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.
As of Python 2.7.x and 3.2, 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 10.3.9 through (at least) 10.6::
python build-installer.py \
--sdk-path=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk \
--universal-archs=32-bit \
--dep-target=10.3
# These are the current default options
- builds the following third-party libraries
* Bzip2
* Zlib 1.2.3
* GNU Readline (GPL)
* SQLite 3
* NCurses
* Oracle Sleepycat DB 4.8 (Python 2.x only)
- requires ActiveState ``Tcl/Tk 8.4`` (currently 8.4.19) to be installed for building
- current target 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``
* Python 2.n (n >= 4) for documentation build with Sphinx
- alternate build environments:
* Mac OS X 10.4.11 with Xcode 2.5
* Mac OS X 10.6.6 with Xcode 3.2.5
- need to change ``/System/Library/Frameworks/{Tcl,Tk}.framework/Version/Current`` to ``8.4``
2. 64-bit / 32-bit, x86_64 and i386 universal, for OS X 10.6 (and later)::
python build-installer.py \
--sdk-path=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk \
--universal-archs=intel \
--dep-target=10.6
- uses system-supplied versions of third-party libraries
* readline module links with Apple BSD editline (libedit)
* builds Oracle Sleepycat DB 4.8 (Python 2.x only)
- requires ActiveState Tcl/Tk 8.5.9 (or later) to be installed for building
- current target build environment:
* Mac OS X 10.6.6 (or later)
* Xcode 3.2.5 (or later)
* ``MacOSX10.6`` SDK
* ``MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.6``
* Apple ``gcc-4.2``
* Python 2.n (n >= 4) for documentation build with Sphinx
- alternate build environments:
* none
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.
* It is safest to start each variant build with an empty source directory
populated with a fresh copy of the untarred source.
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 Leopard or later::
python 2.6 /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.
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
at least one Intel, one PPC G4, and one PPC G3 system and one each of
OS X 10.6, 10.5, 10.4, and 10.3.9. Not all tests run on 10.3.9.
Variant 2 should be run on 10.6 in both 32-bit and 64-bit modes.::
arch -i386 /usr/local/bin/pythonn.n -m test.regrtest -w -u all
arch -X86_64 /usr/local/bin/pythonn.n -m test.regrtest -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 can
be ignored.
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