blob: 53a62bae4bcf5bfc748d60e27432c847525031cb [file] [log] [blame]
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +00001This is Python version 2.1
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
10Copyright (c) 1995-2000 Corporation for National Research Initiatives.
11All 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
44current directory and when it finishes, type "make". The section
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000045`Build Instructions' below is still recommended reading, especially
46the part on customizing Modules/Setup.
Guido van Rossum3ff96dd1996-07-30 18:05:04 +000047
48
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +000049What is Python anyway?
50----------------------
51
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000052Python is an interpreted object-oriented programming language suitable
53(amongst other uses) for distributed application development,
54scripting, numeric computing and system testing. Python is often
55compared to Tcl, Perl, Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic or Scheme. To
56find out more about what Python can do for you, point your browser to
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +000057http://www.python.org/.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +000058
59
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +000060How do I learn Python?
61----------------------
62
Fred Drake0e6444c1999-05-17 19:35:01 +000063The official tutorial is still a good place to start; see
Guido van Rossumd0a42e22000-03-31 20:16:45 +000064http://www.python.org/doc/ for online and downloadable versions, as
65well as a list of other introductions, and reference documentation.
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +000066
Guido van Rossumd0a42e22000-03-31 20:16:45 +000067There's a quickly growing set of books on Python. See
68http://www.python.org/psa/bookstore/ for a list.
Guido van Rossum8d90f9d1997-05-22 20:13:25 +000069
Guido van Rossumf501b4e1996-10-25 14:32:48 +000070
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000071Documentation
72-------------
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +000073
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000074All documentation is provided online in a variety of formats. In
75order of importance for new users: Tutorial, Library Reference,
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000076Language Reference, Extending & Embedding, and the Python/C API. The
77Library Reference is especially of immense value since much of
78Python's power is described there, including the built-in data types
79and functions!
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +000080
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000081All documentation is also available online at the Python web site
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000082(http://www.python.org/doc/, see below). It is available online for
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000083occasional reference, or can be downloaded in many formats for faster
Fred Drake6caae142000-10-25 17:51:02 +000084access. The documentation is available in HTML, PostScript, PDF, and
85LaTeX formats; the LaTeX version is primarily for documentation
86authors, translators, and people with special formatting requirements.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000087
88
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000089Web sites
90---------
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000091
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000092New Python releases and related technologies are published at
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +000093http://www.python.org/. Come visit us!
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000094
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +000095There's also a Python community web site at http://starship.python.net/.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +000096
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +000097
98Newsgroups and Mailing Lists
99----------------------------
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000100
101Read comp.lang.python, a high-volume discussion newsgroup about
102Python, or comp.lang.python.announce, a low-volume moderated newsgroup
103for Python-related announcements. These are also accessible as
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000104mailing lists: see http://www.python.org/psa/MailingLists.html for an
105overview of the many Python-related mailing lists.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000106
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000107Archives are accessible via Deja.com Usenet News: see
108http://www.deja.com/usenet. The mailing lists are also archived, see
109http://www.python.org/psa/MailingLists.html for details.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000110
111
112Bug reports
113-----------
114
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000115To report or search for bugs, please use the Python Bug
116Tracker at http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=5470.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000117
118
119Patches and contributions
120-------------------------
121
Fred Drake6caae142000-10-25 17:51:02 +0000122To submit a patch or other contribution, please use the Python Patch
123Manager at http://sourceforge.net/patch/?group_id=5470. Guidelines
124for patch submission may be found at http://www.python.org/patches/.
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000125
126If you have a proposal to change Python, it's best to submit a Python
127Enhancement Proposal (PEP) first. All current PEPs, as well as
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000128guidelines for submitting a new PEP, are list at
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000129http://python.sourceforge.net/peps/.
130
131
132Questions
133---------
134
135For help, if you can't find it in the manuals or on the web site, it's
136best to post to the comp.lang.python or the Python mailing list (see
137above). If you specifically don't want to involve the newsgroup or
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000138mailing list, send questions to help@python.org (a group of volunteers
139who answer questions as they can). The newsgroup is the most
140efficient way to ask public questions.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000141
Guido van Rossum901454e2000-06-29 22:28:44 +0000142
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000143Build instructions
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000144==================
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000145
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000146Before you can build Python, you must first configure it. Fortunately,
147the configuration and build process has been streamlined for most Unix
148installations, so all you have to do is type a few commands,
149optionally edit one file, and sit back. There are some platforms
150where things are not quite as smooth; see the platform specific notes
151below. If you want to build for multiple platforms sharing the same
152source tree, see the section on VPATH below.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000153
Neil Schemenauer3f52da52001-01-24 17:49:59 +0000154Start by running the script "./configure", which determines your system
155configuration and creates the Makefile. (It takes a minute or two --
156please be patient!) You may want to pass options to the configure
157script or edit the Modules/Setup file after running configure -- see the
158section below on configuration options and variables. When it's done,
159you are ready to run make.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000160
Neil Schemenauer3f52da52001-01-24 17:49:59 +0000161To build Python, you normally type "make" in the toplevel directory. If
162you have changed the configuration or have modified Modules/Setup, the
163Makefile may have to be rebuilt. In this case you may have to run make
164again to correctly build your desired target. The interpreter
165executable is built in the top level directory.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000166
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000167Once you have built a Python interpreter, see the subsections below on
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000168testing, configuring additional modules, and installation. If you run
Fred Drake80078492000-10-26 17:13:19 +0000169into trouble, see the next section. Editing the Modules/Setup file
170after running make is supported; just run "make" again after making
171the desired changes.
