diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'README')
| -rw-r--r-- | README | 469 |
1 files changed, 409 insertions, 60 deletions
@@ -1,63 +1,412 @@ -This is an ALPHA release of Python 1.0 for UNIX. Currently it builds -a rather minimal executable and requires that you already have Python -0.9.9 (or at least its library). - -Instructions for building: - -(1) Run the configure shell script: - - ./configure - -This may take a minute or two -- it does a rather thorough -investigation of your system to find out many compile-time flags. It -prints messages but does not ask questions. When finished, it will -create config.status in the current directory, as well as Makefile in -each of the subdirectories Parser, Objects and Python. Note that -unless you have the CC shell environment variable set to the name of -your C compiler, it will attempt to find the GNU C compiler (gcc) and -use it if it finds it. On some systems a broken gcc may be installed; -put CC=cc in the environment to override it. On some systems it may -be interesting to compare both compilers. (Note: the Makefile has -been rigged in such a way that it will run configure if you haven't -done so.) - -(2) Run Make: - - make - -This will recursively run Make in each of the Parser, Grammar, Objects -and Python subdirectories. In Parser it builds an executable "pgen" -and a library libParser.a. In Grammar it runs Parser/pgen to generate -graminit.[ch] which are copied to Includes and Python, respectively. -In Objects it builds a library libObjects.a. In Python it builds a -library libPython.a and an executable "python". - -(3) Test the resulting executable: - - Python/python -c 'import testall' - -For now, this will assume that you have a working version of Python -release 0.9.9 installed in /usr/local (it uses the Python library from -/usr/local/lib/python) or that your PYTHONPATH shell environment -variable points to the 0.9.9 Python library. - -(4) Optionally: read Extensions/README and try to build a Python with -all the extensions that make sense on your system. (Note: some -extensions are not supported yet.) - -(5) Give feedback: - - Mail guido@cwi.nl - -Please tell me whether the build succeeded or not. If you needed to -edit *any* file, tell me which file, why and how (send me a diff or a -copy of the modified file if you can). If you get stuck, please send -me the error output. Don't forget to mention the operating system, -compiler and hardware version that you used, e.g. "Solaris 2.2 with -gcc version cygnus-2.0.2 on a dual processor Sparcstation 10" or "IRIX -5.1 with standard cc on an Indigo XS-24 with R4000 CPU". If you can -build the core interpreter but get stuck building an extended version, -let me know which extensions gave problems and how. +Python release 1.0.3 +==================== + +==> This is patch number 3 to Python 1.0, bumping its version string + to 1.0.3. It consists almost entirely of essential bug fixes to + the C sources. See the file Misc/NEWS for a description of what's + new in this patch (as well as what's new in 1.0). + +==> Python 1.0 is the first "official" Python release in more than + half a year. It's significantly improved over version 0.9.9, both + at the functionality level and (especially) in portability of the + source -- you should now be able to configure build this without + manual intervention on almost any type of Unix system. It is + known to work at least on IRIX 4 and 5, SunOS 4, Solaris 2, HP-UX, + Ultrix, OSF/1, AIX, SCO ODT 3.0, Minix, Linux, SEQUENT, and + through the use of automatic feature detection should work on most + other Unix flavors as well. Binaries are available for Macintosh + and PC platforms (for DOS, DOS w/ 32-bit extender, Windows, and + Windows NT). + +==> If you don't know yet what Python is: it's an interpreted, + extensible, embeddable, interactive, object-oriented programming + language. For a quick summary of what Python can mean for a + UNIX/C programmer, read Misc/BLURB.LUTZ. + +==> If you want to start compiling right away: just type "./configure" + in the current directory and when it finishes, type "make". See + the section Build Instructions below for more details. + +==> All documentation is in the subdirectory Doc in the form of LaTeX + files. In order of importance for new users: Tutorial (tut), + Library Reference (lib), Language Reference (ref), Extending + (ext). Note that especially the Library Reference is of immense + value since much of Python's power (including the built-in data + types and functions!) is described there. [XXX The ext document + has not been updated to reflect this release yet.] + +==> Python is COPYRIGHTED but free to use for all. See the copyright + notice at the end of this file. + + +Build instructions +------------------ + +Before you start building Python, you must first configure it. This +entails (at least) running the script "./configure", which figures out +your system configuration and creates several Makefiles. (This will +take a minute or two -- please be patient!) When it is done, you are +ready to run make. Typing "make" in the toplevel directory will +recursively run make in each of the subdirectories Parser, Objects, +Python and Modules, creating a library file in each one. The +executable of the interpreter is built in the Modules subdirectory but +moved up here when it is built. If you want or need to, you can also +chdir into each subdirectory in turn and run make