cpython/PC/VC6/readme.txt

Building Python using VC++ 6.0 or 5.0
-------------------------------------
This directory is used to build Python for Win32 platforms, e.g. Windows
95, 98 and NT.  It requires Microsoft Visual C++ 6.x or 5.x.
(For other Windows platforms and compilers, see ../readme.txt.)

All you need to do is open the workspace "pcbuild.dsw" in MSVC++, select
the Debug or Release setting (using Build -> Set Active Configuration...),
and build the projects.

The proper order to build subprojects:

1) pythoncore (this builds the main Python DLL and library files,
               python21.{dll, lib} in Release mode)
              NOTE:  in previous releases, this subproject was
              named after the release number, e.g. python20.

2) python (this builds the main Python executable,
           python.exe in Release mode)

3) the other subprojects, as desired or needed (note:  you probably don't
   want to build most of the other subprojects, unless you're building an
   entire Python distribution from scratch, or specifically making changes
   to the subsystems they implement; see SUBPROJECTS below)

When using the Debug setting, the output files have a _d added to
their name:  python21_d.dll, python_d.exe, parser_d.pyd, and so on.

SUBPROJECTS
-----------
These subprojects should build out of the box.  Subprojects other than the
main ones (pythoncore, python, pythonw) generally build a DLL (renamed to
.pyd) from a specific module so that users don't have to load the code
supporting that module unless they import the module.

pythoncore
    .dll and .lib
python
    .exe
pythonw
    pythonw.exe, a variant of python.exe that doesn't pop up a DOS box
_socket
    socketmodule.c
_testcapi
    tests of the Python C API, run via Lib/test/test_capi.py, and
    implemented by module Modules/_testcapimodule.c
pyexpat
    Python wrapper for accelerated XML parsing, which incorporates stable
    code from the Expat project:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/expat/
select
    selectmodule.c
unicodedata
    large tables of Unicode data
winsound
    play sounds (typically .wav files) under Windows

The following subprojects will generally NOT build out of the box.  They
wrap code Python doesn't control, and you'll need to download the base
packages first and unpack them into siblings of PCbuilds's parent
directory; for example, if your PCbuild is  .......\dist\src\PCbuild\,
unpack into new subdirectories of dist\.

_tkinter
    Python wrapper for the Tk windowing system.  Requires building
    Tcl/Tk first.  Following are instructions for Tcl/Tk 8.4.12.

    Get source
    ----------
    In the dist directory, run
    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/tcl8.4.12
    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/tk8.4.12
    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/tix-8.4.0

    Build Tcl first (done here w/ MSVC 6 on Win2K)
    ---------------
    cd dist\tcl8.4.12\win
    run vcvars32.bat
    nmake -f makefile.vc
    nmake -f makefile.vc INSTALLDIR=..\..\tcltk install

    XXX Should we compile with OPTS=threads?

    Optional:  run tests, via
        nmake -f makefile.vc test

        all.tcl:        Total   10835   Passed  10096   Skipped 732     Failed  7
        Sourced 129 Test Files.
        Files with failing tests: exec.test expr.test io.test main.test string.test stri
        ngObj.test

    Build Tk
    --------
    cd dist\tk8.4.12\win
    nmake -f makefile.vc TCLDIR=..\..\tcl8.4.12
    nmake -f makefile.vc TCLDIR=..\..\tcl8.4.12 INSTALLDIR=..\..\tcltk install

    XXX Should we compile with OPTS=threads?

    XXX I have no idea whether "nmake -f makefile.vc test" passed or
    XXX failed.  It popped up tons of little windows, and did lots of
    XXX stuff, and nothing blew up.

   Built Tix
   ---------
   cd dist\tix-8.4.0\win
   nmake -f python.mak
   nmake -f python.mak install

bz2
    Python wrapper for the libbz2 compression library.  Homepage
        http://sources.redhat.com/bzip2/
    Download the source from the python.org copy into the dist
    directory:

    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/bzip2-1.0.3

    And requires building bz2 first.

    cd dist\bzip2-1.0.3
    nmake -f makefile.msc

    All of this managed to build bzip2-1.0.3\libbz2.lib, which the Python
    project links in.


_bsddb
    To use the version of bsddb that Python is built with by default, invoke
    (in the dist directory)

     svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/db-4.4.20

    Then open db-4.4.20\build_win32\Berkeley_DB.dsw and build the "db_static"
    project for "Release" mode.

