diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 59d383265d4..ba9ee85428f 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -70,4 +70,5 @@ tags
TAGS
.coverage
coverage/
+externals/
htmlcov/
diff --git a/.hgignore b/.hgignore
index c67ffb8cbc6..9e5a583361a 100644
--- a/.hgignore
+++ b/.hgignore
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ Modules/_freeze_importlib
Modules/_testembed
.coverage
coverage/
+externals/
htmlcov/
*.gcda
*.gcno
diff --git a/Lib/tkinter/_fix.py b/Lib/tkinter/_fix.py
index 5f32d25abc8..fa88734c052 100644
--- a/Lib/tkinter/_fix.py
+++ b/Lib/tkinter/_fix.py
@@ -48,8 +48,8 @@ else:
prefix = os.path.join(sys.base_prefix,"tcl")
if not os.path.exists(prefix):
- # devdir/../tcltk/lib
- prefix = os.path.join(sys.base_prefix, os.path.pardir, "tcltk", "lib")
+ # devdir/externals/tcltk/lib
+ prefix = os.path.join(sys.base_prefix, "externals", "tcltk", "lib")
prefix = os.path.abspath(prefix)
# if this does not exist, no further search is needed
if os.path.exists(prefix):
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index c52aa62efdd..8a5ca308612 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -128,6 +128,9 @@ Build
Windows
-------
+- Issue #17896: The Windows build scripts now expect external library sources
+ to be in ``PCbuild\..\externals`` rather than ``PCbuild\..\..``.
+
- Issue #17717: The Windows build scripts now use a copy of NASM pulled from
svn.python.org to build OpenSSL.
diff --git a/PCbuild/build_ssl.py b/PCbuild/build_ssl.py
index f3c65fcb884..3cb4f620fdc 100644
--- a/PCbuild/build_ssl.py
+++ b/PCbuild/build_ssl.py
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ def get_ssl_dir():
propfile = (os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'pyproject.props'))
with open(propfile, encoding='utf-8-sig') as f:
m = re.search('openssl-([^<]+)<', f.read())
- return "..\..\openssl-"+m.group(1)
+ return "..\externals\openssl-"+m.group(1)
def create_makefile64(makefile, m32):
diff --git a/PCbuild/pyproject.props b/PCbuild/pyproject.props
index d1e9dc02a0a..52ff2c518d1 100644
--- a/PCbuild/pyproject.props
+++ b/PCbuild/pyproject.props
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
python34$(PyDebugExt)
$(OutDir)python$(PyDebugExt).exe
$(OutDir)kill_python$(PyDebugExt).exe
- ..\..
+ ..\externals
$(externalsDir)\sqlite-3.8.3.1
$(externalsDir)\bzip2-1.0.6
$(externalsDir)\xz-5.0.5
diff --git a/PCbuild/readme.txt b/PCbuild/readme.txt
index 2193c84e527..018bdf0e50c 100644
--- a/PCbuild/readme.txt
+++ b/PCbuild/readme.txt
@@ -224,9 +224,10 @@ _tkinter
Unlike the other external libraries listed above, Tk must be built
separately before the _tkinter module can be built. This means that
- a pre-built Tcl/Tk installation is expected in ..\..\tcltk (tcltk64
- for 64-bit) relative to this directory. See "Getting External
- Sources" below for the easiest method to ensure Tcl/Tk is built.
+ a pre-built Tcl/Tk installation is expected in ..\externals\tcltk
+ (tcltk64 for 64-bit) relative to this directory. See "Getting
+ External Sources" below for the easiest method to ensure Tcl/Tk is
+ built.
Getting External Sources
@@ -246,12 +247,12 @@ directory from ..\, i.e.:
This extracts all the external sub-projects from
http://svn.python.org/projects/external
via Subversion (so you'll need an svn.exe on your PATH) and places them
-in ..\.. (relative to this directory).
+in ..\externals (relative to this directory).
It is also possible to download sources from each project's homepage,
though you may have to change the names of some folders in order to make
things work. For instance, if you were to download a version 5.0.7 of
-XZ Utils, you would need to extract the archive into ..\..\xz-5.0.5
+XZ Utils, you would need to extract the archive into ..\externals\xz-5.0.5
anyway, since that is where the solution is set to look for xz. The
same is true for all other external projects.
@@ -268,7 +269,7 @@ The external-amd64.bat file contains this for tcl:
So for a release build, you'd call it as:
nmake -f makefile.vc MACHINE=AMD64 INSTALLDIR=..\..\tcltk64 clean all install
-Note that the above command is called from within ..\..\tcl-8.6.1.0\win
+Note that the above command is called from within ..\externals\tcl-8.6.1.0\win
(relative to this directory); don't forget to build Tk as well as Tcl!
This will be cleaned up in the future; http://bugs.python.org/issue15968
diff --git a/PCbuild/rt.bat b/PCbuild/rt.bat
index 7129e203491..e569238423a 100644
--- a/PCbuild/rt.bat
+++ b/PCbuild/rt.bat
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ if "%1"=="-q" (set qmode=yes) & shift & goto CheckOpts
if "%1"=="-d" (set suffix=_d) & shift & goto CheckOpts
if "%1"=="-x64" (set prefix=amd64) & (set tcltk=tcltk64) & shift & goto CheckOpts
-PATH %PATH%;%~dp0..\..\%tcltk%\bin
+PATH %PATH%;%~dp0..\externals\%tcltk%\bin
set exe=%prefix%\python%suffix%
set cmd=%exe% %dashO% -Wd -E -bb ../lib/test/regrtest.py %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
if defined qmode goto Qmode
diff --git a/Tools/buildbot/external-common.bat b/Tools/buildbot/external-common.bat
index 5e4002b95a4..215a4b9a7f0 100644
--- a/Tools/buildbot/external-common.bat
+++ b/Tools/buildbot/external-common.bat
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
@rem Common file shared between external.bat and external-amd64.bat. Responsible for
@rem fetching external components into the root\.. buildbot directories.
-cd ..
+if not exist externals mkdir externals
+cd externals
@rem XXX: If you need to force the buildbots to start from a fresh environment, uncomment
@rem the following, check it in, then check it out, comment it out, then check it back in.
@rem if exist bzip2-1.0.6 rd /s/q bzip2-1.0.6