.1"
680by default.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000681
Neil Schemenauer0e91dc72001-02-16 04:18:08 +0000682If you have a previous installation of Python that you don't
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000683want to replace yet, use
684
685 make altinstall
686
687This installs the same set of files as "make install" except it
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000688doesn't create the hard link to "python<version>" named "python" and
689it doesn't install the manual page at all.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000690
Neil Schemenauer0e91dc72001-02-16 04:18:08 +0000691Alpha/beta revision levels are stripped from the executable and
692library filenames during installation. For example, Python2.1a2 will
693install as python2.1, overwriting the previous python2.1. To avoid
694this, you could set the Makefile VERSION variable manually
695(e.g. VERSION=2.1a2) before running "make install" or "make altinstall".
696
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000697The only thing you may have to install manually is the Python mode for
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000698Emacs found in Misc/python-mode.el. (But then again, more recent
699versions of Emacs may already have it.) Follow the instructions that
700came with Emacs for installation of site-specific files.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000701
Jack Jansena39ef862001-08-19 21:17:03 +0000702On Mac OS X, if you have configured Python with --enable-framework, you
703should use "make frameworkinstall" to do the installation. Note that this
704installs the Python executable in a place that is not normally on your
705PATH, you may want to set up a symlink in /usr/local/bin.
706
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000707
708Configuration options and variables
709-----------------------------------
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000710
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000711Some special cases are handled by passing options to the configure
712script.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000713
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000714WARNING: if you rerun the configure script with different options, you
715must run "make clean" before rebuilding. Exceptions to this rule:
716after changing --prefix or --exec-prefix, all you need to do is remove
Guido van Rossumb06df271997-08-05 21:50:20 +0000717Modules/getpath.o.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000718
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000719--with(out)-gcc: The configure script uses gcc (the GNU C compiler) if
720 it finds it. If you don't want this, or if this compiler is
721 installed but broken on your platform, pass the option
722 --without-gcc. You can also pass "CC=cc" (or whatever the
723 name of the proper C compiler is) in the environment, but the
724 advantage of using --without-gcc is that this option is
725 remembered by the config.status script for its --recheck
726 option.
Guido van Rossum76be6ed1995-01-02 18:33:54 +0000727
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000728--prefix, --exec-prefix: If you want to install the binaries and the
729 Python library somewhere else than in /usr/local/{bin,lib},
730 you can pass the option --prefix=DIRECTORY; the interpreter
731 binary will be installed as DIRECTORY/bin/python and the
732 library files as DIRECTORY/lib/python/*. If you pass
733 --exec-prefix=DIRECTORY (as well) this overrides the
734 installation prefix for architecture-dependent files (like the
735 interpreter binary). Note that --prefix=DIRECTORY also
736 affects the default module search path (sys.path), when
737 Modules/config.c is compiled. Passing make the option
738 prefix=DIRECTORY (and/or exec_prefix=DIRECTORY) overrides the
739 prefix set at configuration time; this may be more convenient
740 than re-running the configure script if you change your mind
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000741 about the install prefix.
Guido van Rossum76be6ed1995-01-02 18:33:54 +0000742
Guido van Rossum59b0b602002-02-08 22:22:35 +0000743--with-readline: This option is no longer supported. GNU
744 readline is automatically enabled by setup.py when present.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000745
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000746--with-threads: On most Unix systems, you can now use multiple
747 threads, and support for this is enabled by default. To
748 disable this, pass --with-threads=no. If the library required
749 for threads lives in a peculiar place, you can use
750 --with-thread=DIRECTORY. IMPORTANT: run "make clean" after
751 changing (either enabling or disabling) this option, or you
752 will get link errors! Note: for DEC Unix use
Guido van Rossum0e13da91998-02-22 04:36:34 +0000753 --with-dec-threads instead.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000754
755--with-sgi-dl: On SGI IRIX 4, dynamic loading of extension modules is
756 supported by the "dl" library by Jack Jansen, which is
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000757 ftp'able from ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-1.6.tar.Z.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000758 This is enabled (after you've ftp'ed and compiled the dl
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000759 library) by passing --with-sgi-dl=DIRECTORY where DIRECTORY
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000760 is the absolute pathname of the dl library. (Don't bother on
761 IRIX 5, it already has dynamic linking using SunOS style
762 shared libraries.) Support for this feature is deprecated.
763
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000764--with-dl-dld: Dynamic loading of modules is rumored to be supported
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000765 on some other systems: VAX (Ultrix), Sun3 (SunOS 3.4), Sequent
766 Symmetry (Dynix), and Atari ST. This is done using a
767 combination of the GNU dynamic loading package
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000768 (ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-dld-1.1.tar.Z) and an
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000769 emulation of the SGI dl library mentioned above (the emulation
770 can be found at
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000771 ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dld-3.2.3.tar.Z). To
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000772 enable this, ftp and compile both libraries, then call
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000773 configure, passing it the option
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000774 --with-dl-dld=DL_DIRECTORY,DLD_DIRECTORY where DL_DIRECTORY is
775 the absolute pathname of the dl emulation library and
776 DLD_DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the GNU dld library.
777 (Don't bother on SunOS 4 or 5, they already have dynamic
778 linking using shared libraries.) Support for this feature is
779 deprecated.
