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Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +00001This is Python release 1.4 (final)
2==================================
Guido van Rossumfaf681a1996-06-20 14:32:08 +00003
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +00004I appreciate everybody's patience... This is the official, final
5release of Python 1.4. You can throw away your copies of 1.3 and the
61.4 betas now!
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +00007
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +00008
Guido van Rossum8d7d4ed1996-07-30 21:41:07 +00009What's new in this release?
10---------------------------
Guido van Rossum3ff96dd1996-07-30 18:05:04 +000011
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +000012An exhaustive list of (nearly) everything that changed since the
13release of Python 1.3, over a year ago, can be found in the file
14Misc/NEWS. (A history of all changes before that time is kept in
15Misc/HISTORY.) An overview of the most important user-visible changes
16is appended as a new chapter to the Tutorial (Doc/tut.tex). Perhaps
17the most visible changes are the new power operator, complex numbers,
18new slicing and indexing syntax, and class-private names of the form
19__spam (an experimental feature).
Guido van Rossum3ff96dd1996-07-30 18:05:04 +000020
21
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +000022What is Python anyway?
23----------------------
24
25Python is an interpreted object-oriented programming language, and is
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +000026often compared to Tcl, Perl, Scheme or Java. For a quick summary of
27what Python can mean for a UNIX/C programmer, read Misc/BLURB.LUTZ.
Guido van Rossumdfcf35d1996-08-26 17:52:09 +000028If you have web access, point your browser to http://www.python.org.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +000029
30
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +000031How do I learn Python?
32----------------------
33
34The official tutorial is still a good place to start (in the Doc
35directory as tut.tex; and http://www.python.org/doc/tut/tut.html).
36Aaron Watters wrote a second tutorial, that may be more accessible for
37some: http://www.wcmh.com/uworld/archives/95/tutorial/005.html.
38
39There are now also two books on Python. While these are still based
40on Python 1.3 or 1.4beta2, the language is so stable now that you'd be
41hard pressed to find places where the books are out of date. The
42books, both first published in October 1996 and both including a
43CD-ROM, form excellent companions to each other:
44
45 Internet Programming with Python
46 by Aaron Watters, Guido van Rossum, and James Ahlstrom
47 MIS Press/Henry Holt publishers
48 ISBN: 1-55851-484-8
49
50 Programming Python
51 by Mark Lutz
52 O'Reilly & Associates
53 ISBN: 1-56592-197-6
54
55
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +000056If you don't read instructions
57------------------------------
58
59Congratulations on getting this far. :-)
60
61To start building right away (on UNIX): type "./configure" in the
62current directory and when it finishes, type "make". The section
63Build Instructions below is still recommended reading. :-)
64
65
66Copyright issues
67----------------
68
69Python is COPYRIGHTED but free to use for all. See the full copyright
70notice at the end of this file.
71
72The Python distribution is *not* affected by the GNU Public Licence
73(GPL). There are interfaces to some GNU code but these are entirely
74optional and no GNU code is distributed with Python. For all these
75packages, GPL-free public domain versions also exist.
76
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000077
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +000078
Guido van Rossumff840491995-09-18 22:02:47 +000079A modest plug
80=============
81
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +000082*********************************************************************
83* Without your help, I won't be able to continue to support Python! *
84*********************************************************************
Guido van Rossumff840491995-09-18 22:02:47 +000085
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +000086If you use Python, please consider joining the Python Software
87Activity (PSA). See http://www.python.org/psa/.
88
89Organizations that make heavy use of Python are especially encouraged
90to become corporate members!
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000091
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +000092
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +000093Build instructions
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +000094==================
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +000095
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +000096Before you can build Python, you must first configure it.
97Fortunately, the configuration and build process has been streamlined
98for most Unix installations, so all you have to do is type a few
99commands, optionally edit one file, and sit back. There are some
100platforms where things are not quite as smooth; see the platform
101specific notes below. If you want to build for multiple platforms
102sharing the same source tree, see the section on VPATH below.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000103
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000104You start by running the script "./configure", which figures out your
105system configuration and creates several Makefiles. (It takes a
106minute or two -- please be patient!) When it's done, you are ready to
107run make. You may want to pass options to the configure script -- see
108the section below on configuration options and variables.
