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authorTarek Ziadé <ziade.tarek@gmail.com>2010-02-02 22:27:58 (GMT)
committerTarek Ziadé <ziade.tarek@gmail.com>2010-02-02 22:27:58 (GMT)
commit1b93fc1077d0b99518035ffc7f63e568b8389e35 (patch)
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first version of the sysconfig module documentation
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diff --git a/Doc/library/python.rst b/Doc/library/python.rst
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--- a/Doc/library/python.rst
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@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ overview:
.. toctree::
sys.rst
+ sysconfig.rst
__builtin__.rst
future_builtins.rst
__main__.rst
diff --git a/Doc/library/sysconfig.rst b/Doc/library/sysconfig.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..90bc2dba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Doc/library/sysconfig.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,218 @@
+:mod:`sysconfig` --- Provide access to Python's configuration information
+=========================================================================
+
+.. module:: sysconfig
+ :synopsis: Python's configuration information
+.. moduleauthor:: Tarek Ziade <tarek@ziade.org>
+.. sectionauthor:: Tarek Ziade <tarek@ziade.org>
+.. versionadded:: 2.7
+.. index::
+ single: configuration information
+
+The :mod:`sysconfig` module provides access to Python's configuration
+information like the list of installation paths and the configuration
+variables relevant for the current platform.
+
+Configuration variables
+-----------------------
+
+A Python distribution contains a :file:`Makefile` file and a :file:`python.h`
+that are used to build the Python binary itself, but also any C extension
+created in a third party project and compiled using :mod:`distutils`.
+
+:mod:`sysconfig` put all variables found in these files in a dictionnary
+that can be accessed using :func:`get_config_vars` or :func:`get_config_var`.
+
+Notice that on Windows, it's a much smaller set.
+
+.. function:: get_config_vars(\*args)
+
+ With no arguments, return a dictionary of all configuration
+ variables relevant for the current platform.
+
+ With arguments, return a list of values that result from looking up
+ each argument in the configuration variable dictionary.
+
+ For each argument, if the value is not found, returns None.
+
+.. function:: get_config_var(name)
+
+ Return the value of a single variable *name*. Equivalent to
+ get_config_vars().get(name).
+
+ If *name* is not found, return None.
+
+Example of usage::
+
+ >>> import sysconfig
+ >>> sysconfig.get_config_var('Py_ENABLE_SHARED')
+ 0
+ >>> sysconfig.get_config_var('LIBDIR')
+ '/usr/local/lib'
+ >>> sysconfig.get_config_vars('AR', 'CXX')
+ ['ar', 'g++']
+
+
+Installation paths
+------------------
+
+Python uses an installation scheme that differs depending on the platform
+and on the installation options. These schemes are stored in :mod:`sysconfig`
+under unique identifiers based on the value returned by :const:`os.name`.
+
+Every new component that is installed using :mod:`distutils` or a
+Distutils-based system will follow the same scheme to copy its file in the
+right places.
+
+Python currently supports seven schemes:
+
+- *posix_prefix*: scheme for posix platforms like Linux or Mac OS X. This is the
+ default scheme used when Python or a component is installed.
+- *posix_home*: scheme for posix platform used when a *home* option is used
+ upon installation. This scheme is used when a component is installed through
+ Distutils with a specific home prefix.
+- *posix_user*: scheme for posix platform used when a component is installed
+ through Distutils and the *user* option is used. This scheme defines paths
+ located under the user home directory.
+- *nt*: scheme for nt platforms like Windows.
+- *nt_user*: scheme for nt platforms, when the *user* option is used.
+- *os2*: scheme for OS2 platforms.
+- *os2_home*: scheme for OS2 patforms, when the *user* option is used.
+
+Each scheme is itself composed of a series of paths and each path has a unique
+identifier. Python currently uses eight paths:
+
+- *stdlib*: directory containing the standard Python library files that are
+ not platform-specific.
+- *platstdlib*: directory containing the standard Python library files that
+ are platform-specific files.
+- *platlib*: directory for the site-specific, platform-specific files.
+- *purelib*: directory for the site-specific, non platform-specific files.
