From 1c896e3f97520be28dff2f701178f1dc18fd7332 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Guido van Rossum Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:03:30 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Mostly rewritten, much shorter README for Py3k. --- README | 1309 +++++--------------------------------------------------- 1 file changed, 96 insertions(+), 1213 deletions(-) diff --git a/README b/README index ffc3efae7cf..03e4a1ef442 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ -This is Python 3000 -- unversioned (branched off 2.5 in various beta stages) -================================================================= +This is Python version 3.0 alpha 1 +================================== Copyright (c) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Python Software Foundation. @@ -22,1253 +22,136 @@ See the file "LICENSE" for information on the history of this software, terms & conditions for usage, and a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES. -This Python distribution contains no GNU General Public Licensed -(GPLed) code so it may be used in proprietary projects just like prior -Python distributions. There are interfaces to some GNU code but these -are entirely optional. +This Python distribution contains *no* GNU General Public License +(GPL) code, so it may be used in proprietary projects. There are +interfaces to some GNU code but these are entirely optional. All trademarks referenced herein are property of their respective holders. -Python 3000 disclaimer ----------------------- +About Python 3000 +----------------- -This README hasn't been updated for Python 3000 yet. If you see -anything that should clearly be deleted, let me know (guido@python.org) -or submit a patch to the Python 3000 category in SourceForge. +Python 3000 (a.k.a. "Py3k", and released as Python 3.0) is a new +version of the language, which is incompatible with the 2.x line of +releases. The language is mostly the same, but many details, +especially how built-in objects like dictionaries and strings work, +have changed considerably, and a lot of deprecated features have +finally been removed. + +This is an ongoing project; the cleanup isn't expected to be complete +until 2008. In particular there are plans to reorganize the standard +library namespace. + +This README hasn't been fully updated for Python 3000 yet. If you see +anything that should clearly be changed, fix it (if you have checkin +permissions) or submit a patch to the issue tracker (see below). -What's new in this release? ---------------------------- +Release Schedule +---------------- -See the file "Misc/NEWS". - - -If you don't read instructions ------------------------------- - -Congratulations on getting this far. :-) - -To start building right away (on UNIX): type "./configure" in the -current directory and when it finishes, type "make". This creates an -executable "./python"; to install in /usr/local, first do "su root" -and then "make install". - -The section `Build instructions' below is still recommended reading. - - -What is Python anyway? ----------------------- - -Python is an interpreted, interactive object-oriented programming -language suitable (amongst other uses) for distributed application -development, scripting, numeric computing and system testing. Python -is often compared to Tcl, Perl, Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic or -Scheme. To find out more about what Python can do for you, point your -browser to http://www.python.org/. - - -How do I learn Python? ----------------------- - -The official tutorial is still a good place to start; see -http://docs.python.org/ for online and downloadable versions, as well -as a list of other introductions, and reference documentation. - -There's a quickly growing set of books on Python. See -http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonBooks for a list. +The release plan is to have a series of alpha releases in 2007, beta +releases in 2008, and a final release in August 2008. The alpha +releases are primarily aimed at developers who want a sneak peek at +the new langauge, especially those folks who plan to port their code +to Python 3000. The hope is that by the time of the final release, +many 3rd party packages will already be available in a 3.0-compatible +form. Documentation ------------- -All documentation is provided online in a variety of formats. In -order of importance for new users: Tutorial, Library Reference, -Language Reference, Extending & Embedding, and the Python/C API. The -Library Reference is especially of immense value since much of -Python's power is described there, including the built-in data types -and functions! +Documentation for Python 3000 is online, updated twice a day: -All documentation is also available online at the Python web site -(http://docs.python.org/, see below). It is available online for -occasional reference, or can be downloaded in many formats for faster -access. The documentation is available in HTML, PostScript, PDF, and -LaTeX formats; the LaTeX version is primarily for documentation -authors, translators, and people with special formatting requirements. + http://docs.python.org/dev/3.0/ -Unfortunately, new-style classes (new in Python 2.2) have not yet been -integrated into Python's standard documentation. A collection of -pointers to what has been written is at: +This is a work in progress; please help improve it! - http://www.python.org/doc/newstyle.html +The design documents for Python 3000 are also online. While the +reference documentation is being updated, the PEPs are often the best +source of information about new features. Start by reading PEP 3000: + http://python.org/dev/peps/pep-3000/ -Web sites ---------- -New Python releases and related technologies are published at -http://www.python.org/. Come visit us! - -There's also a Python community web site at -http://starship.python.net/. - - -Newsgroups and Mailing Lists ----------------------------- - -Read comp.lang.python, a high-volume discussion newsgroup about -Python, or comp.lang.python.announce, a low-volume moderated newsgroup -for Python-related announcements. These are also accessible as -mailing lists: see http://www.python.org/community/lists.html for an -overview of these and many other Python-related mailing lists. - -Archives are accessible via the Google Groups Usenet archive; see -http://groups.google.com/. The mailing lists are also archived, see -http://www.python.org/community/lists.html for details. - - -Bug reports ------------ - -To report or search for bugs, please use the Python Bug -Tracker at http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=5470. - - -Patches and contributions -------------------------- - -To submit a patch or other contribution, please use the Python Patch -Manager at http://sourceforge.net/patch/?group_id=5470. Guidelines -for patch submission may be found at http://www.python.org/patches/. - -If you have a proposal to change Python, it's