109
110To build Python, you normally type "make" in the toplevel directory.
111This will recursively run make in each of the subdirectories Parser,
112Objects, Python and Modules, creating a library file in each one. The
113executable of the interpreter is built in the Modules subdirectory and
114moved up here when it is built. If you want or need to, you can also
115chdir into each subdirectory in turn and run make there manually (do
116the Modules subdirectory last!).
117
118Once you have built an interpreter, see the subsections below on
119testing, configuring additional modules, and installation. If you run
120in trouble, see the next section.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000121
Guido van Rossum0a516c91994-09-12 10:58:40 +0000122
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000123Troubleshooting
124---------------
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000125
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000126See also the platform specific notes in the next section.
127
Guido van Rossumfaf681a1996-06-20 14:32:08 +0000128If recursive makes fail, try invoking make as "make MAKE=make".
129
130If you run into other trouble, see section 3 of the FAQ (file
131Misc/FAQ) for hints on what can go wrong, and how to fix it.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000132
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000133If you rerun the configure script with different options, remove all
134object files by running "make clean" before rebuilding. Believe it or
135not, "make clean" sometimes helps to clean up other inexplicable
136problems as well. Try it before sending in a bug report!
137
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000138If the configure script fails or doesn't seem to find things that
139should be there, inspect the config.log file.
140
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000141
142Platform specific notes
143-----------------------
144
Guido van Rossum0447a321995-10-08 01:22:33 +0000145(Some of these may no longer apply. If you find you can build Python
146on these platforms without the special directions mentioned here, let
147me know so I can remove them!)
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000148
Guido van Rossum4462e931997-01-22 21:00:32 +0000149Solaris: When using Sun's C compiler with threads, at least on Solaris
150 2.5.1, you need to add the "-mt" compiler option (the simplest
151 way is probably to specify the compiler with this option as
152 the "CC" environment variable when running the configure
153 script).
154
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000155Linux: On Linux version 1.x, once you've built Python, use it to run
156 the regen script in the Lib/linux1 directory. Apparently
157 the files as distributed don't match the system headers on
158 some Linux versions. (The "h2py" command refers to
159 Tools/scripts/h2py.py.) The modules distributed for Linux 2.x
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000160 should be okay. Shared library support now works by default
Guido van Rossum4462e931997-01-22 21:00:32 +0000161 on ELF-based x86 Linux systems. (Note: when you change the
162 status of a module from static to shared, you must remove its
163 .o file or do a "make clean".)
164
165DEC Alpha OFS/1: When enabling threads, use --with-dec-threads, not
166 --with-thread.
Guido van Rossum8eca2c21996-02-14 18:37:46 +0000167
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000168AIX: A complete overhaul of the shared library support is now in
169 place. To enable it, uncomment the LINKCC line in the Setup
170 file. See Misc/AIX-NOTES for some notes on how it's done.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000171
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000172 WARNING! In some versions of AIX 3.x, you get errors about
Guido van Rossuma3b4b611996-07-21 02:48:16 +0000173 Invalid Indent when running the Python test set. This appears
174 to be a bug in the AIX compiler. Rebuild Parser/tokenizer.c
175 using OPT="" or OPT=-g, or use gcc.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000176
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000177HP-UX: Shared library support now works by default (at least on HP-UX
178 9.x). One other problem remains: the HP ANSI C compiler (cc
179 -Aa) is too pedantic to use, but in K&R mode, it barfs on a
180 few files (complexobject.c, getargs.c and operator.c). Until
181 this is fixed, the following seems to work:
182
183 make -k # this compiles all but a few files
184 make OPT=-Aa # compile the remaining files
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000185
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000186Minix: When using ack, use "CC=cc AR=aal RANLIB=: ./configure"!
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000187
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000188SCO: 1) Everything works much better if you add -U__STDC__ to the
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000189 defs. This is because all the SCO header files are broken.