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000172
Guido van Rossum0a516c91994-09-12 10:58:40 +0000173
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000174Troubleshooting
175---------------
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000176
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000177See also the platform specific notes in the next section.
178
Guido van Rossum49523691997-08-15 18:30:14 +0000179If you run into other trouble, see section 3 of the FAQ
Guido van Rossum901454e2000-06-29 22:28:44 +0000180(http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw.py or
Guido van Rossum49523691997-08-15 18:30:14 +0000181http://www.python.org/doc/FAQ.html) for hints on what can go wrong,
182and how to fix it.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000183
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000184If you rerun the configure script with different options, remove all
185object files by running "make clean" before rebuilding. Believe it or
186not, "make clean" sometimes helps to clean up other inexplicable
187problems as well. Try it before sending in a bug report!
188
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000189If the configure script fails or doesn't seem to find things that
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000190should be there, inspect the config.log file. When you fix a
191configure problem, be sure to remove config.cache!
192
193If you get a warning for every file about the -Olimit option being no
194longer supported, you can ignore it. There's no foolproof way to know
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000195whether this option is needed; all we can do is test whether it is
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000196accepted without error. On some systems, e.g. older SGI compilers, it
197is essential for performance (specifically when compiling ceval.c,
198which has more basic blocks than the default limit of 1000). If the
199warning bothers you, edit the Makefile to remove "-Olimit 1500" from
200the OPT variable.
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000201
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000202If you get failures in test_long, or sys.maxint gets set to -1, you
203are probably experiencing compiler bugs, usually related to
204optimization. This is a common problem with some versions of gcc and
205egcs, and some vendor-supplied compilers, which can sometimes be
206worked around by turning off optimization. Consider switching to
207stable versions (gcc 2.7.2.3, egcs 1.1.2, or contact your vendor.)
208
209From Python 2.0 onward, all Python C code is ANSI C. Compiling using
210old K&R-C-only compilers is no longer possible. ANSI C compilers are
211available for all modern systems, either in the form of updated
212compilers from the vendor, or one of the free compilers (gcc, egcs).
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000213
214Platform specific notes
215-----------------------
216
Guido van Rossum0447a321995-10-08 01:22:33 +0000217(Some of these may no longer apply. If you find you can build Python
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000218on these platforms without the special directions mentioned here,
219submit a documentation bug report to SourceForge (see Bug Reports
220above) so we can remove them!)
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000221
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +000022264-bit platforms: The modules audioop, imageop and rgbimg don't work.
223 Don't try to enable them in the Modules/Setup file. They
224 contain code that is quite wordsize sensitive. (If you have a
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000225 fix, let us know!)
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000226
Guido van Rossum4462e931997-01-22 21:00:32 +0000227Solaris: When using Sun's C compiler with threads, at least on Solaris
228 2.5.1, you need to add the "-mt" compiler option (the simplest
229 way is probably to specify the compiler with this option as
230 the "CC" environment variable when running the configure
231 script).
232
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000233Linux: A problem with threads and fork() was tracked down to a bug in
234 the pthreads code in glibc version 2.0.5; glibc version 2.0.7
235 solves the problem. This causes the popen2 test to fail;
236 problem and solution reported by Pablo Bleyer.
Guido van Rossum4462e931997-01-22 21:00:32 +0000237
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000238 Under Linux systems using GNU libc 2 (aka libc6), the crypt
239 module now needs the -lcrypt option. Uncomment this flag in
240 Modules/Setup, or comment out the crypt module in the same
241 file. Most modern Linux systems use glibc2.
Fred Drake61280911997-12-08 14:10:40 +0000242
Guido van Rossum59230501999-06-21 20:51:46 +0000243FreeBSD 3.x and probably platforms with NCurses that use libmytinfo or
244 similar: When using cursesmodule, the linking is not done in
245 the correct order with the defaults. Remove "-ltermcap" from
246 the readline entry in Setup, and use as curses entry: "curses
247 cursesmodule.c -lmytinfo -lncurses -ltermcap" - "mytinfo" (so
248 called on FreeBSD) should be the name of the auxiliary library
249 required on your platform. Normally, it would be linked
250 automatically, but not necessarily in the correct order.
251
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000252BSDI: BSDI versions before 4.1 have known problems with threads,
253 which can cause strange errors in a number of modules (for
254 instance, the 'test_signal' test script will hang forever.)
255 Turning off threads (with --with-threads=no) or upgrading to
256 BSDI 4.1 solves this problem.
257
258DEC Unix: Run configure with --with-dec-threads, or with
259 --with-threads=no if no threads are desired (threads are on by
260 default). When using GCC, it is possible to get an internal
261 compiler error if optimization is used. This was reported for
262 GCC 2.7.2.3 on selectmodule.c. Manually compile the affected
263 file without optimization to solve the problem.
Guido van Rossum8eca2c21996-02-14 18:37:46 +0000264
Guido van Rossume1cdb161999-04-10 16:04:07 +0000265DEC Ultrix: compile with GCC to avoid bugs in the native compiler,
266 and pass SHELL=/bin/sh5 to Make when installing.
267
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000268AIX: A complete overhaul of the shared library support is now in
Thomas Wouters8ee06142001-02-15 11:45:29 +0000269 place. See Misc/AIX-NOTES for some notes on how it's done.