best to submit a Python -Enhancement Proposal (PEP) first. All current PEPs, as well as -guidelines for submitting a new PEP, are listed at -http://www.python.org/peps/. - - -Questions ---------- - -For help, if you can't find it in the manuals or on the web site, it's -best to post to the comp.lang.python or the Python mailing list (see -above). If you specifically don't want to involve the newsgroup or -mailing list, send questions to help@python.org (a group of volunteers -who answer questions as they can). The newsgroup is the most -efficient way to ask public questions. - - -Build instructions -================== - -Before you can build Python, you must first configure it. -Fortunately, the configuration and build process has been automated -for Unix and Linux installations, so all you usually have to do is -type a few commands and sit back. There are some platforms where -things are not quite as smooth; see the platform specific notes below. -If you want to build for multiple platforms sharing the same source -tree, see the section on VPATH below. - -Start by running the script "./configure", which determines your -system configuration and creates the Makefile. (It takes a minute or -two -- please be patient!) You may want to pass options to the -configure script -- see the section below on configuration options and -variables. When it's done, you are ready to run make. - -To build Python, you normally type "make" in the toplevel directory. -If you have changed the configuration, the Makefile may have to be -rebuilt. In this case you may have to run make again to correctly -build your desired target. The interpreter executable is built in the -top level directory. - -Once you have built a Python interpreter, see the subsections below on -testing and installation. If you run into trouble, see the next -section. - -Previous versions of Python used a manual configuration process that -involved editing the file Modules/Setup. While this file still exists -and manual configuration is still supported, it is rarely needed any -more: almost all modules are automatically built as appropriate under -guidance of the setup.py script, which is run by Make after the -interpreter has been built. - - -Troubleshooting ---------------- - -See also the platform specific notes in the next section. - -If you run into other trouble, see the FAQ -(http://www.python.org/doc/faq) for hints on what can go wrong, and -how to fix it. - -If you rerun the configure script with different options, remove all -object files by running "make clean" before rebuilding. Believe it or -not, "make clean" sometimes helps to clean up other inexplicable -problems as well. Try it before sending in a bug report! - -If the configure script fails or doesn't seem to find things that -should be there, inspect the config.log file. - -If you get a warning for every file about the -Olimit option being no -longer supported, you can ignore it. There's no foolproof way to know -whether this option is needed; all we can do is test whether it is -accepted without error. On some systems, e.g. older SGI compilers, it -is essential for performance (specifically when compiling ceval.c, -which has more basic blocks than the default limit of 1000). If the -warning bothers you, edit the Makefile to remove "-Olimit 1500" from -the OPT variable. - -If you get failures in test_long, or sys.maxint gets set to -1, you -are probably experiencing compiler bugs, usually related to -optimization. This is a common problem with some versions of gcc, and -some vendor-supplied compilers, which can sometimes be worked around -by turning off optimization. Consider switching to stable versions -(gcc 2.95.2, gcc 3.x, or contact your vendor.) - -From Python 2.0 onward, all Python C code is ANSI C. Compiling using -old K&R-C-only compilers is no longer possible. ANSI C compilers are -available for all modern systems, either in the form of updated -compilers from the vendor, or one of the free compilers (gcc). - -If "make install" fails mysteriously during the "compiling the library" -step, make sure that you don't have any of the PYTHONPATH or PYTHONHOME -environment variables set, as they may interfere with the newly built -executable which is compiling the library. - -Unsupported systems -------------------- - -A number of features are not supported in Python 2.5 anymore. Some -support code is still present, but will be removed in Python 2.6. -If you still need to use current Python versions on these systems, -please send a message to python-dev@python.org indicating that you -volunteer to support this system. For a more detailed discussion -regarding no-longer-supported and resupporting platforms, as well -as a list of platforms that became or will be unsupported, see PEP 11. - -More specifically, the following systems are not supported any -longer: -- SunOS 4 -- DYNIX -- dgux -- Minix -- NeXT -- Irix 4 and --with-sgi-dl -- Linux 1 -- Systems defining __d6_pthread_create (configure.in) -- Systems defining PY_PTHREAD_D4, PY_PTHREAD_D6, - or PY_PTHREAD_D7 in thread_pthread.h -- Systems using --with-dl-dld -- Systems using --without-universal-newlines -- MacOS 9 - -The following systems are still supported in Python 2.5, but -support will be dropped in 2.6: -- Systems using --with-wctype-functions -- Win9x, WinME - -Warning on install in Windows 98 and Windows Me ------------------------------------------------ - -Following Microsoft's closing of Extended Support for -Windows 98/ME (July 11, 2006), Python 2.6 will stop -supporting these platforms. Python development and -maintainability becomes easier (and more reliable) when -platform specific code targeting OSes with few users -and no dedicated expert developers is taken out. The -vendor also warns that the OS versions listed above -"can expose customers to security risks" and recommends -upgrade. - -Platform specific notes ------------------------ - -(Some of these may no longer apply. If you find you can build Python -on these platforms without the special directions mentioned here, -submit a documentation bug report to SourceForge (see Bug Reports -above) so we can remove them!) - -XXX I think this next bit is out of date: - -64-bit platforms: The audioop module doesn't work. - The setup.py script disables them on 64-bit installations. - Don't try to enable them in the Modules/Setup file. They - contain code that is quite wordsize sensitive. (If you have a - fix, let us know!) - -Solaris: When using Sun's C compiler with threads, at least on Solaris - 2.5.1, you need to add the "-mt" compiler option (the simplest - way is probably to specify the compiler with this option as - the "CC" environment variable when running the configure - script). - - When using GCC on Solaris, beware of binutils 2.13 or GCC - versions built using it. This mistakenly enables the - -zcombreloc option which creates broken shared libraries on - Solaris. binutils 2.12 works, and the binutils maintainers - are aware of the