190 Anything that isn't mentioned in the C standard it's
191 conditionally excluded when __STDC__ is defined.
192
193 2) Due to the U.S. export restrictions, SCO broke the crypt
194 stuff out into a separate library, libcrypt_i.a so the LIBS
195 needed be set to:
196
197 LIBS=' -lsocket -lcrypt_i'
198
Guido van Rossuma3b4b611996-07-21 02:48:16 +0000199 3) According to at least one report, the above apply only to
200 SCO 3 -- Python builds out of the box on SCO 5.
201
Guido van Rossum4462e931997-01-22 21:00:32 +0000202SunOS: On SunOS 4.1.x, when using the SunPro C compiler, you may want
203 to use the '-Xa' option instead of '-Xc', to enable some
204 needed non-ANSI Sunisms.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000205
Guido van Rossumcc55c2d1996-10-21 15:14:27 +0000206NeXT: To build fat binaries, use the --with-next-archs switch
207 described below.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000208
209
210Configuring additional built-in modules
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000211---------------------------------------
Guido van Rossum19e0c261995-01-17 16:36:34 +0000212
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000213You can configure the interpreter to contain fewer or more built-in
214modules by editing the file Modules/Setup. This file is initially
215copied (when the toplevel Makefile makes Modules/Makefile for the
216first time) from Setup.in; if it does not exist yet, make a copy
217yourself. Never edit Setup.in -- always edit Setup. Read the
218comments in the file for information on what kind of edits you can
219make. When you have edited Setup, Makefile and config.c in Modules
220will automatically be rebuilt the next time you run make in the
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000221toplevel directory. (When working inside the Modules directory, use
222"make Makefile; make".)
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000223
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000224The default collection of modules should build on any Unix system, but
225many optional modules should work on all modern Unices (e.g. try dbm,
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000226nis, termios, timing, syslog, curses, new, soundex, parser). Often
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000227the quickest way to determine whether a particular module works or not
228is to see if it will build: enable it in Setup, then if you get
229compilation or link errors, disable it -- you're missing support.
230
231On SGI IRIX, there are modules that interface to many SGI specific
232system libraries, e.g. the GL library and the audio hardware.
233
234For SunOS and Solaris, enable module "sunaudiodev" to support the
235audio device.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000236
Guido van Rossum4462e931997-01-22 21:00:32 +0000237In addition to the file Setup, you can also edit the file Setup.local.
238(the makesetup script processes both). You may find it more
239convenient to edit Setup.local and leave Setup alone. Then, when
240installing a new Python version, you can copy your old Setup.local
241file.
242
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000243
244Setting the optimization/debugging options
245------------------------------------------
246
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000247If you want or need to change the optimization/debugging options for
248the C compiler, assign to the OPT variable on the toplevel make
249command; e.g. "make OPT=-g" will build a debugging version of Python
250on most platforms. The default is OPT=-O; a value for OPT in the
251environment when the configure script is run overrides this default
252(likewise for CC; and the initial value for LIBS is used as the base
253set of libraries to link with).
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000254
255
256Testing
257-------
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000258
259To test the interpreter that you have just built, type "make test".
260This runs the test set silently, twice (once with no compiled files,
261once with the compiled files left by the previous test run). Each
262test run should print "All tests OK." and nothing more. (The test set
263does not test the built-in modules, but will find most other problems
264with the interpreter.)
265
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000266IMPORTANT: If the tests fail and you decide to mail a bug report,
267*don't* include the output of "make test". It is useless. Run the
268following command instead:
269
Guido van Rossumdfcf35d1996-08-26 17:52:09 +0000270 PYTHONPATH=../Lib:../Lib/test:./Modules ./python -c 'import testall'
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000271
272(substituting the top of the source tree for .. if you built in a
273different directory). This gives the output of the tests and shows
274which test failed.
275
276
277Installing
278----------
279
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000280Installing Python was never this easy!