there manually +(do the Modules subdirectory last!). If you run into trouble, first +see the section Troubleshooting later in this file. + +EXCEPTIONS: on SVR4 derived systems, you need to pass the configure +script the option --with-svr4. See below for more options you can +pass to the configure script. + +AIX users: read the file Misc/AIX-NOTES before trying to build. + +Minix users: when using ack, use "CC=cc AR=aal RANLIB=: ./configure"! + +You can configure the interpreter to contain fewer or more built-in +modules by editing the file Modules/Setup. This file is initially +copied (when the toplevel Makefile makes Modules/Makefile for the +first time) from Setup.in; if it does not exist yet, make a copy +yourself. Never edit Setup.in -- always edit Setup. Read the +comments in the file for information on what kind of edits you can +make. When you have edited Setup, Makefile and config.c in Modules +will automatically be rebuilt the next time you run make in the +toplevel directory. (There are some example Setup files which you may +copy to Setup for specific systems; have a look at Setup.*.) + +If you want to change the optimization level of the build, assign to +the OPT variable on the toplevel make command; e.g. "make OPT=-g" will +build a debugging version of Python on most platforms. + +To test the interpreter that you have just built, type "make test". +This runs the test set silently, twice (once with no compiled files, +once with the compiled files left by the previous test run). Each +test run should print "All tests OK." and nothing more. (The test set +does not test the built-in modules, but will find most other problems +with the interpreter.) + +To install the interpreter as /usr/local/bin/python, type "make +install". To install the library as /usr/local/lib/python, type "make +libinstall". To install the manual page as +/usr/local/man/man1/python.1, type "make maninstall". To install the +Emacs editing mode for python, manually copy the file +Misc/python-mode.el to your local Emacs lisp directory. The directory +/usr/local can be overridden at configuration time by passing +--prefix=DIRECTORY to the configure script, or at make time by passing +"prefix=DIRECTORY" to make. See below for more information on --prefix. + +If you plan to do development of extension modules or to embed Python +in another application and don't want to reference the original source +tree, you can type "make inclinstall" and "make libainstall" to +install the include files and lib*.a files, respectively, as +/usr/local/include/Py/*.h and /usr/local/lib/python/lib/lib*.a. The +make libainstall target also installs copies of several other files +used or produced during the build process which are needed to build +extensions or to generate their Makefiles. + +To print the documentation, cd into the Doc subdirectory, type "make" +(let's hope you have LaTeX installed!), and send the four resulting +PostScript files (tut.ps, lib.ps, ref.ps, and ext.ps) to the printer. +See the README file there; you can also build a texinfo version of the +library manual and from that construct an Emacs info version (the +hypertext format used by the Emacs "info" command) and an HTML version +(the hypertext format used by the World Wide Web distributed +information initiative). You don't need to have LaTeX installed for +this. Note that the Python archive sites also carry the resulting +PostScript files, in case you have a PostScript printer but not LaTeX. + +Some special cases are handled by passing environment variables or +options to the configure script: + +- The configure script uses gcc (the GNU C compiler) if it finds it. +If you don't want this, or if this compiler is installed but broken on +your platform, pass "CC=cc" (or whatever the name of the proper C +compiler is) in the environment. + +- On System V, Release 4 derived systems (e.g. SOLARIS 2, but not +IRIX 5) you need to call the configure script with the option +--with-svr4. This is needed so the libraries -lnsl and -lsocket are +found. (On some other systems, e.g. IRIX 5, these libraries exist but +are incompatible with other system libraries such as X11 and GL.) + +- If you want to install the binaries and the Python library somewhere +else than in /usr/local/{bin,lib}, you can pass the option +--prefix=DIRECTORY; the interpreter binary will be installed as +DIRECTORY/bin/python and the library files as DIRECTORY/lib/python/*. +If you pass --exec-prefix=DIRECTORY (as well) this overrides the +installation prefix for architecture-dependent files (like the +interpreter binary). Note that --prefix=DIRECTORY also affects the +default module search path (sys.path), when Modules/config.c is +compiled. Passing make the option prefix=DIRECTORY (and/or +exec_prefix=DIRECTORY) overrides the prefix set at configuration time; +this may be more convenient than re-running the configure script if +you change your mind about the install prefix... + +- You can use the GNU readline library to improve the interactive +user interface: this gives you line editing and command history when +calling python interactively. You need to build the GNU readline +library before running the configure script. Its sources are +distributed with Python. This may involve some editing of the +Makefile there -- I'm sorry, but I don't feel responsible for making +it more portable or adapting it to autoconf... Pass the configure +script the option --with-readline=DIRECTORY