problem. Binutils 2.13.1 only partially - fixed things. It appears that 2.13.2 solves the problem - completely. This problem is known to occur with Solaris 2.7 - and 2.8, but may also affect earlier and later versions of the - OS. - - When the dynamic loader complains about errors finding shared - libraries, such as - - ld.so.1: ./python: fatal: libstdc++.so.5: open failed: - No such file or directory - - you need to first make sure that the library is available on - your system. Then, you need to instruct the dynamic loader how - to find it. You can choose any of the following strategies: - - 1. When compiling Python, set LD_RUN_PATH to the directories - containing missing libraries. - 2. When running Python, set LD_LIBRARY_PATH to these directories. - 3. Use crle(8) to extend the search path of the loader. - 4. Modify the installed GCC specs file, adding -R options into the - *link: section. - - The complex object fails to compile on Solaris 10 with gcc 3.4 (at - least up to 3.4.3). To work around it, define Py_HUGE_VAL as - HUGE_VAL(), e.g.: - - make CPPFLAGS='-D"Py_HUGE_VAL=HUGE_VAL()" -I. -I$(srcdir)/Include' - ./python setup.py CPPFLAGS='-D"Py_HUGE_VAL=HUGE_VAL()"' - -Linux: A problem with threads and fork() was tracked down to a bug in - the pthreads code in glibc version 2.0.5; glibc version 2.0.7 - solves the problem. This causes the popen2 test to fail; - problem and solution reported by Pablo Bleyer. - -Red Hat Linux: Red Hat 9 built Python2.2 in UCS-4 mode and hacked - Tcl to support it. To compile Python2.3 with Tkinter, you will - need to pass --enable-unicode=ucs4 flag to ./configure. - - There's an executable /usr/bin/python which is Python - 1.5.2 on most older Red Hat installations; several key Red Hat tools - require this version. Python 2.1.x may be installed as - /usr/bin/python2. The Makefile installs Python as - /usr/local/bin/python, which may or may not take precedence - over /usr/bin/python, depending on how you have set up $PATH. - -FreeBSD 3.x and probably platforms with NCurses that use libmytinfo or - similar: When using cursesmodule, the linking is not done in - the correct order with the defaults. Remove "-ltermcap" from - the readline entry in Setup, and use as curses entry: "curses - cursesmodule.c -lmytinfo -lncurses -ltermcap" - "mytinfo" (so - called on FreeBSD) should be the name of the auxiliary library - required on your platform. Normally, it would be linked - automatically, but not necessarily in the correct order. - -BSDI: BSDI versions before 4.1 have known problems with threads, - which can cause strange errors in a number of modules (for - instance, the 'test_signal' test script will hang forever.) - Turning off threads (with --with-threads=no) or upgrading to - BSDI 4.1 solves this problem. - -DEC Unix: Run configure with --with-dec-threads, or with - --with-threads=no if no threads are desired (threads are on by - default). When using GCC, it is possible to get an internal - compiler error if optimization is used. This was reported for - GCC 2.7.2.3 on selectmodule.c. Manually compile the affected - file without optimization to solve the problem. - -DEC Ultrix: compile with GCC to avoid bugs in the native compiler, - and pass SHELL=/bin/sh5 to Make when installing. - -AIX: A complete overhaul of the shared library support is now in - place. See Misc/AIX-NOTES for some notes on how it's done. - (The optimizer bug reported at this place in previous releases - has been worked around by a minimal code change.) If you get - errors about pthread_* functions, during compile or during - testing, try setting CC to a thread-safe (reentrant) compiler, - like "cc_r". For full C++ module support, set CC="xlC_r" (or - CC="xlC" without thread support). - -AIX 5.3: To build a 64-bit version with IBM's compiler, I used the - following: - - export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/vacpp/bin - ./configure --with-gcc="xlc_r -q64" --with-cxx="xlC_r -q64" \ - --disable-ipv6 AR="ar -X64" - make - -HP-UX: When using threading, you may have to add -D_REENTRANT to the - OPT variable in the top-level Makefile; reported by Pat Knight, - this seems to make a difference (at least for HP-UX 10.20) - even though pyconfig.h defines it. This seems unnecessary when - using HP/UX 11 and later - threading seems to work "out of the - box". - -HP-UX ia64: When building on the ia64 (Itanium) platform using HP's - compiler, some experience has shown that the compiler's - optimiser produces a completely broken version of python - (see http://www.python.org/sf/814976). To work around this, - edit the Makefile and remove -O from the OPT line. - - To build a 64-bit executable on an Itanium 2 system using HP's - compiler, use these environment variables: - - CC=cc - CXX=aCC - BASECFLAGS="+DD64" - LDFLAGS="+DD64 -lxnet" - - and call configure as: - - ./configure --without-gcc - - then *unset* the environment variables again before running - make. (At least one of these flags causes the build to fail - if it remains set.) You still have to edit the Makefile and - remove -O from the OPT line. - -HP PA-RISC 2.0: A recent bug report (http://www.python.org/sf/546117) - suggests that the C compiler in this 64-bit system has bugs - in the optimizer that break Python. Compiling without - optimization solves the problems. - -SCO: The following apply to SCO 3 only; Python builds out of the box - on SCO 5 (or so we've heard). - - 1) Everything works much better if you add -U__STDC__ to the - defs. This is because all the SCO header files are broken. - Anything that isn't mentioned in the C standard is - conditionally excluded when __STDC__ is defined. - - 2) Due to the U.S. export restrictions, SCO broke the crypt - stuff out into a separate library, libcrypt_i.a so the LIBS - needed be set to: - - LIBS=' -lsocket -lcrypt_i' - -UnixWare: There are known bugs in the math library of the system, as well as - problems in the handling of threads (calling fork in one - thread may interrupt system calls in others). Therefore, test_math and - tests involving threads will fail until those problems are fixed. - -QNX: Chris Herborth (chrish@qnx.com) writes: - configure works best if you use GNU bash; a port is available on - ftp.qnx.com in /usr/free. I used the following process to build, - test and install Python 1.5.x under QNX: - - 1) CONFIG_SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash CC=cc RANLIB=: \ - ./configure --verbose --without-gcc --with-libm="" - - 2) edit Modules/Setup to activate everything that makes sense for - your system... tested here at QNX with the following modules: - - array, audioop, binascii, cPickle, cStringIO, cmath, - crypt, curses, errno, fcntl, gdbm, grp, - _locale, math, new, operator, parser, - posix, pwd, readline, regex, - select, signal, socket, struct, - syslog, termios, time, zlib, audioop - - 3) make SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash - - or, if you feel the need for speed: - - make SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash OPT="-5 -Oil+nrt" - - 4) make SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash test - - Using GNU readline 2.2 seems to behave strangely, but I - think that's a problem with my readline 2.2 port. :-\ - - 5) make SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash install - - If you get SIGSEGVs while running Python (I haven't yet, but - I've only run small programs and the test cases), you're - probably running out of stack; the default 32k could be a - little tight. To increase the stack size, edit the Makefile - to read: LDFLAGS = -N 48k - -Cray T3E: Mark Hadfield (m.hadfield@niwa.co.nz) writes: - Python can be built satisfactorily on a Cray T3E but based on - my experience with the NIWA T3E (2002-05-22, version 2.2.1) - there are a few bugs and gotchas. For more information see a - thread on comp.lang.python in May 2002 entitled "Building - Python on Cray T3E". - - 1) Use Cray's cc and not gcc. The latter was reported not to - work by Konrad Hinsen. It may work now, but it may not. - - 2) To set sys.platform to something sensible, pass the - following environment variable to the configure script: - - MACHDEP=unicosmk - - 2) Run configure with option "--enable-unicode=ucs4". - - 3) The Cray T3E does not support dynamic linking, so extension - modules have to be built by adding (or uncommenting) lines - in Modules/Setup. The minimum set of modules is - - posix, new, _sre, unicodedata - - On NIWA's vanilla T3E system the following have also been - included successfully: - - _codecs, _locale, _socket, _symtable, _testcapi, _weakref - array, binascii, cmath, cPickle, crypt, cStringIO, dbm - errno, fcntl, grp, math, operator, parser, pwd - rotor, select, struct, syslog, termios, time - - 4) Once the python executable and library have been built, make - will execute setup.py, which will attempt to build remaining - extensions and link them dynamically. Each of these attempts - will fail but should not halt the make process. This is - normal. - - 5) Running "make test" uses a lot of resources and causes - problems on our system. You might want to try running tests - singly or in small groups. - -SGI: SGI's standard "make" utility (/bin/make or /usr/bin/make) - does not check whether a command actually changed the file it - is supposed to build. This means that whenever you say "make" - it will redo the link step. The remedy is to use SGI's much - smarter "smake" utility (/usr/sbin/smake), or GNU make. If - you set the first line of the Makefile to #!/usr/sbin/smake - smake will be invoked by make (likewise for GNU make). - - WARNING: There are bugs in the optimizer of some versions of - SGI's compilers that can cause bus errors or other strange - behavior, especially on numerical operations. To avoid this, - try building with "make OPT=". - -OS/2: If you are running Warp3 or Warp4 and have IBM's VisualAge C/C++ - compiler installed, just change into the pc\os2vacpp directory - and type NMAKE. Threading and sockets are supported by default - in the resulting binaries of PYTHON15.DLL and PYTHON.EXE. - -Monterey (64-bit AIX): The current Monterey C compiler (Visual Age) - uses the OBJECT_MODE={32|64} environment variable to set the - compilation mode to either 32-bit or 64-bit (32-bit mode is - the default). Presumably you want 64-bit compilation mode for - this 64-bit OS. As a result you must first set OBJECT_MODE=64 - in your environment before configuring (./configure) or - building (make) Python on Monterey. - -Reliant UNIX: The thread support does not compile on Reliant UNIX, and - there is a (minor) problem in the configure script for that - platform as well. This should be resolved in time for a - future release. - -MacOSX: The tests will crash on both 10.1 and 10.2 with SEGV in - test_re and test_sre due to the small default stack size. If - you set the stack size to 2048 before doing a "make test" the - failure can be avoided. If you're using the tcsh or csh shells, - use "limit stacksize 2048" and for the bash shell (the default - as of OSX 10.3), use "ulimit -s 2048". - - On naked Darwin you may want to add the configure option - "--disable-toolbox-glue" to disable the glue code for the Carbon - interface modules. The modules themselves are currently only built - if you add the --enable-framework option, see below. - - On a clean OSX /usr/local does not exist. Do a - "sudo mkdir -m 775 /usr/local" - before you do a make install. It is probably not a good idea to - do "sudo make install" which installs everything as superuser, - as this may later cause problems when installing distutils-based - additions. - - Some people have reported problems building Python after using "fink" - to install additional unix software. Disabling fink (remove all - references to /sw from your .profile or .login) should solve this. - - You may want to try the configure option "--enable-framework" - which installs Python as a framework. The location can be set - as argument to the --enable-framework option (default - /Library/Frameworks). A framework install is probably needed if you - want to use any Aqua-based GUI toolkit (whether Tkinter, wxPython, - Carbon, Cocoa or anything else). - - You may also want to try the configure option "--enable-universalsdk" - which builds Python as a universal binary with support for the - i386 and PPC architetures. This requires Xcode 2.1 or later to build. - - See Mac/OSX/README for more information on framework and - universal builds. - -Cygwin: With recent (relative to the time of writing, 2001-12-19) - Cygwin installations, there are problems with the interaction - of dynamic linking and fork(). This manifests itself in build - failures during the execution of setup.py. - - There are two workarounds that both enable Python (albeit - without threading support) to build and pass all tests on - NT/2000 (and most likely XP as well, though reports of testing - on XP would be appreciated). - - The workarounds: - - (a) the band-aid fix is to link the _socket module statically - rather than dynamically (which is the default). - - To do this, run "./configure --with-threads=no" including any - other options you need (--prefix, etc.). Then in Modules/Setup - uncomment the lines: - - #SSL=/usr/local/ssl - #_socket socketmodule.c \ - # -DUSE_SSL -I$(SSL)/include -I$(SSL)/include/openssl \ - # -L$(SSL)/lib -lssl -lcrypto - - and remove "local/" from the SSL variable. Finally, just run - "make"! - - (b) The "proper" fix is to rebase the Cygwin DLLs to prevent - base address conflicts. Details on how to do this can be - found in the following mail: - - http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin/2001-12/msg00894.html - - It is hoped that a version of this solution will be - incorporated into the Cygwin distribution fairly soon. - - Two additional problems: - - (1) Threading support should still be disabled due to a known - bug in Cygwin pthreads that causes test_threadedtempfile to - hang. - - (2) The _curses module