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+Python for BeOS R5
+
+This directory contains several useful things to help you build your own
+version of Python for BeOS.
+
+What's Here?
+
+ar-fake - A shell script that copies around .o files, for the as much
+              of the general effect of ar as we need but more fool-proof.
+              It also has an "so" command to build the shared library
+              that we actually install and use.
+
+linkmodule - A shell script used by the build process to build the
+             shared library versions of the standard modules; you'll
+             probably need this if you want to build dynamically loaded
+             modules from the Python archives.
+
+README - This file (obviously!).
+
+README.readline-2.2 - Instructions for compiling/installing GNU readline 2.2.
+                      You'll have to grab the GNU readline source code from
+                      prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/GNU or any other GNU mirror.
+
+                      The Python interpreter is much nicer to work with
+                      interactively if you've got readline installed.  Highly
+                      recommended.
+
+To build,
+
+   1)  ./configure --prefix=/boot/home/config
+
+   2)  edit Modules/Setup
+          comment out grp and mmap, and pwd on 4.5 or earlier
+          uncomment any modules you want to include in python
+          (you can also add them later as shared libraries.)
+   3)  make
+
+Test:
+
+   make test
+
+   [Chris Herborth writes:]
+   test_popen2 will probably hang; it's deadlocked on a semaphore.  I should
+   probably disable popen2 support... it uses fork(), and fork() doesn't mix
+   with threads on BeOS.  In *THEORY* you could use it in a single-threaded
+   program, but I haven't tried.
+
+   If test_popen2 does hang, you can find the semaphore it's hung on via the
+   "ps" command.  Look for python and you'll find something like this:
+
+./python -tt ../src/Lib/test/regrtest.py (team 26922) (uid 0) (gid 0)
+  39472               python  sem  10    3785    1500 piperd(360526)
+./python -tt ../src/Lib/test/regrtest.py (team 26923) (uid 0) (gid 0)
+  39477               python  sem  10      25       4 python lock (1)(360022)
+                                                                      ^^^^^^
+   That last number is the semaphore the fork()'d python is stuck on
+   (see how it's helpfully called "python lock (1)"? :-).  You can unblock
+   that semaphore to let the tests continue using the "release" command
+   with that semaphore number.  Be _very_ careful with "release" though,
+   releasing the wrong semaphore can be hazardous.
+
+   Expect the following errors:
+
+   test * skipped -- an optional feature could not be imported (you'll see
+                     quite a few of these, based on what optional modules
+                     you've included)
+
+   test test_fork1 skipped -- can't mix os.fork with  threads on BeOS
+
+   test test_select crashed -- select.error : (-2147459072, 'Bad file
+                               descriptor')
+
+   test test_socket crashed -- exceptions.AttributeError : SOCK_RAW
+
+   These are all due to either partial support for certain things (like
+   sockets), or valid differences between systems.
+
+   test test_pickle crashed.  This is apparently a serious problem,
+                     "complex" number objects reconstructed from a
+                     pickle don't compare equal to their ancestors.
+                     But it happens on BeOS PPC only, not Intel.
+
+Install:
+
+   make install
+
+Enjoy!
+
+- Chris Herborth (chrish@pobox.com)
+  July 21, 2000
+
+- Donn Cave (donn@oz.net)
+  October 4, 2000