Guido van Rossum8d7d4ed1996-07-30 21:41:07 +0000281
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000282To install the Python binary, library modules, shared library modules
283(see below), include files, configuration files, and the manual page,
284just type "make install". This will install all platform-independent
285files in subdirectories the directory given with the --prefix option
286to configure or the 'prefix' Make variable (default /usr/local), and
287all binary and other platform-specific files in subdirectories if the
288directory given by --exec-prefix or the 'exec_prefix' Make variable
289(defaults to the --prefix directory). All subdirectories created will
290have Python's version number in their name, e.g. the library modules
291are installed in "/usr/local/lib/python1.4/" by default. The Python
292binary is installed as "python1.4" and a hard link named "python" is
293created. The only file not installed with a version number in its
294name is the manual page, installed as "/usr/local/man/man1/python.1"
295by default.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000296
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000297If you have a previous installation of a pre-1.4 Python that you don't
298want to replace yet, use "make altinstall". This installs the same
299set of files as "make install" except it doesn't create the hard link
300to "python1.4" named "python" and it doesn't install the manual page
301at all.
302
303The only thing you may have to install manually is the Python mode for
304Emacs. (But then again, more recent versions of Emacs may already
305have it!) This is the file Misc/python-mode.el; follow the
306instructions that came with Emacs for installation of site specific
307files.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000308
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000309
310Configuration options and variables
311-----------------------------------
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000312
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000313Some special cases are handled by passing options to the configure
314script.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000315
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000316WARNING: if you rerun the configure script with different options, you
317must run "make clean" before rebuilding. Exceptions to this rule:
318after changing --prefix or --exec-prefix, all you need to do is remove
319Modules/getpath.o; after changing --with-readline, just remove
Guido van Rossum4462e931997-01-22 21:00:32 +0000320Parser/myreadline.o (but if it doesn't seem to work, always try "make
321clean" before giving up or complaining!).
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000322
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000323--with(out)-gcc: The configure script uses gcc (the GNU C compiler) if
324 it finds it. If you don't want this, or if this compiler is
325 installed but broken on your platform, pass the option
326 --without-gcc. You can also pass "CC=cc" (or whatever the
327 name of the proper C compiler is) in the environment, but the
328 advantage of using --without-gcc is that this option is
329 remembered by the config.status script for its --recheck
330 option.
Guido van Rossum76be6ed1995-01-02 18:33:54 +0000331
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000332--prefix, --exec-prefix: If you want to install the binaries and the
333 Python library somewhere else than in /usr/local/{bin,lib},
334 you can pass the option --prefix=DIRECTORY; the interpreter
335 binary will be installed as DIRECTORY/bin/python and the
336 library files as DIRECTORY/lib/python/*. If you pass
337 --exec-prefix=DIRECTORY (as well) this overrides the
338 installation prefix for architecture-dependent files (like the
339 interpreter binary). Note that --prefix=DIRECTORY also
340 affects the default module search path (sys.path), when
341 Modules/config.c is compiled. Passing make the option
342 prefix=DIRECTORY (and/or exec_prefix=DIRECTORY) overrides the
343 prefix set at configuration time; this may be more convenient
344 than re-running the configure script if you change your mind
345 about the install prefix...
Guido van Rossum76be6ed1995-01-02 18:33:54 +0000346
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000347--with-readline: You can use the GNU readline library to improve the
Guido van Rossumfaf681a1996-06-20 14:32:08 +0000348 interactive user interface. This gives you line editing and
349 command history when calling Python interactively. Unless GNU
350 readline is a standard part of your system (it is on Linux),
351 you need to configure build the GNU readline library before
352 running the configure script. Its sources are not distributed
353 with Python; you can ftp them from any GNU mirror site, or
354 from its home site:
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000355 ftp://slc2.ins.cwru.edu/pub/dist/readline-2.0.tar.gz (or
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000356 a higher version number -- using version 1.x is not
357 recommended).
Guido van Rossum76be6ed1995-01-02 18:33:54 +0000358
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000359 A GPL-free version was posted to comp.sources.misc in volume
360 31 and is widely available from FTP archive sites, e.g.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000361 ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000362
363 Pass the Python configure script the option
364 --with-readline=DIRECTORY where DIRECTORY is the absolute
365 pathname of the directory where you've built the readline
Guido van Rossumfaf681a1996-06-20 14:32:08 +0000366 library. If GNU readline is a standard part of your system,
367 don't pass '=DIRECTORY'. Some hints on building and using the
368 readline library are in the FAQ (file Misc/FAQ).