does not build. This is a known - Cygwin ncurses problem that should be resolved the next time - that this package is released. - - On older versions of Cygwin, test_poll may hang and test_strftime - may fail. - - The situation on 9X/Me is not accurately known at present. - Some time ago, there were reports that the following - regression tests failed: - - test_pwd - test_select (hang) - test_socket - - Due to the test_select hang on 9X/Me, one should run the - regression test using the following: - - make TESTOPTS='-l -x test_select' test - - News regarding these platforms with more recent Cygwin - versions would be appreciated! - -AtheOS: Official support has been stopped as of Python 2.6. All code will be - removed in Python 2.7 unless a maintainer steps forward for this - platform. - - From Octavian Cerna : - - Before building: - - Make sure you have shared versions of the libraries you - want to use with Python. You will have to compile them - yourself, or download precompiled packages. - - Recommended libraries: - - ncurses-4.2 - readline-4.2a - zlib-1.1.4 - - Build: - - $ ./configure --prefix=/usr/python - $ make - - Python is always built as a shared library, otherwise - dynamic loading would not work. - - Testing: - - $ make test - - Install: - - # make install - # pkgmanager -a /usr/python - - - AtheOS issues: - - - large file support: due to a stdio bug in glibc/libio, - access to large files may not work correctly. fseeko() - tries to seek to a negative offset. ftello() returns a - negative offset, it looks like a 32->64bit - sign-extension issue. The lowlevel functions (open, - lseek, etc) are OK. - - sockets: AF_UNIX is defined in the C library and in - Python, but not implemented in the system. - - select: poll is available in the C library, but does not - work (It does not return POLLNVAL for bad fds and - hangs). - - posix: statvfs and fstatvfs always return ENOSYS. - - disabled modules: - - mmap: not yet implemented in AtheOS - - nis: broken (on an unconfigured system - yp_get_default_domain() returns junk instead of - error) - - dl: dynamic loading doesn't work via dlopen() - - resource: getrimit and setrlimit are not yet - implemented - - - if you are getting segmentation faults, you probably are - low on memory. AtheOS doesn't handle very well an - out-of-memory condition and simply SEGVs the process. - - Tested on: - - AtheOS-0.3.7 - gcc-2.95 - binutils-2.10 - make-3.78 - - -Configuring the bsddb and dbm modules -------------------------------------- - -Beginning with Python version 2.3, the PyBsddb package - was adopted into Python as the bsddb package, -exposing a set of package-level functions which provide -backwards-compatible behavior. Only versions 3.3 through 4.4 of -Sleepycat's libraries provide the necessary API, so older versions -aren't supported through this interface. The -dbm module will still be built against the Sleepycat libraries if -other preferred alternatives (ndbm, gdbm) are not found. - -Building the sqlite3 module ---------------------------- - -To build the sqlite3 module, you'll need the sqlite3 or libsqlite3 -packages installed, including the header files. Many modern operating -systems distribute the headers in a separate package to the library - -often it will be the same name as the main package, but with a -dev or --devel suffix. - -The version of pysqlite2 that's including in Python needs sqlite3 3.0.8 -or later. setup.py attempts to check that it can find a correct version. - -Configuring threads -------------------- - -As of Python 2.0, threads are enabled by default. If you wish to -compile without threads, or if your thread support is broken, pass the ---with-threads=no switch to configure. Unfortunately, on some -platforms, additional compiler and/or linker options are required for -threads to work properly. Below is a table of those options, -collected by Bill Janssen. We would love to automate this process -more, but the information below is not enough to write a patch for the -configure.in file, so manual intervention is required. If you patch -the configure.in file and are confident that the patch works, please -send in the patch. (Don't bother patching the configure script itself --- it is regenerated each time the configure.in file changes.) - -Compiler switches for threads -............................. - -The definition of _REENTRANT should be configured automatically, if -that does not work on your system, or if _REENTRANT is defined -incorrectly, please report that as a bug. - - OS/Compiler/threads Switches for use with threads - (POSIX is draft 10, DCE is draft 4) compile & link - - SunOS 5.{1-5}/{gcc,SunPro cc}/solaris -mt - SunOS 5.5/{gcc,SunPro cc}/POSIX (nothing) - DEC OSF/1 3.x/cc/DCE -threads - (butenhof@zko.dec.com) - Digital UNIX 4.x/cc/DCE -threads - (butenhof@zko.dec.com) - Digital UNIX 4.x/cc/POSIX -pthread - (butenhof@zko.dec.com) - AIX 4.1.4/cc_r/d7 (nothing) - (buhrt@iquest.net) - AIX 4.1.4/cc_r4/DCE (nothing) - (buhrt@iquest.net) - IRIX 6.2/cc/POSIX (nothing) - (robertl@cwi.nl) - - -Linker (ld) libraries and flags for threads -........................................... - - OS/threads Libraries/switches for use with threads - - SunOS 5.{1-5}/solaris -lthread - SunOS 5.5/POSIX -lpthread - DEC OSF/1 3.x/DCE -lpthreads -lmach -lc_r -lc - (butenhof@zko.dec.com) - Digital UNIX 4.x/DCE -lpthreads -lpthread -lmach -lexc -lc - (butenhof@zko.dec.com) - Digital UNIX 4.x/POSIX -lpthread -lmach -lexc -lc - (butenhof@zko.dec.com) - AIX 4.1.4/{draft7,DCE} (nothing) - (buhrt@iquest.net) - IRIX 6.2/POSIX -lpthread - (jph@emilia.engr.sgi.com) - - -Building a shared libpython ---------------------------- - -Starting with Python 2.3, the majority of the interpreter can be built -into a shared library, which can then be used by the interpreter -executable, and by applications embedding Python. To enable this feature, -configure with --enable-shared. - -If you enable this feature, the same object files will be used to create -a static library. In particular, the static library will contain object -files using position-independent code (PIC) on platforms where PIC flags -are needed for the shared library. - - -Configuring additional built-in modules ---------------------------------------- - -Starting with Python 2.1, the setup.py script at the top of the source -distribution attempts to detect which modules can be built and -automatically compiles them. Autodetection doesn't always work, so -you can still customize the configuration by editing the Modules/Setup -file; but this should be considered a last resort. The rest of this -section only applies if you decide to edit the Modules/Setup file. -You also need this to enable static linking of certain modules (which -is needed to enable profiling on some systems). - -This file is initially copied from Setup.dist by the configure script; -if it does not exist yet, create it by copying Modules/Setup.dist -yourself (configure will never overwrite it). Never edit Setup.dist --- always edit Setup or Setup.local (see below). Read the comments in -the file for information on what kind of edits are allowed. When you -have edited Setup in the Modules directory, the interpreter will -automatically be rebuilt the next time you run make (in the toplevel -directory). - -Many useful modules can be built on any Unix system, but some optional -modules can't be reliably autodetected. Often the quickest way to -determine whether a particular module works or not is to see if it -will build: enable it in Setup, then if you get compilation or link -errors, disable it -- you're either missing support or need to adjust -the compilation and linking parameters for that module. - -In addition to the file Setup, you can also edit the file Setup.local. -(the makesetup script processes both). You may find it more -convenient to edit Setup.local and leave Setup alone. Then, when -installing a new Python version, you can copy your old Setup.local -file. - - -Setting the optimization/debugging options ------------------------------------------- - -If you want or need to change the optimization/debugging options for -the C compiler, assign to the OPT variable on the toplevel make -command; e.g. "make OPT=-g" will build a debugging version of Python -on most platforms. The default is OPT=-O; a value for OPT in the -environment when the configure script is run overrides this default -(likewise for CC; and the initial value for LIBS is used as the base -set of libraries to link with). - -When compiling with GCC, the default value of OPT will also include -the -Wall and -Wstrict-prototypes options. - -Additional debugging code to help debug memory management problems can -be enabled by using the --with-pydebug option to the configure script. - -For flags that change binary compatibility, use the EXTRA_CFLAGS -variable. - - -Profiling ---------- - -If you want C profiling turned on, the easiest way is to run configure -with the CC environment variable to the necessary compiler -invocation. For example, on Linux, this works for profiling using -gprof(1): - - CC="gcc -pg" ./configure - -Note that on Linux, gprof apparently does not work for shared -libraries. The Makefile/Setup mechanism can be used to compile and -link most extension modules statically. - - -Testing -------- - -To test the interpreter, type "make test" in the top-level directory. -This runs the test set twice (once with no compiled files, once with -the compiled files left by the previous test run). The test set -produces some output. You can generally ignore the messages about -skipped tests due to optional features which can't be imported. -If a message is printed about a failed test or a traceback or core -dump is produced, something is wrong. On some Linux systems (those -that are not yet using glibc 6), test_strftime fails due to a -non-standard implementation of strftime() in the C library. Please -ignore this, or upgrade to glibc version 6. - -IMPORTANT: If the tests fail and you decide to mail a bug report, -*don't* include the output of "make test". It is useless. Run the -failing test manually, as follows: - - ./python ./Lib/test/test_whatever.py - -(substituting the top of the source tree for '.' if you built in a -different directory). This runs the test in verbose mode. - - -Installing +What's New ---------- -To install the Python binary, library modules, shared library modules -(see below), include files, configuration files, and the manual page, -just type +For an overview of what's new in Python 3000, see Guido van Rossum's +blog at artima.com: - make install + http://www.artima.com/weblogs/index.jsp?blogger=guido -This will install all platform-independent files in subdirectories of -the directory given with the --prefix option to configure or to the -`prefix' Make variable (default /usr/local). All binary and other -platform-specific files will be installed in subdirectories if the -directory given by --exec-prefix or the `exec_prefix' Make variable -(defaults to the --prefix directory) is given. - -If DESTDIR is set, it will be taken as the root directory of the -installation, and files will be installed into $(DESTDIR)$(prefix), -$(DESTDIR)$(exec_prefix), etc. - -All subdirectories created will have Python's version number in their -name, e.g. the library modules are installed in -"/usr/local/lib/python/" by default, where is the -. release number (e.g. "2.1"). The Python binary is -installed as "python" and a hard link named "python" is -created. The only file not installed with a version number in its -name is the manual page, installed as "/usr/local/man/man1/python.1" -by default. - -If you have a previous installation of Python that you don't -want to replace yet, use - - make altinstall - -This installs the same set of files as "make install" except it -doesn't create the hard link to "python" named "python" and -it doesn't install the manual page at all. - -The only thing you may have to install manually is the Python mode for -Emacs found in Misc/python-mode.el. (But then again, more recent -versions of Emacs may already have it.) Follow the instructions that -came with Emacs for installation of site-specific files. - -On Mac OS X, if you have configured Python with --enable-framework, you -should use "make frameworkinstall" to do the installation. Note that this -installs the Python executable in a place that is not normally on your -PATH, you may want to set up a symlink in /usr/local/bin. +We'll eventually have a comprehensive overview of the changes in a +"What's New in Python 3.0" document. Please help write it! -Configuration options and variables ------------------------------------ +Converting From Python 2.x to 3.0 +--------------------------------- -Some special cases are handled by passing options to the configure -script. +Python 2.6 (not yet released) will contain features to help locating +code that needs to be changed, such as optional warnings when +deprecated features are used, and backported versions of certain key +Python 3000 features. -WARNING: if you rerun the configure script with different options, you -must run "make clean" before rebuilding. Exceptions to this rule: -after changing --prefix or --exec-prefix, all you need to do is remove -Modules/getpath.o. +A source-to-source translation tool, "2to3", can take care of the +mundane task of converting large amounts of source code. It is not a +complete solution but is complemented by the deprecation warnings in +2.6. This tool is currently available via the Subversion sandbox: ---with(out)-gcc: The configure script uses gcc (the GNU C compiler) if - it finds it. If you don't want this, or if this compiler is - installed but broken on your platform, pass the option - --without-gcc. You can also pass "CC=cc" (or whatever the - name of the proper C compiler is) in the environment, but the - advantage of using --without-gcc is that this option is - remembered by the config.status script for its --recheck - option. - ---prefix, --exec-prefix: If you want to install the binaries and the - Python library somewhere else than in /usr/local/{bin,lib}, - you can pass the option --prefix=DIRECTORY; the interpreter - binary will be installed as DIRECTORY/bin/python and the - library files as DIRECTORY/lib/python/*. If you pass - --exec-prefix=DIRECTORY (as well) this overrides the - installation prefix for architecture-dependent files (like the - interpreter binary). Note that --prefix=DIRECTORY also - affects the default module search path (sys.path), when - Modules/config.c is compiled. Passing make the option - prefix=DIRECTORY (and/or exec_prefix=DIRECTORY) overrides the - prefix set at configuration time; this may be more convenient - than re-running the configure script if you change your mind - about the install prefix. - ---with-readline: This option is no longer supported. GNU - readline is automatically enabled by setup.py when present. - ---with-threads: On most Unix systems, you can now use multiple - threads, and support for this is enabled by default. To - disable this, pass --with-threads=no. If the library required - for threads lives in a peculiar place, you can use - --with-thread=DIRECTORY. IMPORTANT: run "make clean" after - changing (either enabling or disabling) this option, or you - will get link errors! Note: for DEC Unix use - --with-dec-threads instead. - ---with-sgi-dl: On SGI IRIX 4, dynamic loading of extension modules is - supported by the "dl" library by Jack Jansen, which is - ftp'able from ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-1.6.tar.Z. - This is enabled (after you've ftp'ed and compiled the dl - library) by passing --with-sgi-dl=DIRECTORY where DIRECTORY - is the absolute pathname of the dl library. (Don't bother on - IRIX 5, it already has dynamic linking using SunOS style - shared libraries.) THIS OPTION IS UNSUPPORTED. - ---with-dl-dld: Dynamic loading of modules is rumored to be supported - on some other systems: VAX (Ultrix), Sun3 (SunOS 3.4), Sequent - Symmetry (Dynix), and Atari ST. This is done using a - combination of the GNU dynamic loading package - (ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-dld-1.1.tar.Z) and an - emulation of the SGI dl library mentioned above (the emulation - can be found at - ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dld-3.2.3.tar.Z). To - enable this, ftp and compile both libraries, then call - configure, passing it the option - --with-dl-dld=DL_DIRECTORY,DLD_DIRECTORY where DL_DIRECTORY is - the absolute pathname of the dl emulation library and - DLD_DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the GNU dld library. - (Don't bother on SunOS 4 or 5, they already have dynamic - linking using shared libraries.) THIS OPTION IS UNSUPPORTED. - ---with-libm, --with-libc: It is possible to specify alternative - versions for the Math library (default -lm) and the C library - (default the empty string) using the options - --with-libm=STRING and --with-libc=STRING, respectively. For - example, if your system requires that you pass -lc_s to the C - compiler to use the shared C library, you can pass - --with-libc=-lc_s. These libraries are passed after all other - libraries, the C library last. - ---with-libs='libs': Add 'libs' to the LIBS that the python interpreter - is linked against. - ---with-cxx-main=: If you plan to use C++ extension modules, - then -- on some platforms -- you need to compile python's main() - function with the C++ compiler. With this option, make will use - to compile main() *and* to link the python executable. - It is likely that the resulting executable depends on the C++ - runtime library of . (The default is --without-cxx-main.) - - There are platforms that do not require you to build Python - with a C++ compiler in order to use C++ extension modules. - E.g., x86 Linux with ELF shared binaries and GCC 3.x, 4.x is such - a platform. We recommend that you configure Python - --without-cxx-main on those platforms because a mismatch - between the C++ compiler version used to build Python and to - build a C++ extension module is likely to cause a crash at - runtime. - - The Python installation also stores the variable CXX that - determines, e.g., the C++ compiler distutils calls by default - to build C++ extensions. If you set CXX on the configure command - line to any string of non-zero length, then configure won't - change CXX. If you do not preset CXX but pass - --with-cxx-main=, then configure sets CXX=. - In all other cases, configure looks for a C++ compiler by - some common names (c++, g++, gcc, CC, cxx, cc++, cl) and sets - CXX to the first compiler it finds. If it does not find any - C++ compiler, then it sets CXX="". - - Similarly, if you want to change the command used to link the - python executable, then set LINKCC on the configure command line. + http://svn.python.org/view/sandbox/trunk/2to3/ ---with-pydebug: Enable additional debugging code to help track down - memory management problems. This allows printing a list of all - live objects when the interpreter terminates. +Issue Tracker and Mailing List +------------------------------ ---with(out)-universal-newlines: enable reading of text files with - foreign newline convention (default: enabled). In other words, - any of \r, \n or \r\n is acceptable as end-of-line character. - If enabled import will automatically accept any newline - in files. Python code can open a file with open(file, 'U') to - read it in universal newline mode. THIS OPTION IS UNSUPPORTED. +We're soliciting bug reports about all aspects of the language. Fixes +are also welcome, preferable in unified diff format. Please use the +issue tracker: ---with-tsc: Profile using the Pentium timestamping counter (TSC). + http://bugs.python.org/ ---with-system-ffi: Build the _ctypes extension module using an ffi - library installed on the system. +If you're not sure whether you're dealing with a bug or a feature, use +the mailing list: + + python-3000@python.org + +To subscribe to the list, use the mailman form: + + http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-3000/ -Building for multiple architectures (using the VPATH feature) -------------------------------------------------------------- - -If your file system is shared between multiple architectures, it -usually is not necessary to make copies of the sources for each -architecture you want to support. If the make program supports the -VPATH feature, you can create an empty build directory for each -architecture, and in each directory run the configure script (on the -appropriate machine with the appropriate options). This creates the -necessary subdirectories and the Makefiles therein. The Makefiles -contain a line VPATH=... which points to a directory containing the -actual sources. (On SGI systems, use "smake -J1" instead of "make" if -you use VPATH -- don't try gnumake.) - -For example, the following is all you need to build a minimal Python -in /usr/tmp/python (assuming ~guido/src/python is