Guido van Rossum9ac9a261998-02-16 22:19:21 +0000270 (The optimizer bug reported at this place in previous releases
Thomas Wouters8ee06142001-02-15 11:45:29 +0000271 has been worked around by a minimal code change.) If you get
272 errors about ptread_* functions, during compile or during
273 testing, try setting CC to a thread-safe (reentrant) compiler,
274 like "cc_r". For full C++ module support, set CC="xlC_r" (or
275 CC="xlC" without thread support).
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000276
Guido van Rossum59a88f41999-04-12 18:16:09 +0000277HP-UX: Please read the file Misc/HPUX-NOTES for shared libraries.
278 When using threading, you may have to add -D_REENTRANT to the
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000279 OPT variable in the top-level Makefile; reported by Pat Knight,
Guido van Rossum59a88f41999-04-12 18:16:09 +0000280 this seems to make a difference (at least for HP-UX 10.20)
281 even though config.h defines it.
Guido van Rossum2094e041998-05-14 15:47:35 +0000282
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000283Minix: When using ack, use "CC=cc AR=aal RANLIB=: ./configure"!
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000284
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000285SCO: The following apply to SCO 3 only; Python builds out of the box
286 on SCO 5 (or so we've heard).
Guido van Rossuma16e2751998-04-13 20:14:05 +0000287
288 1) Everything works much better if you add -U__STDC__ to the
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000289 defs. This is because all the SCO header files are broken.
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000290 Anything that isn't mentioned in the C standard is
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000291 conditionally excluded when __STDC__ is defined.
292
293 2) Due to the U.S. export restrictions, SCO broke the crypt
294 stuff out into a separate library, libcrypt_i.a so the LIBS
295 needed be set to:
296
297 LIBS=' -lsocket -lcrypt_i'
298
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000299SunOS 4.x: When using the SunPro C compiler, you may want to use the
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000300 '-Xa' option instead of '-Xc', to enable some needed non-ANSI
301 Sunisms.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000302
Guido van Rossumcc55c2d1996-10-21 15:14:27 +0000303NeXT: To build fat binaries, use the --with-next-archs switch
304 described below.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000305
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000306QNX: Chris Herborth (chrish@qnx.com) writes:
307 configure works best if you use GNU bash; a port is available on
308 ftp.qnx.com in /usr/free. I used the following process to build,
Guido van Rossumd4493421998-12-22 16:37:01 +0000309 test and install Python 1.5.x under QNX:
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000310
Guido van Rossumec95c7b1998-08-04 17:59:56 +0000311 1) CONFIG_SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash CC=cc RANLIB=: \
312 ./configure --verbose --without-gcc --with-libm=""
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000313
Fred Drake80078492000-10-26 17:13:19 +0000314 2) edit Modules/Setup to activate everything that makes sense for
315 your system... tested here at QNX with the following modules:
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000316
Guido van Rossum6fa49e21998-08-11 17:31:39 +0000317 array, audioop, binascii, cPickle, cStringIO, cmath,
318 crypt, curses, errno, fcntl, gdbm, grp, imageop,
319 _locale, math, md5, new, operator, parser, pcre,
320 posix, pwd, readline, regex, reop, rgbimg, rotor,
321 select, signal, socket, soundex, strop, struct,
Guido van Rossumd4493421998-12-22 16:37:01 +0000322 syslog, termios, time, timing, zlib, audioop, imageop, rgbimg
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000323
Guido van Rossumec95c7b1998-08-04 17:59:56 +0000324 3) make SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash
325
326 or, if you feel the need for speed:
327
328 make SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash OPT="-5 -Oil+nrt"
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000329
Guido van Rossumec95c7b1998-08-04 17:59:56 +0000330 4) make SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash test
331
Guido van Rossum6fa49e21998-08-11 17:31:39 +0000332 Using GNU readline 2.2 seems to behave strangely, but I
333 think that's a problem with my readline 2.2 port. :-\
Guido van Rossumec95c7b1998-08-04 17:59:56 +0000334
335 5) make SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash install
Guido van Rossumb7f454d1997-12-02 19:44:31 +0000336
Guido van Rossum6fa49e21998-08-11 17:31:39 +0000337 If you get SIGSEGVs while running Python (I haven't yet, but
338 I've only run small programs and the test cases), you're
339 probably running out of stack; the default 32k could be a
340 little tight. To increase the stack size, edit the Makefile
Neil Schemenauer73f8ab22001-01-26 22:18:55 +0000341 to read: LDFLAGS = -N 48k
Guido van Rossum40d63581997-08-14 19:45:30 +0000342
Guido van Rossumec95c7b1998-08-04 17:59:56 +0000343BeOS: Chris Herborth (chrish@qnx.com) writes:
344 See BeOS/README for notes about compiling/installing Python on
Guido van Rossum6fa49e21998-08-11 17:31:39 +0000345 BeOS R3 or later. Note that only the PowerPC platform is
Guido van Rossumd4493421998-12-22 16:37:01 +0000346 supported for R3; both PowerPC and x86 are supported for R4.
Guido van Rossumec95c7b1998-08-04 17:59:56 +0000347
Guido van Rossum1bf0bf41997-08-20 23:50:51 +0000348Cray T3E: Konrad Hinsen writes:
Guido van Rossum6fa49e21998-08-11 17:31:39 +0000349 1) Don't use gcc. It compiles Python/graminit.c into something
350 that the Cray assembler doesn't like. Cray's cc seems to work
351 fine.
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000352 2) Comment out modules md5 (won't compile) and audioop (will
Guido van Rossum6fa49e21998-08-11 17:31:39 +0000353 crash the interpreter during the test suite).
354 If you run the test suite, two tests will fail (rotate and
355 binascii), but these are not the modules you'd expect to need
356 on a Cray.