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000369
Guido van Rossumfaf681a1996-06-20 14:32:08 +0000370--with-thread: On most Unix systems, you can now use multiple threads.
Guido van Rossum4462e931997-01-22 21:00:32 +0000371 To enable this, pass --with-thread. (--with-threads is an
372 alias.) If the library required for threads lives in a
373 peculiar place, you can use --with-thread=DIRECTORY. In the
374 Modules/Setup file, enable the thread module. (Threads aren't
375 enabled automatically because there are run-time penalties
376 when support for them is compiled in even if you don't use
377 them.) IMPORTANT: run "make clean" after changing (either
378 enabling or disabling) this option! Note: for DEC Alpha OSF/1,
379 use --with-dec-threads instead.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000380
381--with-sgi-dl: On SGI IRIX 4, dynamic loading of extension modules is
382 supported by the "dl" library by Jack Jansen, which is
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000383 ftp'able from ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-1.6.tar.Z.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000384 This is enabled (after you've ftp'ed and compiled the dl
385 library!) by passing --with-sgi-dl=DIRECTORY where DIRECTORY
386 is the absolute pathname of the dl library. (Don't bother on
387 IRIX 5, it already has dynamic linking using SunOS style
388 shared libraries.) Support for this feature is deprecated.
389
390--with-dl-dld: Dynamic loading of modules is rumoured to be supported
391 on some other systems: VAX (Ultrix), Sun3 (SunOS 3.4), Sequent
392 Symmetry (Dynix), and Atari ST. This is done using a
393 combination of the GNU dynamic loading package
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000394 (ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-dld-1.1.tar.Z) and an
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000395 emulation of the SGI dl library mentioned above (the emulation
396 can be found at
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000397 ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dld-3.2.3.tar.Z). To
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000398 enable this, ftp and compile both libraries, then call the
399 configure passing it the option
400 --with-dl-dld=DL_DIRECTORY,DLD_DIRECTORY where DL_DIRECTORY is
401 the absolute pathname of the dl emulation library and
402 DLD_DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the GNU dld library.
403 (Don't bother on SunOS 4 or 5, they already have dynamic
404 linking using shared libraries.) Support for this feature is
405 deprecated.
406
407--with-libm, --with-libc: It is possible to specify alternative
408 versions for the Math library (default -lm) and the C library
409 (default the empty string) using the options
410 --with-libm=STRING and --with-libc=STRING, respectively. E.g.
411 if your system requires that you pass -lc_s to the C compiler
412 to use the shared C library, you can pass --with-libc=-lc_s.
413 These libraries are passed after all other libraries, the C
414 library last.
Guido van Rossum3ff96dd1996-07-30 18:05:04 +0000415
416--with-next-archs='arch1 arch2': Under NEXTSTEP, this will build
417 all compiled binaries with the architectures listed. Includes
418 correctly setting the target architecture specific resource
Guido van Rossumcc55c2d1996-10-21 15:14:27 +0000419 directory. (This option is not supported on other platforms.)
Guido van Rossum76be6ed1995-01-02 18:33:54 +0000420
Guido van Rossumd02ba451996-07-31 17:36:01 +0000421--with-libs='libs': Add 'libs' to the LIBS that the python
422 linked against.
423
Guido van Rossum76be6ed1995-01-02 18:33:54 +0000424
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000425Building for multiple architectures (using the VPATH feature)
426-------------------------------------------------------------
427
428If your file system is shared between multiple architectures, it
429usually is not necessary to make copies of the sources for each
430architecture you want to support. If the make program supports the
431VPATH feature, you can create an empty build directory for each
432architecture, and in each directory run the configure script (on the
433appropriate machine with the appropriate options). This creates the
434necessary subdirectories and the Makefiles therein. The Makefiles
435contain a line VPATH=... which points to directory containing the
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000436actual sources. (On SGI systems, use "smake -J1" instead of "make" if
437you use VPATH -- don't try gnumake.)