where DIRECTORY is the +absolute pathname of the directory where you've built the readline +library. A known problem with the readline library is that it +contains entry points which cause conflicts with the STDWIN and SGI GL +libraries. The stdwin conflict can be solved (and will be, in some +future release of stdwin) by adding a line saying '#define werase +w_erase' to the stdwin.h file (in the stdwin distribution, +subdirectory H). The GL conflict may be solvable by reordering the -l +options on the final link command, but it appears unsafe... Another +hint: you may have to add -Dindex=strchr -Drindex=strrchr to +readline's CFLAGS if your system doesn't have index and rindex. + +- On SGI IRIX, and on Sun SOLARIS 2, you can use multiple threads. To +enable this, pass --with-thread. In the Modules/Setup file, enable +the thread module. (Threads aren't enabled automatically because +there are run-time penalties when support for them is compiled in even +if you don't use them.) + +- On SGI IRIX, there are modules that interface to many SGI specific +system libraries, e.g. the GL library and the audio hardware. To +enable these modules, you must edit the Modules/Setup file (or copy the +Setup.irix4 file to it). + +- On SGI IRIX 4, dynamic loading of extension modules is supported by +the "dl" library by Jack Jansen, which is ftp'able from +ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-1.6.tar.Z. This is enabled (after +you've ftp'ed and compiled the dl library!) by passing +--with-sgi-dl=DIRECTORY where DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of +the dl library. (Don't bother on IRIX 5, it already has dynamic +linking using SunOS style shared libraries.) + +- Dynamic loading of modules is rumoured to be supported on some other +systems: VAX (Ultrix), Sun3 (SunOS 3.4), Sequent Symmetry (Dynix), and +Atari ST. This is done using a combination of the GNU dynamic loading +package (ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dl-dld-1.1.tar.Z) and an +emulation of the SGI dl library mentioned above (the emulation can be +found at ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/dynload/dld-3.2.3.tar.Z). To enable +this, ftp and compile both libraries, then call the configure passing +it the option --with-dl-dld=DL_DIRECTORY,DLD_DIRECTORY where +DL_DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the dl emulation library and +DLD_DIRECTORY is the absolute pathname of the GNU dld library. (Don't +bother on SunOS 4 or 5, they already have dynamic linking using shared +libraries.) + +- It is possible to specify alternative versions for the Math library +(default -lm) and the C library (default the empty string) using the +options --with-libm=STRING and --with-libc=STRING, respectively. E.g. +if your system requires that you pass -lc_s to the C compiler to use +the shared C library, you can pass --with-libc=-lc_s. These libraries +are passed after all other libraries, the C library last. + +You can also build an "extended" interpreter, using modules that are +not contained in the Modules directory. Extensions are distributed as +a separate tar file (currently extensions.tar.Z). See the README file +there. + + +Building for multiple architectures (using the VPATH feature) +------------------------------------------------------------- + +If your file system is shared between multiple architectures, it +usually is not necessary to make copies of the sources for each +architecture you want to support. If the make program supports the +VPATH feature, you can create an empty build directory for each +architecture, and in each directory run the configure script (on the +appropriate machine with the appropriate options). This creates the +necessary subdirectories and the Makefiles therein. The Makefiles +contain a line VPATH=... which points to directory containing the +actual sources. + +For example, the following is all you need to build a minimal Python +in /usr/tmp/python (assuming ~guido/src/python is the toplevel +directory and you want to build in /usr/tmp/python): + + $ mkdir /usr/tmp/python + $ cd /usr/tmp/python + $ ~guido/src/python/configure + [...] + $ make + [...] + $ + +To use the readline library in this case, you will have to create a +subdirectory of your build directory called readline, copy +readline/Makefile into it, edit the Makefile to contain a proper VPATH +line (and possibly edit the compiler flags set in the Makefile), and +pass the configure script a --with-readline=DIRECTORY option giving it +the absolute (!) pathname of the readline build directory. + +Note that Modules/Makefile copies the original Setup file to the build +directory if it finds no Setup file there. This means that you can +edit the Setup file for each architecture independently. For this +reason, subsequent changes to the original Setup file are not tracked +automatically, as they might overwrite local changes. To force a copy +of a changed original Setup file, delete the target Setup file. (The +makesetup script supports multiple input files, so if you want to be +fancy you can change the rules to create an empty Setup.local if it +doesn't exist and run it with arguments $(srcdir)/Setup Setup.local; +however this assumes that you only need to add modules.) + + +Troubleshooting +--------------- + +Here is a selection from the FAQ on various common problems. + +3.6. Q. Link errors building Python with STDWIN on SGI IRIX. + +A. Rebuild