Guido van Rossum1bf0bf41997-08-20 23:50:51 +0000357
Guido van Rossum0078aaf1997-08-21 03:05:11 +0000358SGI: SGI's standard "make" utility (/bin/make or /usr/bin/make)
359 does not check whether a command actually changed the file it
360 is supposed to build. This means that whenever you say "make"
361 it will redo the link step. The remedy is to use SGI's much
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000362 smarter "smake " utility (/usr/sbin/smake), or GNU make. If
363 you set the first line of the Makefile to #!/usr/sbin/smake
364 smake will be invoked by make (likewise for GNU make).
Guido van Rossum0078aaf1997-08-21 03:05:11 +0000365
Fred Drake0b5fb2b2000-09-29 17:45:05 +0000366 There is a bug in the SGI compiler's optimization that causes a
367 bus error in PyComplex_ImagAsDouble(); this has been reported to
368 be triggered when importing Numeric Python and may be caused at
369 other times. The work-around is to build Python, delete the
370 Objects/complexobject.o file, and then recompile without
371 optimization (use "make OPT=").
372
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000373OS/2: If you are running Warp3 or Warp4 and have IBM's VisualAge C/C++
374 compiler installed, just change into the pc\os2vacpp directory
375 and type NMAKE. Threading and sockets are supported by default
376 in the resulting binaries of PYTHON15.DLL and PYTHON.EXE.
377
Fred Drake36ed5602000-10-06 01:58:48 +0000378Monterey (64-bit AIX): The current Monterey C compiler (Visual Age)
379 uses the OBJECT_MODE={32|64} environment variable to set the
380 compilation mode to either 32-bit or 64-bit (32-bit mode is
381 the default). Presumably you want 64-bit compilation mode for
382 this 64-bit OS. As a result you must first set OBJECT_MODE=64
383 in your environment before configuring (./configure) or
384 building (make) Python on Monterey.
385
386Reliant UNIX: The thread support does not compile on Reliant UNIX, and
387 there is a (minor) problem in the configure script for that
388 platform as well. This should be resolved in time for a
389 future release.
Trent Mick635f6fb2000-08-23 21:33:05 +0000390
Fred Drake27dca062001-03-23 17:51:37 +0000391Mac OS X: You need to add the "-traditional-cpp" option to the
392 compiler command line for the Mac OS X Public Beta. This is
Fred Drakedabed752001-02-01 19:41:13 +0000393 appearantly a bug in the default pre-processor, and is
394 expected not to be a problem with future versions. Run
Fred Drake27dca062001-03-23 17:51:37 +0000395 configure with "OPT='-g -traditional-cpp' ./configure
396 --with-suffix=.exe --with-dyld" to add this
397 option. One of the regular expression tests fails due to the
398 small stack size used by default (how to change this?), and
399 the test_largefile test is only expected to work on a Unix UFS
400 filesystem (how to check for this on Mac OS X?).
Fred Drakedabed752001-02-01 19:41:13 +0000401
Tim Peters42fc7cc2001-04-04 18:35:19 +0000402Cygwin: Cygwin Python builds OOTB when configured as follows:
403
404 configure --with-threads=no
405
406 assuming Cygwin 1.1.8-2 and gcc 2.95.3-1 or later. At the time
407 of this writing, Cygwin pthread support is being significantly
408 enhanced. Hopefully, there will be a Cygwin Python with thread
409 support soon.
410
411 Cygwin Python supports the building of shared extensions via the
412 traditional Misc/Makefile.pre.in and the newer distutils methods.
413
414 On NT/2000, the following regression tests fail:
415
416 test_poll (hang)
417 test_strftime
418
419 Due to the test_poll hang on NT/2000, one should run the
420 regression test using the following:
421
422 PYTHONPATH= ./python.exe -tt ./Lib/test/regrtest.py -l -x test_poll
423
424 On 9X/Me, in addition the above NT/2000 failures, it has been
425 reported that the following regression tests also fail:
426
427 test_pwd
428 test_select (hang)
429 test_socket
430
431 Due to the test_poll and test_select hang on 9X/Me, one should
432 run the regression test using the following:
433
434 PYTHONPATH= ./python.exe -tt ./Lib/test/regrtest.py -l -x test_poll -x test_select
435
436 Help trying to track down the root causes for these known problems
437 will be greatly appreciated.
438
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000439
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000440Configuring threads
441-------------------
442
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000443As of Python 2.0, threads are enabled by default. If you wish to
444compile without threads, or if your thread support is broken, pass the
445--with-threads=no switch to configure. Unfortunately, on some
446platforms, additional compiler and/or linker options are required for
447threads to work properly. Below is a table of those options,
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000448collected by Bill Janssen. We would love to automate this process
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000449more, but the information below is not enough to write a patch for the
450configure.in file, so manual intervention is required. If you patch
451the configure.in file and are confident that the patch works, please
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000452send in the patch. (Don't bother patching the configure script itself
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000453-- it is regenerated each the configure.in file changes.)
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000454
455Compiler switches for threads
456.............................
457
Martin v. Löwis1c24f9c2001-03-06 12:07:27 +0000458The definition of _REENTRANT should be configured automatically, if
459that does not work on your system, or if _REENTRANT is defined
460incorrectly, please report that as a bug.
