Building a MacPython distribution
=================================
The ``build-install.py`` script creates MacPython distributions, including
sleepycat db4, sqlite3 and readline support. 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.
Prerequisites
-------------
* A MacOS X 10.4 (or later)
* XCode 2.2 (or later), with the universal SDK
* No Fink (in ``/sw``) or DarwinPorts (in ``/opt/local``), those could
interfere with the build.
* The documentation for the release must be available on python.org
because it is included in the installer.
The Recipe
----------
Here are the steps you need to follow to build a MacPython 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, I 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 a 4-way universal installer
....................................
It is also possible to build a 4-way universal installer that runs on
OSX Leopard or later::
$ ./build-installer.py --dep-target=10.5 --universal-archs=all --sdk=/
This requires that the deployment target is 10.5 (or later), and hence
also that your building on at least OSX 10.5.
Testing
-------
The resulting binaries should work on MacOSX 10.3.9 or later. I usually run
the installer on a 10.3.9, a 10.4.x PPC and a 10.4.x Intel system and then
run the testsuite to make sure.
Announcements
-------------
(This is mostly of historic interest)
When all is done, announcements can be posted to at least the following
places:
- pythonmac-sig@python.org
- python-dev@python.org
- python-announce@python.org
- archivist@info-mac.org
- adcnews@apple.com
- news@macnn.com
- http://www.macupdate.com
- http://guide.apple.com/usindex.lasso
- http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/submit
- http://www.versiontracker.com/ (userid Jack.Jansen@oratrix.com)
- http://www.macshareware.net (userid jackjansen)
Also, check out Stephan Deibels http://pythonology.org/market contact list
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