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000438
439For example, the following is all you need to build a minimal Python
440in /usr/tmp/python (assuming ~guido/src/python is the toplevel
441directory and you want to build in /usr/tmp/python):
442
443 $ mkdir /usr/tmp/python
444 $ cd /usr/tmp/python
445 $ ~guido/src/python/configure
446 [...]
447 $ make
448 [...]
449 $
450
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000451Note that Modules/Makefile copies the original Setup file to the build
452directory if it finds no Setup file there. This means that you can
453edit the Setup file for each architecture independently. For this
454reason, subsequent changes to the original Setup file are not tracked
455automatically, as they might overwrite local changes. To force a copy
456of a changed original Setup file, delete the target Setup file. (The
457makesetup script supports multiple input files, so if you want to be
458fancy you can change the rules to create an empty Setup.local if it
459doesn't exist and run it with arguments $(srcdir)/Setup Setup.local;
460however this assumes that you only need to add modules.)
461
462
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000463Building on non-UNIX systems
464----------------------------
465
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000466Building Python for a PC is now a piece of cake!
Guido van Rossum8d7d4ed1996-07-30 21:41:07 +0000467
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000468Enter the directory "PC" and read the file "readme.txt". Most popular
469non-Unix PC platforms and compilers are supported (Unix ports to the
470PC such as Linux, FreeBSD or Solaris-x86 of course use the standard
471Unix build instructions).
472
473For the Mac, a separate source distribution will be made available,
474for use with the CodeWarrior compiler. If you are interested in Mac
475development, join the PythonMac Special Interest Group
476(http://www.python.org/sigs/pythonmac-sig/, or send email to
477pythonmac-sig-request@python.org).
478
479Of course, there are also binary distributions available for these
480platforms -- see http://www.python.org/python/.
481
482To port Python to a new non-UNIX system, you will have to fake the
483effect of running the configure script manually (for Mac and PC, this
484has already been done for you). A good start is to copy the file
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000485config.h.in to config.h and edit the latter to reflect the actual
486configuration of your system. Most symbols must simply be defined as
4871 only if the corresponding feature is present and can be left alone
488otherwise; however RETSIGTYPE must always be defined, either as int or
489as void, and the *_t type symbols must be defined as some variant of
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000490int if they need to be defined at all.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000491
492
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000493
494Miscellaneous issues
495====================
496
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000497Documentation
498-------------
499
500All documentation is provided in the subdirectory Doc in the form of
501LaTeX files. In order of importance for new users: Tutorial (tut),
502Library Reference (lib), Language Reference (ref), Extending (ext).
503Especially the Library Reference is of immense value since much of
504Python's power (including the built-in data types and functions!) is
505described here.
506
Guido van Rossumdfcf35d1996-08-26 17:52:09 +0000507To print the documentation from the LaTeX files, chdir into the Doc
508subdirectory, type "make" (let's hope you have LaTeX installed!), and
509send the four resulting PostScript files (tut.ps, lib.ps, ref.ps, and
510ext.ps) to the printer. See the README file there. If you don't have
511LaTeX, you can ftp the PostScript files from the ftp archives (see
512below).
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000513
Guido van Rossumdfcf35d1996-08-26 17:52:09 +0000514All documentation is also available on-line via the Python web site
515(http://www.python.org/, see below). It can also be downloaded
516separately from the ftp archives (see below) in Emacs INFO, HTML or
517PostScript form -- see the web site or the FAQ (file Misc/FAQ) for
518more info.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000519
520
521Emacs mode
522----------
523
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000524There's an excellent Emacs editing mode for Python code; see the file
525Misc/python-mode.el. Originally written by Tim Peters, it is now
526maintained by Barry Warsaw <bwarsaw@cnri.reston.va.us>.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000527
528
Guido van Rossum8d7d4ed1996-07-30 21:41:07 +0000529Web site
530--------
531
532Python's own web site has URL http://www.python.org/. Come visit us!