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000461
Martin v. Löwis1c24f9c2001-03-06 12:07:27 +0000462 OS/Compiler/threads Switches for use with threads
463 (POSIX is draft 10, DCE is draft 4) compile & link
464
465 SunOS 5.{1-5}/{gcc,SunPro cc}/solaris -mt
466 SunOS 5.5/{gcc,SunPro cc}/POSIX (nothing)
467 DEC OSF/1 3.x/cc/DCE -threads
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000468 (butenhof@zko.dec.com)
Martin v. Löwis1c24f9c2001-03-06 12:07:27 +0000469 Digital UNIX 4.x/cc/DCE -threads
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000470 (butenhof@zko.dec.com)
Martin v. Löwis1c24f9c2001-03-06 12:07:27 +0000471 Digital UNIX 4.x/cc/POSIX -pthread
Guido van Rossumdc8a3cb1998-05-12 15:29:18 +0000472 (butenhof@zko.dec.com)
473 AIX 4.1.4/cc_r/d7 (nothing)
474 (buhrt@iquest.net)
475 AIX 4.1.4/cc_r4/DCE (nothing)
476 (buhrt@iquest.net)
477 IRIX 6.2/cc/POSIX (nothing)
478 (robertl@cwi.nl)
479
480
481Linker (ld) libraries and flags for threads
482...........................................
483
484 OS/threads Libraries/switches for use with threads
485
486 SunOS 5.{1-5}/solaris -lthread
487 SunOS 5.5/POSIX -lpthread
488 DEC OSF/1 3.x/DCE -lpthreads -lmach -lc_r -lc
489 (butenhof@zko.dec.com)
490 Digital UNIX 4.x/DCE -lpthreads -lpthread -lmach -lexc -lc
491 (butenhof@zko.dec.com)
492 Digital UNIX 4.x/POSIX -lpthread -lmach -lexc -lc
493 (butenhof@zko.dec.com)
494 AIX 4.1.4/{draft7,DCE} (nothing)
495 (buhrt@iquest.net)
496 IRIX 6.2/POSIX -lpthread
497 (jph@emilia.engr.sgi.com)
498
499
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000500Configuring additional built-in modules
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000501---------------------------------------
Guido van Rossum19e0c261995-01-17 16:36:34 +0000502
Andrew M. Kuchlingebe30452001-02-27 03:24:24 +0000503Starting with Python 2.1, the setup.py script at the top of the source
504distribution attempts to detect which modules can be built and
505automatically compiles them. Autodetection doesn't always work, so
506you can customize the configuration by editing the Modules/Setup file.
507This file is initially copied from Setup.dist by the configure script;
508if it does not exist yet, create it by copying Modules/Setup.dist
509yourself (configure will never overwrite it). Never edit Setup.dist
510-- always edit Setup or Setup.local (see below). Read the comments in
511the file for information on what kind of edits are allowed. When you
512have edited Setup in the Modules directory, the interpreter will
513automatically be rebuilt the next time you run make in the toplevel
514directory. (When working inside the Modules directory, use "make
515Makefile; make".)
Guido van Rossum627b2d71993-12-24 10:39:16 +0000516
Andrew M. Kuchlingebe30452001-02-27 03:24:24 +0000517Many useful modules can be built on any Unix system, but some optional
518modules can't be reliably autodetected. Often the quickest way to
519determine whether a particular module works or not is to see if it
520will build: enable it in Setup, then if you get compilation or link
Fred Drake6caae142000-10-25 17:51:02 +0000521errors, disable it -- you're either missing support or need to adjust
522the compilation and linking parameters for that module.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000523
524On SGI IRIX, there are modules that interface to many SGI specific
Andrew M. Kuchlingebe30452001-02-27 03:24:24 +0000525system libraries, e.g. the GL library and the audio hardware. These
526modules will not be built by the setup.py script.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000527
Guido van Rossum4462e931997-01-22 21:00:32 +0000528In addition to the file Setup, you can also edit the file Setup.local.
529(the makesetup script processes both). You may find it more
530convenient to edit Setup.local and leave Setup alone. Then, when
531installing a new Python version, you can copy your old Setup.local
532file.
533
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000534
535Setting the optimization/debugging options
536------------------------------------------
537
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000538If you want or need to change the optimization/debugging options for
539the C compiler, assign to the OPT variable on the toplevel make
540command; e.g. "make OPT=-g" will build a debugging version of Python
541on most platforms. The default is OPT=-O; a value for OPT in the
542environment when the configure script is run overrides this default
543(likewise for CC; and the initial value for LIBS is used as the base
544set of libraries to link with).
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000545
Fred Drake6caae142000-10-25 17:51:02 +0000546When compiling with GCC, the default value of OPT will also include
547the -Wall and -Wstrict-prototypes options.
548
549Additional debugging code to help debug memory management problems can
550be enabled by using the --with-pydebug option to the configure script.
551
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000552
553Testing
554-------
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000555
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000556To test the interpreter, type "make test" in the top-level directory.
Guido van Rossum6ae5d3d1997-05-14 21:39:05 +0000557This runs the test set twice (once with no compiled files, once with
558the compiled files left by the previous test run). The test set
559produces some output. You can generally ignore the messages about
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000560skipped tests due to optional features which can't be imported. (If
561you want to test those modules, edit Modules/Setup to configure them.)
562If a message is printed about a failed test or a traceback or core
563dump is produced, something is wrong. On some Linux systems (those
Guido van Rossum24df6841997-12-30 04:32:30 +0000564that are not yet using glibc 6), test_strftime fails due to a
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000565non-standard implementation of strftime() in the C library. Please
566ignore this, or upgrade to glibc version 6.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000567
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000568IMPORTANT: If the tests fail and you decide to mail a bug report,
569*don't* include the output of "make test". It is useless. Run the
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000570failing test manually, as follows:
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000571
Guido van Rossum6ae5d3d1997-05-14 21:39:05 +0000572 python ../Lib/test/test_whatever.py
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000573
574(substituting the top of the source tree for .. if you built in a
Guido van Rossum6ae5d3d1997-05-14 21:39:05 +0000575different directory). This runs the test in verbose mode.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000576
577
578Installing
579----------
580
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000581To install the Python binary, library modules, shared library modules
582(see below), include files, configuration files, and the manual page,
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000583just type
584
585 make install
586
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000587This will install all platform-independent files in subdirectories of
588the directory given with the --prefix option to configure or to the
589`prefix' Make variable (default /usr/local). All binary and other
590platform-specific files will be installed in subdirectories if the
591directory given by --exec-prefix or the `exec_prefix' Make variable
592(defaults to the --prefix directory) is given.
