Building a Python Mac OS X distribution ======================================= The ``build-install.py`` script creates Python distributions, including certain third-party libraries as necessary. It builds a complete framework-based Python out-of-tree, installs it in a funny place with $DESTROOT, massages that installation to remove .pyc files and such, creates an Installer package from the installation plus other files in ``resources`` and ``scripts`` and placed that on a ``.dmg`` disk image. For Python 3.4.0, PSF practice is to build two installer variants for each release. 1. 32-bit-only, i386 and PPC universal, capable on running on all machines supported by Mac OS X 10.5 through (at least) 10.9:: /path/to/bootstrap/python2.7 build-installer.py \ --sdk-path=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk \ --universal-archs=32-bit \ --dep-target=10.5 - builds the following third-party libraries * NCurses 5.9 (http://bugs.python.org/issue15037) * SQLite 3.8.3.1 * XZ 5.0.5 - uses system-supplied versions of third-party libraries * readline module links with Apple BSD editline (libedit) - requires ActiveState ``Tcl/Tk 8.4`` (currently 8.4.20) to be installed for building - recommended build environment: * Mac OS X 10.5.8 Intel or PPC * Xcode 3.1.4 * ``MacOSX10.5`` SDK * ``MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.5`` * Apple ``gcc-4.2`` * bootstrap non-framework Python 2.7 for documentation build with Sphinx (as of 3.4.1) - alternate build environments: * Mac OS X 10.6.8 with Xcode 3.2.6 - need to change ``/System/Library/Frameworks/{Tcl,Tk}.framework/Version/Current`` to ``8.4`` * Note Xcode 4.* does not support building for PPC so cannot be used for this build 2. 64-bit / 32-bit, x86_64 and i386 universal, for OS X 10.6 (and later):: /path/to/bootstrap/python2.7 build-installer.py \ --sdk-path=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk \ --universal-archs=intel \ --dep-target=10.6 - builds the following third-party libraries * NCurses 5.9 (http://bugs.python.org/issue15037) * SQLite 3.8.3.1 * XZ 5.0.5 - uses system-supplied versions of third-party libraries * readline module links with Apple BSD editline (libedit) - requires ActiveState Tcl/Tk 8.5.15.1 (or later) to be installed for building - recommended build environment: * Mac OS X 10.6.8 (or later) * Xcode 3.2.6 * ``MacOSX10.6`` SDK * ``MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.6`` * Apple ``gcc-4.2`` * bootstrap non-framework Python 2.7 for documentation build with Sphinx (as of 3.4.1) - alternate build environments: * none. Xcode 4.x currently supplies two C compilers. ``llvm-gcc-4.2.1`` has been found to miscompile Python 3.3.x and produce a non-functional Python executable. As it appears to be considered a migration aid by Apple and is not likely to be fixed, its use should be avoided. The other compiler, ``clang``, has been undergoing rapid development. While it appears to have become production-ready in the most recent Xcode 5 releases, the versions available on the deprecated Xcode 4.x for 10.6 were early releases and did not receive the level of exposure in production environments that the Xcode 3 gcc-4.2 compiler has had. * For Python 2.7.x and 3.2.x, the 32-bit-only installer was configured to support Mac OS X 10.3.9 through (at least) 10.6. Because it is believed that there are few systems still running OS X 10.3 or 10.4 and because it has become increasingly difficult to test and support the differences in these earlier systems, as of Python 3.3.0 the PSF 32-bit installer no longer supports them. For reference in building such an installer yourself, the details are:: /usr/bin/python build-installer.py \ --sdk-path=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk \ --universal-archs=32-bit \ --dep-target=10.3 - builds the following third-party libraries * Bzip2 * NCurses * GNU Readline (GPL) * SQLite 3 * XZ * Zlib 1.2.3 * Oracle Sleepycat DB 4.8 (Python 2.x only) - requires ActiveState ``Tcl/Tk 8.4`` (currently 8.4.20) to be installed for building - recommended build environment: * Mac OS X 10.5.8 PPC or Intel * Xcode 3.1.4 (or later) * ``MacOSX10.4u`` SDK (later SDKs do not support PPC G3 processors) * ``MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.3`` * Apple ``gcc-4.0`` * system Python 2.5 for documentation build with Sphinx - alternate build environments: * Mac OS X 10.6.8 with Xcode 3.2.6 - need to change ``/System/Library/Frameworks/{Tcl,Tk}.framework/Version/Current`` to ``8.4`` General Prerequisites --------------------- * No Fink (in ``/sw``) or MacPorts (in ``/opt/local``) or other local libraries or utilities (in ``/usr/local``) as they could interfere with the build. * The documentation for the release is built using Sphinx because it is included in the installer. For 2.7.x and 3.x.x up to and including 3.4.0, the ``Doc/Makefile`` uses ``svn`` to download repos of ``Sphinx`` and its dependencies. Beginning with 3.4.1, the ``Doc/Makefile`` assumes there is an externally-provided ``sphinx-build`` and requires at least Python 2.6 to run. Because of this, it is no longer possible to build a 3.4.1 or later installer on OS X 10.5 using the Apple-supplied Python 2.5. * It is safest to start each variant build with an empty source directory populated with a fresh copy of the untarred source. * It is recommended that you remove any existing installed version of the Python being built:: sudo rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/n.n The Recipe ---------- Here are the steps you need to follow to build a Python installer: * Run ``build-installer.py``. Optionally you can pass a number of arguments to specify locations of various files. Please see the top of ``build-installer.py`` for its usage. Running this script takes some time, it will not only build Python itself but also some 3th-party libraries that are needed for extensions. * When done the script will tell you where the DMG image is (by default somewhere in ``/tmp/_py``). Building other universal installers ................................... It is also possible to build a 4-way universal installer that runs on OS X 10.5 Leopard or later:: /usr/bin/python /build-installer.py \ --dep-target=10.5 --universal-archs=all --sdk-path=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk This requires that the deployment target is 10.5, and hence also that you are building on at least OS X 10.5. 4-way includes ``i386``, ``x86_64``, ``ppc``, and ``ppc64`` (G5). ``ppc64`` executable variants can only be run on G5 machines running 10.5. Note that, while OS X 10.6 is only supported on Intel-based machines, it is possible to run ``ppc`` (32-bit) executables unmodified thanks to the Rosetta ppc emulation in OS X 10.5 and 10.6. The 4-way installer variant must be built with Xcode 3. It is not regularly built or tested. Other ``--universal-archs`` options are ``64-bit`` (``x86_64``, ``ppc64``), and ``3-way`` (``ppc``, ``i386``, ``x86_64``). None of these options are regularly exercised; use at your own risk. Testing ------- Ideally, the resulting binaries should be installed and the test suite run on all supported OS X releases and architectures. As a practical matter, that is generally not possible. At a minimum, variant 1 should be run on a PPC G4 system with OS X 10.5 and at least one Intel system running OS X 10.9, 10.8, 10.7, 10.6, or 10.5. Variant 2 should be run on 10.9, 10.8, 10.7, and 10.6 systems in both 32-bit and 64-bit modes.:: /usr/local/bin/pythonn.n -m test -w -u all,-largefile /usr/local/bin/pythonn.n-32 -m test -w -u all Certain tests will be skipped and some cause the interpreter to fail which will likely generate ``Python quit unexpectedly`` alert messages to be generated at several points during a test run. These are normal during testing and can be ignored. It is also recommend to launch IDLE and verify that it is at least functional. Double-click on the IDLE app icon in ``/Applications/Python n.n``. It should also be tested from the command line:: /usr/local/bin/idlen.n