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000533There are a number of mirrors, listed on the home page -- try a mirror
534that's close you you.
Guido van Rossum8d7d4ed1996-07-30 21:41:07 +0000535
536
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000537Ftp site
538--------
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000539
Guido van Rossum8d7d4ed1996-07-30 21:41:07 +0000540Python's own ftp site is ftp.python.org, directory /pub/python. See
541the FAQ (file Misc/FAQ) for a list of other ftp sites carrying the
Guido van Rossumfaf681a1996-06-20 14:32:08 +0000542Python distribution.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000543
544
545Newsgroup and mailing list
546--------------------------
547
Guido van Rossumdfcf35d1996-08-26 17:52:09 +0000548There are a newsgroup and a mailing list devoted to Python. The
549newsgroup, comp.lang.python, contains exactly the same messages as the
550mailing list (though not always in the same order, due to the
551mysterious nature of the Usenet news distribution algorithm). To
552subscribe to the mailing list, send mail containing your real name and
553e-mail address to "python-list-request@cwi.nl". Use the same address
554if you want to unsibscribed. (A real person reads these messages, so
555no LISTPROC or Majordomo commands, please, and please be patient --
556normal turn-around time is about one working day.)
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000557
Guido van Rossumdfcf35d1996-08-26 17:52:09 +0000558The Python web site contains a search form that lets you search the
559newsgroup archives (or the web site itself). Click on the "search"
560link in the banner menu on any page of http://www.python.org/.
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000561
562
563Bug reports
564-----------
565
Guido van Rossumdfcf35d1996-08-26 17:52:09 +0000566Bugs are best reported to the comp.lang.python newsgroup or the Python
Guido van Rossumcc55c2d1996-10-21 15:14:27 +0000567mailing list -- see the section "Newsgroup and mailing list" above.
Guido van Rossumdfcf35d1996-08-26 17:52:09 +0000568Before posting, check the newsgroup archives (see above) to see if
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +0000569your bug has already been reported!
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000570
571
572Questions
573---------
574
575For help, if you can't find it in the manuals, the FAQ or on the web
576site, it's best to post to the comp.lang.python or the Python mailing
577list (see above). If you specifically don't want to involve the
578newsgroup or mailing list, send questions to python-help@python.org.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000579
580
581The Tk interface
582----------------
583
584Tk (the user interface component of John Ousterhout's Tcl language) is
585also usable from Python. Since this requires that you first build and
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000586install Tcl/Tk, the Tk interface is not enabled by default. It works
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +0000587with Tcl 7.5 and Tk 4.1 as well as with Tcl 7.4 and Tk 4.0. I didn't
588have the time to test it with Tcl 7.6 and Tk 4.2 yet, but it might
589well work.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000590
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +0000591See http://www.sunlabs.com/research/tcl/ for more info on where to get
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000592Tcl/Tk.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000593
594To enable the Python/Tk interface, once you've built and installed
595Tcl/Tk, all you need to do is edit two lines in Modules/Setup; search
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000596for the string "_tkinter". Uncomment one (normally the first) of the
597lines beginning with "#_tkinter" and un-comment the line beginning
598with "#TKPATH". If you have installed Tcl/Tk or X11 in unusual
599places, you will have to edit the first line to fix or add -I and -L
600options. See the Build Instructions above for more details.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000601
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000602There is little documentation on how to use Tkinter; however most of
603the Tk manual pages apply quite straightforwardly. Begin with
604fetching the "Tk Lifesaver" document,
605e.g. ftp://ftp.python.org/pub/python/doc/tkinter-doc.tar.gz (a gzipped
606tar file containing a PostScript file) or the on-line version
607http://www.python.org/doc/life-preserver/index.html. Reading the
608Tkinter.py source will reveal most details on how Tkinter calls are
609translated into Tcl code.
610
611There are demos in the Demo/tkinter directory, in the subdirectories
612guido, matt and www (the matt and guido subdirectories have been
613overhauled to use more recent Tkinter coding conventions).