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000593
594All subdirectories created will have Python's version number in their
595name, e.g. the library modules are installed in
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000596"/usr/local/lib/python<version>/" by default, where <version> is the
597<major>.<minor> release number (e.g. "2.1"). The Python binary is
598installed as "python<version>" and a hard link named "python" is
599created. The only file not installed with a version number in its
600name is the manual page, installed as "/usr/local/man/man1/python.1"
601by default.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000602
Neil Schemenauer0e91dc72001-02-16 04:18:08 +0000603If you have a previous installation of Python that you don't
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000604want to replace yet, use
605
606 make altinstall
607
608This installs the same set of files as "make install" except it
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000609doesn't create the hard link to "python<version>" named "python" and
610it doesn't install the manual page at all.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000611
Neil Schemenauer0e91dc72001-02-16 04:18:08 +0000612Alpha/beta revision levels are stripped from the executable and
613library filenames during installation. For example, Python2.1a2 will
614install as python2.1, overwriting the previous python2.1. To avoid
615this, you could set the Makefile VERSION variable manually
616(e.g. VERSION=2.1a2) before running "make install" or "make altinstall".
617
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000618The only thing you may have to install manually is the Python mode for
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000619Emacs found in Misc/python-mode.el. (But then again, more recent
620versions of Emacs may already have it.) Follow the instructions that
621came with Emacs for installation of site-specific files.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000622
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000623
624Configuration options and variables
625-----------------------------------
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000626
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000627Some special cases are handled by passing options to the configure
628script.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000629
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000630WARNING: if you rerun the configure script with different options, you
631must run "make clean" before rebuilding. Exceptions to this rule:
632after changing --prefix or --exec-prefix, all you need to do is remove
Guido van Rossumb06df271997-08-05 21:50:20 +0000633Modules/getpath.o.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000634
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000635--with(out)-gcc: The configure script uses gcc (the GNU C compiler) if
636 it finds it. If you don't want this, or if this compiler is
637 installed but broken on your platform, pass the option
638 --without-gcc. You can also pass "CC=cc" (or whatever the
639 name of the proper C compiler is) in the environment, but the
640 advantage of using --without-gcc is that this option is
641 remembered by the config.status script for its --recheck
642 option.
Guido van Rossum76be6ed1995-01-02 18:33:54 +0000643
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000644--prefix, --exec-prefix: If you want to install the binaries and the
645 Python library somewhere else than in /usr/local/{bin,lib},
646 you can pass the option --prefix=DIRECTORY; the interpreter
647 binary will be installed as DIRECTORY/bin/python and the
648 library files as DIRECTORY/lib/python/*. If you pass
649 --exec-prefix=DIRECTORY (as well) this overrides the
650 installation prefix for architecture-dependent files (like the
651 interpreter binary). Note that --prefix=DIRECTORY also
652 affects the default module search path (sys.path), when
653 Modules/config.c is compiled. Passing make the option
654 prefix=DIRECTORY (and/or exec_prefix=DIRECTORY) overrides the
655 prefix set at configuration time; this may be more convenient
656 than re-running the configure script if you change your mind
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000657 about the install prefix.
Guido van Rossum76be6ed1995-01-02 18:33:54 +0000658
Guido van Rossumb06df271997-08-05 21:50:20 +0000659--with-readline: This option is no longer supported. To use GNU
660 readline, enable module "readline" in the Modules/Setup file.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000661
Guido van Rossum7ac11532000-08-29 21:36:40 +0000662--with-threads: On most Unix systems, you can now use multiple
663 threads, and support for this is enabled by default. To
664 disable this, pass --with-threads=no. If the library required
665 for threads lives in a peculiar place, you can use
666 --with-thread=DIRECTORY. IMPORTANT: run "make clean" after
667 changing (either enabling or disabling) this option, or you
668 will get link errors! Note: for DEC Unix use
Guido van Rossum0e13da91998-02-22 04:36:34 +0000669 --with-dec-threads instead.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000670
671--with-sgi-dl: On SGI IRIX 4, dynamic loading of extension modules is
672 supported by the "dl" library by Jack Jansen, which is
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000673 ftp'able from ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-1.6.tar.Z.
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000674 This is enabled (after you've ftp'ed and compiled the dl
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000675 library) by passing --with-sgi-dl=DIRECTORY where DIRECTORY
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000676 is the absolute pathname of the dl library. (Don't bother on
677 IRIX 5, it already has dynamic linking using SunOS style
678 shared libraries.) Support for this feature is deprecated.
679
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000680--with-dl-dld: Dynamic loading of modules is rumored to be supported
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000681 on some other systems: VAX (Ultrix), Sun3 (SunOS 3.4), Sequent
682 Symmetry (Dynix), and Atari ST. This is done using a
683 combination of the GNU dynamic loading package
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000684 (ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-dld-1.1.tar.Z) and an
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000685 emulation of the SGI dl library mentioned above (the emulation
686 can be found at
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000687 ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dld-3.2.3.tar.Z). To
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000688 enable this, ftp and compile both libraries, then call
689 configure, passing it the option
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000690 --with-dl-dld=DL_DIRECTORY,DLD_DIRECTORY where DL_DIRECTORY is
691 the absolute pathname of the dl emulation library and
692 DLD_DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the GNU dld library.
693 (Don't bother on SunOS 4 or 5, they already have dynamic
694 linking using shared libraries.) Support for this feature is
695 deprecated.