780
781--with-libm, --with-libc: It is possible to specify alternative
782 versions for the Math library (default -lm) and the C library
783 (default the empty string) using the options
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000784 --with-libm=STRING and --with-libc=STRING, respectively. For
785 example, if your system requires that you pass -lc_s to the C
786 compiler to use the shared C library, you can pass
787 --with-libc=-lc_s. These libraries are passed after all other
788 libraries, the C library last.
Guido van Rossum16e809e2001-04-16 02:07:08 +0000789
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000790--with-libs='libs': Add 'libs' to the LIBS that the python interpreter
791 is linked against.
Guido van Rossumd02ba451996-07-31 17:36:01 +0000792
Martin v. Löwis2df66942000-12-13 14:14:32 +0000793--with-cxx=<compiler>: Some C++ compilers require that main() is
794 compiled with the C++ if there is any C++ code in the application.
795 Specifically, g++ on a.out systems may require that to support
796 construction of global objects. With this option, the main() function
797 of Python will be compiled with <compiler>; use that only if you
798 plan to use C++ extension modules, and if your compiler requires
799 compilation of main() as a C++ program.
800
801
Fred Drake6caae142000-10-25 17:51:02 +0000802--with-pydebug: Enable additional debugging code to help track down
803 memory management problems. This allows printing a list of all
804 live objects when the interpreter terminates.
805
Guido van Rossum76be6ed1995-01-02 18:33:54 +0000806
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000807Building for multiple architectures (using the VPATH feature)
808-------------------------------------------------------------
809
810If your file system is shared between multiple architectures, it
811usually is not necessary to make copies of the sources for each
812architecture you want to support. If the make program supports the
813VPATH feature, you can create an empty build directory for each
814architecture, and in each directory run the configure script (on the
815appropriate machine with the appropriate options). This creates the
816necessary subdirectories and the Makefiles therein. The Makefiles
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000817contain a line VPATH=... which points to a directory containing the
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000818actual sources. (On SGI systems, use "smake -J1" instead of "make" if
819you use VPATH -- don't try gnumake.)
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000820
821For example, the following is all you need to build a minimal Python
822in /usr/tmp/python (assuming ~guido/src/python is the toplevel
823directory and you want to build in /usr/tmp/python):
824
825 $ mkdir /usr/tmp/python
826 $ cd /usr/tmp/python
827 $ ~guido/src/python/configure
828 [...]
829 $ make
830 [...]
831 $
832
Neil Schemenauer73f8ab22001-01-26 22:18:55 +0000833Note that configure copies the original Setup file to the build
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000834directory if it finds no Setup file there. This means that you can
835edit the Setup file for each architecture independently. For this
836reason, subsequent changes to the original Setup file are not tracked
837automatically, as they might overwrite local changes. To force a copy
838of a changed original Setup file, delete the target Setup file. (The
839makesetup script supports multiple input files, so if you want to be
840fancy you can change the rules to create an empty Setup.local if it
841doesn't exist and run it with arguments $(srcdir)/Setup Setup.local;
842however this assumes that you only need to add modules.)
843
844
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000845Building on non-UNIX systems
846----------------------------
847
Tim Peters03444242000-09-19 00:38:35 +0000848For Windows (2000/NT/ME/98/95), assuming you have MS VC++ 6.0, the
849project files are in PCbuild, the workspace is pcbuild.dsw. See
850PCbuild\readme.txt for detailed instructions.
Guido van Rossum8d7d4ed1996-07-30 21:41:07 +0000851
Guido van Rossum31ae2071999-04-12 14:47:30 +0000852For other non-Unix Windows compilers, in particular Windows 3.1 and
853for OS/2, enter the directory "PC" and read the file "readme.txt".
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000854
855For the Mac, a separate source distribution will be made available,
856for use with the CodeWarrior compiler. If you are interested in Mac
857development, join the PythonMac Special Interest Group
858(http://www.python.org/sigs/pythonmac-sig/, or send email to
859pythonmac-sig-request@python.org).