+- *include*: directory containing the non-platform-specific header files.
+- *platinclude*: directory containing the platform-specific header files.
+- *scripts*: directory containing the script files.
+- *data*: directory containing the data files.
+
+:mod:`sysconfig` provides some functions to read these paths.
+
+.. function:: get_scheme_names()
+
+ Return a tuple containing all schemes currently supported in
+ :mod:`sysconfig`.
+
+.. function:: get_path_names()
+
+ Return a tuple containing all path names currently supported in
+ :mod:`sysconfig`.
+
+
+.. function:: get_path(name, [scheme, [vars, [expand]]])
+
+ Return an installation path corresponding to the path *name*, from the
+ install scheme named *scheme*.
+
+ *name* has to be a value from the list returned by :func:`get_path_names`.
+
+ :mod:`sysconfig` stores installation paths corresponding to the each
+ path name, for each platform, with variables to be expanded. For instance
+ the `stdlib` path for the `nt` scheme is: `{base}/Lib`.
+
+ :func:`get_path` will use the variables returned by :func:`get_config_vars`
+ to expand the path. All variables have default values for each platform
+ so one may call this function and get the default value.
+
+ If *scheme* is provided, it must be a value from the list returned by
+ :func:`get_path_names`. Otherwise, the default scheme for the current
+ platform is used.
+
+ If *vars* is provided, it must be a dictionnary of variables that will
+ update the dictionnary return by :func:`get_config_vars`.
+
+ If *expand* is set to False, the path will not be expanded using
+ the variables.
+
+ If *name* is not found, return None.
+
+
+.. function:: get_paths([scheme, [vars, [expand]]])
+
+ Return a dictionnary containing all installation paths corresponding to an
+ installation scheme. See :func:`get_path` for more information.
+
+ If *scheme* is not provided, will use the default scheme for the current
+ platform.
+
+ If *vars* is provided, it must be a dictionnary of variables that will
+ update the dictionnary used to expand the paths.
+
+ If *expand* is set to False, the paths will not be expanded.
+
+ If *scheme* is not an existing scheme, :func:`get_paths` will raise a
+ :exc:`KeyError`.
+
+
+Other functions
+---------------
+
+.. function:: get_python_version()
+
+ Return the MAJOR.MINOR Python version number as a string. Similar to
+ ``sys.version[:3]``.
+
+.. function:: get_platform()
+
+ Return a string that identifies the current platform.
+
+ This is used mainly to distinguish platform-specific build directories and
+ platform-specific built distributions. Typically includes the OS name
+ and version and the architecture (as supplied by 'os.uname()'),
+ although the exact information included depends on the OS; eg. for IRIX
+ the architecture isn't particularly important (IRIX only runs on SGI
+ hardware), but for Linux the kernel version isn't particularly
+ important.
+
+ Examples of returned values:
+
+ - linux-i586
+ - linux-alpha (?)
+ - solaris-2.6-sun4u
+ - irix-5.3
+ - irix64-6.2
+
+ Windows will return one of:
+
+ - win-amd64 (64bit Windows on AMD64 (aka x86_64, Intel64, EM64T, etc)
+ - win-ia64 (64bit Windows on Itanium)
+ - win32 (all others - specifically, sys.platform is returned)
+
+ Mac OS X can return :
+
+ - macosx-10.6-ppc
+ - macosx-10.4-ppc64
+ - macosx-10.3-i386
+ - macosx-10.4-fat
+
+ For other non-POSIX platforms, currently just returns 'sys.platform'.
+
+
+.. function:: is_python_build():
+
+ Returns True if the current Python installation was built from source.
+
+
+.. function:: parse_config_h(fp[, vars]):
+
+ Parse a config.h-style file.
+
+ *fp* is a file-like object pointing to the config.h-like file.
+
+ A dictionary containing name/value pairs is returned. If an optional
+ dictionary is passed in as the second argument, it is used instead of a
+ new dictionary, and updated with the values read in the file.
+
+
+.. function:: get_config_h_filename():
+
+ Returns the path of pyconfig.h
+
+