696
697--with-libm, --with-libc: It is possible to specify alternative
698 versions for the Math library (default -lm) and the C library
699 (default the empty string) using the options
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000700 --with-libm=STRING and --with-libc=STRING, respectively. For
701 example, if your system requires that you pass -lc_s to the C
702 compiler to use the shared C library, you can pass
703 --with-libc=-lc_s. These libraries are passed after all other
704 libraries, the C library last.
Guido van Rossum3ff96dd1996-07-30 18:05:04 +0000705
706--with-next-archs='arch1 arch2': Under NEXTSTEP, this will build
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000707 all compiled binaries with the architectures listed. This will
708 also correctly set the target architecture-specific resource
Guido van Rossumcc55c2d1996-10-21 15:14:27 +0000709 directory. (This option is not supported on other platforms.)
Guido van Rossum76be6ed1995-01-02 18:33:54 +0000710
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000711--with-libs='libs': Add 'libs' to the LIBS that the python interpreter
712 is linked against.
Guido van Rossumd02ba451996-07-31 17:36:01 +0000713
Martin v. Löwis2df66942000-12-13 14:14:32 +0000714--with-cxx=<compiler>: Some C++ compilers require that main() is
715 compiled with the C++ if there is any C++ code in the application.
716 Specifically, g++ on a.out systems may require that to support
717 construction of global objects. With this option, the main() function
718 of Python will be compiled with <compiler>; use that only if you
719 plan to use C++ extension modules, and if your compiler requires
720 compilation of main() as a C++ program.
721
722
Fred Drake6caae142000-10-25 17:51:02 +0000723--with-pydebug: Enable additional debugging code to help track down
724 memory management problems. This allows printing a list of all
725 live objects when the interpreter terminates.
726
Guido van Rossum76be6ed1995-01-02 18:33:54 +0000727
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000728Building for multiple architectures (using the VPATH feature)
729-------------------------------------------------------------
730
731If your file system is shared between multiple architectures, it
732usually is not necessary to make copies of the sources for each
733architecture you want to support. If the make program supports the
734VPATH feature, you can create an empty build directory for each
735architecture, and in each directory run the configure script (on the
736appropriate machine with the appropriate options). This creates the
737necessary subdirectories and the Makefiles therein. The Makefiles
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000738contain a line VPATH=... which points to a directory containing the
Guido van Rossumd0fe8451996-08-26 03:02:37 +0000739actual sources. (On SGI systems, use "smake -J1" instead of "make" if
740you use VPATH -- don't try gnumake.)
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000741
742For example, the following is all you need to build a minimal Python
743in /usr/tmp/python (assuming ~guido/src/python is the toplevel
744directory and you want to build in /usr/tmp/python):
745
746 $ mkdir /usr/tmp/python
747 $ cd /usr/tmp/python
748 $ ~guido/src/python/configure
749 [...]
750 $ make
751 [...]
752 $
753
Neil Schemenauer73f8ab22001-01-26 22:18:55 +0000754Note that configure copies the original Setup file to the build
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000755directory if it finds no Setup file there. This means that you can
756edit the Setup file for each architecture independently. For this
757reason, subsequent changes to the original Setup file are not tracked
758automatically, as they might overwrite local changes. To force a copy
759of a changed original Setup file, delete the target Setup file. (The
760makesetup script supports multiple input files, so if you want to be
761fancy you can change the rules to create an empty Setup.local if it
762doesn't exist and run it with arguments $(srcdir)/Setup Setup.local;
763however this assumes that you only need to add modules.)
764
765
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000766Building on non-UNIX systems
767----------------------------
768
Tim Peters03444242000-09-19 00:38:35 +0000769For Windows (2000/NT/ME/98/95), assuming you have MS VC++ 6.0, the
770project files are in PCbuild, the workspace is pcbuild.dsw. See
771PCbuild\readme.txt for detailed instructions.
Guido van Rossum8d7d4ed1996-07-30 21:41:07 +0000772
Guido van Rossum31ae2071999-04-12 14:47:30 +0000773For other non-Unix Windows compilers, in particular Windows 3.1 and
774for OS/2, enter the directory "PC" and read the file "readme.txt".
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000775
776For the Mac, a separate source distribution will be made available,
777for use with the CodeWarrior compiler. If you are interested in Mac
778development, join the PythonMac Special Interest Group
779(http://www.python.org/sigs/pythonmac-sig/, or send email to
780pythonmac-sig-request@python.org).
781
782Of course, there are also binary distributions available for these
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000783platforms -- see http://www.python.org/.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000784
785To port Python to a new non-UNIX system, you will have to fake the
786effect of running the configure script manually (for Mac and PC, this
787has already been done for you). A good start is to copy the file
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000788config.h.in to config.h and edit the latter to reflect the actual
789configuration of your system. Most symbols must simply be defined as
7901 only if the corresponding feature is present and can be left alone
Tim Peters4f1b2082000-07-23 21:18:09 +0000791otherwise; however the *_t type symbols must be defined as some variant
792of int if they need to be defined at all.