the toplevel -directory and you want to build in /usr/tmp/python): - - $ mkdir /usr/tmp/python - $ cd /usr/tmp/python - $ ~guido/src/python/configure - [...] - $ make - [...] - $ - -Note that configure copies the original Setup file to the build -directory if it finds no Setup file there. This means that you can -edit the Setup file for each architecture independently. For this -reason, subsequent changes to the original Setup file are not tracked -automatically, as they might overwrite local changes. To force a copy -of a changed original Setup file, delete the target Setup file. (The -makesetup script supports multiple input files, so if you want to be -fancy you can change the rules to create an empty Setup.local if it -doesn't exist and run it with arguments $(srcdir)/Setup Setup.local; -however this assumes that you only need to add modules.) - - -Building on non-UNIX systems ----------------------------- - -For Windows (2000/NT/ME/98/95), assuming you have MS VC++ 7.1, the -project files are in PCbuild, the workspace is pcbuild.dsw. See -PCbuild\readme.txt for detailed instructions. - -For other non-Unix Windows compilers, in particular MS VC++ 6.0 and -for OS/2, enter the directory "PC" and read the file "readme.txt". - -For the Mac, a separate source distribution will be made available, -for use with the CodeWarrior compiler. If you are interested in Mac -development, join the PythonMac Special Interest Group -(http://www.python.org/sigs/pythonmac-sig/, or send email to -pythonmac-sig-request@python.org). - -Of course, there are also binary distributions available for these -platforms -- see http://www.python.org/. - -To port Python to a new non-UNIX system, you will have to fake the -effect of running the configure script manually (for Mac and PC, this -has already been done for you). A good start is to copy the file -pyconfig.h.in to pyconfig.h and edit the latter to reflect the actual -configuration of your system. Most symbols must simply be defined as -1 only if the corresponding feature is present and can be left alone -otherwise; however the *_t type symbols must be defined as some -variant of int if they need to be defined at all. - -For all platforms, it's important that the build arrange to define the -preprocessor symbol NDEBUG on the compiler command line in a release -build of Python (else assert() calls remain in the code, hurting -release-build performance). The Unix, Windows and Mac builds already -do this. - - -Miscellaneous issues -==================== - -Emacs mode ----------- - -There's an excellent Emacs editing mode for Python code; see the file -Misc/python-mode.el. Originally written by the famous Tim Peters, it -is now maintained by the equally famous Barry Warsaw (it's no -coincidence that they now both work on the same team). The latest -version, along with various other contributed Python-related Emacs -goodies, is online at http://www.python.org/emacs/python-mode. And -if you are planning to edit the Python C code, please pick up the -latest version of CC Mode http://www.python.org/emacs/cc-mode; it -contains a "python" style used throughout most of the Python C source -files. (Newer versions of Emacs or XEmacs may already come with the -latest version of python-mode.) - - -Tkinter -------- - -The setup.py script automatically configures this when it detects a -usable Tcl/Tk installation. This requires Tcl/Tk version 8.0 or -higher. - -For more Tkinter information, see the Tkinter Resource page: -http://www.python.org/topics/tkinter/ - -There are demos in the Demo/tkinter directory. - -Note that there's a Python module called "Tkinter" (capital T) which -lives in Lib/lib-tk/Tkinter.py, and a C module called "_tkinter" -(lower case t and leading underscore) which lives in -Modules/_tkinter.c. Demos and normal Tk applications import only the -Python Tkinter module -- only the latter imports the C _tkinter -module. In order to find the C _tkinter module, it must be compiled -and linked into the Python interpreter -- the setup.py script does -this. In order to find the Python Tkinter module, sys.path must be -set correctly -- normal installation takes care of this. - - -Distribution structure ----------------------- - -Most subdirectories have their own README files. Most files have -comments. - -Demo/ Demonstration scripts, modules and programs -Doc/ Documentation sources (LaTeX) -Grammar/ Input for the parser generator -Include/ Public header files -LICENSE Licensing information -Lib/ Python library modules -Mac/ Macintosh specific resources -Makefile.pre.in Source from which config.status creates the Makefile.pre -Misc/ Miscellaneous useful files -Modules/ Implementation of most built-in modules -Objects/ Implementation of most built-in object types -PC/ Files specific to PC ports (DOS, Windows, OS/2) -PCbuild/ Build directory for Microsoft Visual C++ -Parser/ The parser and tokenizer and their input handling -Python/ The byte-compiler and interpreter -README The file you're reading now -Tools/ Some useful programs written in Python -pyconfig.h.in Source from which pyconfig.h is created (GNU autoheader output) -configure Configuration shell script (GNU autoconf output) -configure.in Configuration specification (input for GNU autoconf) -install-sh Shell script used to install files -setup.py Python script used to build extension modules - -The following files will (may) be created in the toplevel directory by -the configuration and build processes: - -Makefile Build rules -Makefile.pre Build rules before running Modules/makesetup -buildno Keeps track of the build number -config.cache Cache of configuration variables -pyconfig.h Configuration header -config.log Log from last configure run -config.status Status from last run of the configure script -getbuildinfo.o Object file from Modules/getbuildinfo.c -libpython.a The library archive -python The executable interpreter -reflog.txt Output from running the regression suite with the -R flag -tags, TAGS Tags files for vi and Emacs - - -That's all, folks! +Build Instructions ------------------ +On Unix, Linx, BSD, OSX, and Cygwin: ---Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/) + ./configure + make + make test + sudo make install # or "make altinstall" + +You can pass many options to the configure script; run "./configure +--help" to find out more. On OSX and Cygwin, the executable is called +python.exe; elsewhere it's just python. + +On Mac OS X, if you have configured Python with --enable-framework, +you should use "make frameworkinstall" to do the installation. Note +that this installs the Python executable in a place that is not +normally on your PATH, you may want to set up a symlink in +/usr/local/bin. + +If you wish, you can create a subdirectory and invoke configure from +there. For example: + + mkdir debug + cd debug + ../configure --with-pydebug + make + make test + +(This will fail if you *also* built at the top-level directory. You +should do a "make clean" at the toplevel first.)