    Alternatively, if you want to start with the original sources,
    go to Sleepycat's download page:
        http://www.sleepycat.com/downloads/releasehistorybdb.html

    and download version 4.4.20.

    With or without strong cryptography? You can choose either with or
    without strong cryptography, as per the instructions below.  By
    default, Python is built and distributed WITHOUT strong crypto.

    Unpack the sources; if you downloaded the non-crypto version, rename
    the directory from db-4.4.20.NC to db-4.4.20.

    Now apply any patches that apply to your version.

    To run extensive tests, pass "-u bsddb" to regrtest.py.  test_bsddb3.py
    is then enabled.  Running in verbose mode may be helpful.

    XXX The test_bsddb3 tests don't always pass, on Windows (according to
    XXX me) or on Linux (according to Barry).  (I had much better luck
    XXX on Win2K than on Win98SE.)  The common failure mode across platforms
    XXX is
    XXX     DBAgainError: (11, 'Resource temporarily unavailable -- unable
    XXX                         to join the environment')
    XXX
    XXX and it appears timing-dependent.  On Win2K I also saw this once:
    XXX
    XXX test02_SimpleLocks (bsddb.test.test_thread.HashSimpleThreaded) ...
    XXX Exception in thread reader 1:
    XXX Traceback (most recent call last):
    XXX File "C:\Code\python\lib\threading.py", line 411, in __bootstrap
    XXX    self.run()
    XXX File "C:\Code\python\lib\threading.py", line 399, in run
    XXX    apply(self.__target, self.__args, self.__kwargs)
    XXX File "C:\Code\python\lib\bsddb\test\test_thread.py", line 268, in
    XXX                  readerThread
    XXX    rec = c.next()
    XXX DBLockDeadlockError: (-30996, 'DB_LOCK_DEADLOCK: Locker killed
    XXX                                to resolve a deadlock')
    XXX
    XXX I'm told that DBLockDeadlockError is expected at times.  It
    XXX doesn't cause a test to fail when it happens (exceptions in
    XXX threads are invisible to unittest).


_ssl
    Python wrapper for the secure sockets library.

    Get the latest source code for OpenSSL from
        http://www.openssl.org

    You (probably) don't want the "engine" code.  For example, get
        openssl-0.9.6g.tar.gz
    not
        openssl-engine-0.9.6g.tar.gz

    Unpack into the "dist" directory, retaining the folder name from
    the archive - for example, the latest stable OpenSSL will install as
        dist/openssl-0.9.6g

    You can (theoretically) use any version of OpenSSL you like - the
    build process will automatically select the latest version.

    You must also install ActivePerl from
        http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/
    as this is used by the OpenSSL build process.  Complain to them <wink>.

    The MSVC project simply invokes PCBuild/build_ssl.py to perform
    the build.  This Python script locates and builds your OpenSSL
    installation, then invokes a simple makefile to build the final .pyd.

    Win9x users:  see "Win9x note" below.

    build_ssl.py attempts to catch the most common errors (such as not
    being able to find OpenSSL sources, or not being able to find a Perl
    that works with OpenSSL) and give a reasonable error message.
    If you have a problem that doesn't seem to be handled correctly
    (eg, you know you have ActivePerl but we can't find it), please take
    a peek at build_ssl.py and suggest patches.  Note that build_ssl.py
    should be able to be run directly from the command-line.

    build_ssl.py/MSVC isn't clever enough to clean OpenSSL - you must do
    this by hand.

    Win9x note:  If, near the start of the build process, you see
    something like

        C:\Code\openssl-0.9.6g>set OPTS=no-asm
        Out of environment space

    then you're in trouble, and will probably also see these errors near
    the end of the process:

        NMAKE : fatal error U1073: don't know how to make
            'crypto\md5\asm\m5_win32.asm'
        Stop.
        NMAKE : fatal error U1073: don't know how to make
            'C:\Code\openssl-0.9.6g/out32/libeay32.lib'
        Stop.

    You need more environment space.  Win9x only has room for 256 bytes
    by default, and especially after installing ActivePerl (which fiddles
    the PATH envar), you're likely to run out.  KB Q230205

        http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q230205

    explains how to edit CONFIG.SYS to cure this.


YOUR OWN EXTENSION DLLs
-----------------------
If you want to create your own extension module DLL, there's an example
with easy-to-follow instructions in ../PC/example/; read the file
readme.txt there first.