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000793
794
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000795
796Miscellaneous issues
797====================
798
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000799Emacs mode
800----------
801
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000802There's an excellent Emacs editing mode for Python code; see the file
803Misc/python-mode.el. Originally written by the famous Tim Peters, it
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000804is now maintained by the equally famous Barry Warsaw (it's no
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000805coincidence that they now both work on the same team). The latest
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000806version, along with various other contributed Python-related Emacs
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000807goodies, is online at http://www.python.org/emacs/python-mode. And
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000808if you are planning to edit the Python C code, please pick up the
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000809latest version of CC Mode http://www.python.org/emacs/cc-mode; it
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000810contains a "python" style used throughout most of the Python C source
811files. (Newer versions of Emacs or XEmacs may already come with the
812latest version of python-mode.)
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000813
814
815The Tk interface
816----------------
817
818Tk (the user interface component of John Ousterhout's Tcl language) is
819also usable from Python. Since this requires that you first build and
Fred Drake8179a9d2000-09-28 23:28:30 +0000820install Tcl/Tk, the Tk interface is not enabled by default when
821building Python from source. Python supports Tcl/Tk version 8.0 and
822higher.
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000823
Guido van Rossum973e4dc2000-07-01 00:34:39 +0000824See http://dev.ajubasolutions.com/ for more info on Tcl/Tk, including
825the on-line manual pages.
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000826
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000827
828To enable the Python/Tk interface, once you've built and installed
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000829Tcl/Tk, load the file Modules/Setup into your favorite text editor and
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000830search for the string "_tkinter". Then follow the instructions found
831there. If you have installed Tcl/Tk or X11 in unusual places, you
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000832will have to edit the first line to fix or add the -I and -L options.
Guido van Rossum64773801997-11-26 17:07:02 +0000833(Also see the general instructions at the top of that file.)
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000834
Guido van Rossum973e4dc2000-07-01 00:34:39 +0000835For more Tkinter information, see the Tkinter Resource page:
836http://www.python.org/topics/tkinter/
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000837
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000838There are demos in the Demo/tkinter directory, in the subdirectories
839guido, matt and www (the matt and guido subdirectories have been
840overhauled to use more recent Tkinter coding conventions).
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000841
842Note that there's a Python module called "Tkinter" (capital T) which
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000843lives in Lib/lib-tk/Tkinter.py, and a C module called "_tkinter"
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000844(lower case t and leading underscore) which lives in
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000845Modules/_tkinter.c. Demos and normal Tk applications import only the
846Python Tkinter module -- the latter uses the C _tkinter module
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000847directly. In order to find the C _tkinter module, it must be compiled
848and linked into the Python interpreter -- the _tkinter line in the
849Setup file does this. In order to find the Python Tkinter module,
850sys.path must be set correctly -- the TKPATH assignment in the Setup
851file takes care of this, but only if you install Python properly
852("make install libinstall"). (You can also use dynamic loading for
853the C _tkinter module, in which case you must manually fix up sys.path
854or set $PYTHONPATH for the Python Tkinter module.)
Guido van Rossum84c8c7f1995-08-28 02:44:24 +0000855
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000856
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000857Distribution structure
858----------------------
859
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000860Most subdirectories have their own README files. Most files have
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000861comments.
862
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000863.cvsignore Additional filename matching patterns for CVS to ignore
864BeOS/ Files specific to the BeOS port
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000865Demo/ Demonstration scripts, modules and programs
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000866Doc/ Documentation sources (LaTeX)
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000867Grammar/ Input for the parser generator
868Include/ Public header files
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000869LICENSE Licensing information
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000870Lib/ Python library modules
Neil Schemenauer3f52da52001-01-24 17:49:59 +0000871Makefile.pre.in Source from which config.status creates the Makefile.pre
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000872Misc/ Miscellaneous useful files
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000873Modules/ Implementation of most built-in modules
874Objects/ Implementation of most built-in object types
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000875PC/ Files specific to PC ports (DOS, Windows, OS/2)
876PCbuild/ Build directory for Microsoft Visual C++
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000877Parser/ The parser and tokenizer and their input handling
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000878Python/ The byte-compiler and interpreter
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000879README The file you're reading now
880Tools/ Some useful programs written in Python
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000881acconfig.h Additional input for the GNU autoheader program
882config.h.in Source from which config.h is created (GNU autoheader output)
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000883configure Configuration shell script (GNU autoconf output)
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000884configure.in Configuration specification (input for GNU autoconf)
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000885install-sh Shell script used to install files
Guido van Rossum91cb9d21995-04-10 11:47:38 +0000886
887The following files will (may) be created in the toplevel directory by
888the configuration and build processes:
889
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000890Makefile Build rules
Neil Schemenauer3f52da52001-01-24 17:49:59 +0000891Makefile.pre Build rules before running Modules/makesetup
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000892buildno Keeps track of the build number
893config.cache Cache of configuration variables
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000894config.h Configuration header
Guido van Rossumc0be2f51997-10-08 05:05:28 +0000895config.log Log from last configure run
Guido van Rossum4f40c2d2000-09-05 16:46:22 +0000896config.status Status from last run of the configure script
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000897getbuildinfo.o Object file from Modules/getbuildinfo.c
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000898libpython<version>.a The library archive
Guido van Rossum6d9cc801996-08-01 17:31:22 +0000899python The executable interpreter
900tags, TAGS Tags files for vi and Emacs
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000901
902
Guido van Rossumc07d5fa2000-09-01 22:50:02 +0000903That's all, folks!
904------------------
Guido van Rossum433c8ad1994-08-01 12:07:07 +0000905
906
Guido van Rossum67345eb2001-01-18 14:51:12 +0000907--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)