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000614
615Note that there's a Python module called "Tkinter" (capital T) which
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000616lives in Lib/tkinter/Tkinter.py, and a C module called "_tkinter"
617(lower case t and leading underscore) which lives in
618Modules/_tkinter.c. Demos and normal Tk applications only import the
619Python Tkinter module -- only the latter uses the C _tkinter module
620directly. In order to find the C _tkinter module, it must be compiled
621and linked into the Python interpreter -- the _tkinter line in the
622Setup file does this. In order to find the Python Tkinter module,
623sys.path must be set correctly -- the TKPATH assignment in the Setup
624file takes care of this, but only if you install Python properly
625("make install libinstall"). (You can also use dynamic loading for
626the C _tkinter module, in which case you must manually fix up sys.path
627or set $PYTHONPATH for the Python Tkinter module.)
Guido van Rossum84c8c7f1995-08-28 02:44:24 +0000628
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000629
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000630Distribution structure
631----------------------
632
633Most subdirectories have their own README file. Most files have
634comments.
635
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000636BUGS A list of known bugs (not completely up-to-date)
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000637Demo/ Demonstration scripts, modules and programs
638Doc/ Documentation (LaTeX sources)
639Grammar/ Input for the parser generator
640Include/ Public header files
641Lib/ Python library modules
642Makefile.in Source from which config.status creates Makefile
643Misc/ Miscellaneous files
644Modules/ Implementation of most built-in modules
645Objects/ Implementation of most built-in object types
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +0000646PC/ PC porting files (DOS, Windows, NT, OS/2)
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000647Parser/ The parser and tokenizer and their input handling
648Python/ The "compiler" and interpreter
649README The file you're reading now
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +0000650TODO A list of things that could be done (not up-to-date)
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000651Tools/ Some useful programs written in Python
652acconfig.h Additional input for the autoheader program
653config.h.in Source from which config.status creates config.h
654configure Configuration shell script (GNU autoconf output)
655configure.in Configuration specification (GNU autoconf input)
656install-sh Shell script used to install files
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000657
658The following files will (may) be created in the toplevel directory by
659the configuration and build processes:
660
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000661Makefile Build rules
662config.cache cache of configuration variables
663config.h Configuration header
664config.log log from last configure run
665config.status status from last run of configure script
666python The executable interpreter
667tags, TAGS Tags files for vi and Emacs
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000668
669
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000670Author's address
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000671================
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000672
673Guido van Rossum
Guido van Rossumfaf681a1996-06-20 14:32:08 +0000674CNRI
6751895 Preston White Drive
Guido van Rossum8d7d4ed1996-07-30 21:41:07 +0000676Reston, VA 20191
Guido van Rossumfaf681a1996-06-20 14:32:08 +0000677USA
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000678
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000679E-mail: guido@cnri.reston.va.us or guido@python.org
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000680
681
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000682
683Copyright notice
684================
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000685
686The Python source is copyrighted, but you can freely use and copy it
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000687as long as you don't change or remove the copyright notice:
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000688
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000689----------------------------------------------------------------------
Guido van Rossumaf5b83e1995-01-04 19:02:35 +0000690Copyright 1991-1995 by Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam,
691The Netherlands.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000692
693 All Rights Reserved
694
Guido van Rossumc561e5d1994-08-23 13:52:46 +0000695Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
696documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000697provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
Guido van Rossumc561e5d1994-08-23 13:52:46 +0000698both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000699supporting documentation, and that the names of Stichting Mathematisch
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +0000700Centrum or CWI or Corporation for National Research Initiatives or
701CNRI not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to
702distribution of the software without specific, written prior
703permission.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000704
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +0000705While CWI is the initial source for this software, a modified version
706is made available by the Corporation for National Research Initiatives
707(CNRI) at the Internet address ftp://ftp.python.org.
708
709STICHTING MATHEMATISCH CENTRUM AND CNRI DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH
710REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
711MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL STICHTING MATHEMATISCH
712CENTRUM OR CNRI BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL
713DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR
714PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER
715TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
716PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000717----------------------------------------------------------------------
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000718
719
Guido van Rossumfaf681a1996-06-20 14:32:08 +0000720--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)