860
861Of course, there are also binary distributions available for these
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000862platforms -- see http://www.python.org/.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000863
864To port Python to a new non-UNIX system, you will have to fake the
865effect of running the configure script manually (for Mac and PC, this
866has already been done for you). A good start is to copy the file
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000867config.h.in to config.h and edit the latter to reflect the actual
868configuration of your system. Most symbols must simply be defined as
8691 only if the corresponding feature is present and can be left alone
Tim Peters4f1b2082000-07-23 21:18:09 +0000870otherwise; however the *_t type symbols must be defined as some variant
871of int if they need to be defined at all.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000872
Barry Warsaw06557452001-12-14 20:47:12 +0000873For all platforms, it's important that the build arrange to define the
874preprocessor symbol NDEBUG on the compiler command line in a release
875build of Python (else assert() calls remain in the code, hurting
876release-build performance). The Unix, Windows and Mac builds already
877do this.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000878
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000879
880Miscellaneous issues
881====================
882
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000883Emacs mode
884----------
885
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000886There's an excellent Emacs editing mode for Python code; see the file
887Misc/python-mode.el. Originally written by the famous Tim Peters, it
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000888is now maintained by the equally famous Barry Warsaw (it's no
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000889coincidence that they now both work on the same team). The latest
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000890version, along with various other contributed Python-related Emacs
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000891goodies, is online at http://www.python.org/emacs/python-mode. And
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000892if you are planning to edit the Python C code, please pick up the
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000893latest version of CC Mode http://www.python.org/emacs/cc-mode; it
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000894contains a "python" style used throughout most of the Python C source
895files. (Newer versions of Emacs or XEmacs may already come with the
896latest version of python-mode.)
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000897
898
Guido van Rossum59b0b602002-02-08 22:22:35 +0000899Tkinter
900-------
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000901
Guido van Rossum59b0b602002-02-08 22:22:35 +0000902The setup.py script automatically configures this when it detects a
903usable Tcl/Tk installation. This requires Tcl/Tk version 8.0 or
Fred Drake8179a9d2000-09-28 23:28:30 +0000904higher.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000905
Guido van Rossum973e4dc2000-07-01 00:34:39 +0000906For more Tkinter information, see the Tkinter Resource page:
907http://www.python.org/topics/tkinter/
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000908
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000909There are demos in the Demo/tkinter directory, in the subdirectories
910guido, matt and www (the matt and guido subdirectories have been
911overhauled to use more recent Tkinter coding conventions).
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000912
913Note that there's a Python module called "Tkinter" (capital T) which
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000914lives in Lib/lib-tk/Tkinter.py, and a C module called "_tkinter"
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000915(lower case t and leading underscore) which lives in
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000916Modules/_tkinter.c. Demos and normal Tk applications import only the
Guido van Rossum59b0b602002-02-08 22:22:35 +0000917Python Tkinter module -- only the latter imports the C _tkinter
918module. In order to find the C _tkinter module, it must be compiled
919and linked into the Python interpreter -- the setup.py script does
920this. In order to find the Python Tkinter module, sys.path must be
921set correctly -- normal installation takes care of this.
Guido van Rossum84c8c7f1995-08-28 02:44:24 +0000922
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000923
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000924Distribution structure
925----------------------
926
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000927Most subdirectories have their own README files. Most files have
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000928comments.
929
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000930.cvsignore Additional filename matching patterns for CVS to ignore
931BeOS/ Files specific to the BeOS port
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000932Demo/ Demonstration scripts, modules and programs
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000933Doc/ Documentation sources (LaTeX)
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000934Grammar/ Input for the parser generator
935Include/ Public header files
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000936LICENSE Licensing information
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000937Lib/ Python library modules
Neil Schemenauer3f52da52001-01-24 17:49:59 +0000938Makefile.pre.in Source from which config.status creates the Makefile.pre
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000939Misc/ Miscellaneous useful files
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000940Modules/ Implementation of most built-in modules
941Objects/ Implementation of most built-in object types
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000942PC/ Files specific to PC ports (DOS, Windows, OS/2)
943PCbuild/ Build directory for Microsoft Visual C++
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000944Parser/ The parser and tokenizer and their input handling
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000945Python/ The byte-compiler and interpreter
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000946README The file you're reading now
947Tools/ Some useful programs written in Python
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000948acconfig.h Additional input for the GNU autoheader program
949config.h.in Source from which config.h is created (GNU autoheader output)
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000950configure Configuration shell script (GNU autoconf output)
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000951configure.in Configuration specification (input for GNU autoconf)
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000952install-sh Shell script used to install files
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000953
954The following files will (may) be created in the toplevel directory by
955the configuration and build processes:
956
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000957Makefile Build rules
Neil Schemenauer3f52da52001-01-24 17:49:59 +0000958Makefile.pre Build rules before running Modules/makesetup
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000959buildno Keeps track of the build number
960config.cache Cache of configuration variables
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000961config.h Configuration header
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000962config.log Log from last configure run
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000963config.status Status from last run of the configure script
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000964getbuildinfo.o Object file from Modules/getbuildinfo.c
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000965libpython<version>.a The library archive
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000966python The executable interpreter
967tags, TAGS Tags files for vi and Emacs
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000968
969
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000970That's all, folks!
971------------------
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000972
973
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000974--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)