STDWIN, specifying "CC=cc -cckr" in the Makefile. + +3.8. Q. Link errors after rerunning the configure script. + +A. It is generally necessary to run "make clean" after a configuration +change. + +3.9. Q. The python interpreter complains about options passed to a +script (after the script name). + +A. You are probably linking with GNU getopt, e.g. through -liberty. +Don't. (If you are using this because you link with -lreadline, use +the readline distributed with Python instead.) + +3.10. Q. When building on the SGI, make tries to run python to create +glmodule.c, but python hasn't been built or installed yet. + +A. Comment out the line mentioning glmodule.c in Setup and build a +python without gl first; install it or make sure it is in your $PATH, +then edit the Setup file again to turn on the gl module, and make +again. You don't need to do "make clean"; you do need to run "make +Makefile" in the Modules subdirectory (or just run "make" at the +toplevel). + +3.13. Q. Other trouble building Python 1.0.2 on platform X. + +A. Please email the details to <guido@cwi.nl> and I'll look into it. + + +Building on non-UNIX systems +---------------------------- + +On non-UNIX systems, you will have to fake the effect of running the +configure script manually. A good start is to copy the file +config.h.in to config.h and edit the latter to reflect the actual +configuration of your system. Most symbols must simply be defined as +1 only if the corresponding feature is present and can be left alone +otherwise; however RETSIGTYPE must always be defined, either as int or +as void, and the *_t type symbols must be defined as some variant of +int if they need to be defined at all. Then arrange that the symbol +HAVE_CONFIG_H is defined during compilation (usually by passing an +argument of the form `-DHAVE_CONFIG_H' to the compiler, but this is +necessarily system-dependent). + + +Distribution structure +---------------------- + +Most subdirectories have their own README file. Most files have +comments. + +ChangeLog A raw list of changes since the first 1.0.0 BETA release +Contrib/ Contributed code +Demo/ Demonstration scripts, modules and programs +Demo2/ Some more demonstrations (not distributed) +Doc/ Documentation (in LaTeX) +Ext-dummy/ Placeholder for Extensions in the distribution +Extensions/ Extension modules (not distributed) +Grammar/ Input for the parser generator +Include/ Public header files +Lib/ Python library modules +Makefile Rules for building the distribution +Misc/ Miscellaneous files +Modules/ Implementation of most built-in modules +Objects/ Implementation of most built-in object types +Parser/ The parser and tokenizer and their input handling +Python/ The "compiler" and interpreter +README The file you're reading now +acconfig.h Additional input for the autoheader program +config.h Configuration header (generated) +config.h.in Source from which config.status creates config.h +config.status status from last run of configure script (generated) +configure Configuration shell script (GNU autoconf output) +configure.in Configuration specification (GNU autoconf input) +tags, TAGS Tags files for vi and Emacs (generated) +python The executable interpreter (generated) +readline/ Source code for the GNU readline library + + +Ftp access +---------- + +The latest Python source distribution can be ftp'ed from site +ftp.cwi.nl, directory /pub/python, file python<version>.tar.Z. You +can also find PostScript of the main Python documentation there, +Macintosh and PC binaries, and the latest STDWIN source distribution +(in directory /pub/stdwin). Mirror sites are gatekeeper.dec.com +(/pub/plan/python/cwi), ftp.wustl.edu +(/graphics/graphics/sgi-stuff/python) and ftp.uu.net +(/languages/python) -- try these sites first if you are on the US +continent, or at least closer to it than to Europe. These mirror +sites are at most a day behind on the European archive! + +If you don't have ftp access, send mail containing only the word HELP +to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com or bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu, and the +server will send you instructions on how to make requests. + + +Mailing list +------------ + +There is a mailing list devoted to Python programming, design and +bugs. To subscribe, send mail containing your real name and e-mail +address in Internet form to "python-list-request@cwi.nl". If you have +built and installed Python, you are urgently to subscribe to this +mailing list. + + +Author +------ + +Guido van Rossum +CWI, dept. CST +P.O. Box 94079 +1090 GB Amsterdam +The Netherlands + +E-mail: Guido.van.Rossum@cwi.nl + + +Copyright Notice +---------------- + +The Python source is copyrighted, but you can freely use and copy it +as long as you don't change or remove the copyright: + +Copyright 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 by Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, +Amsterdam, The Netherlands. + + All Rights Reserved + +Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its +documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, +provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that +both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in +supporting documentation, and that the names of Stichting Mathematisch +Centrum or CWI not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to +distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. + +STICHTING MATHEMATISCH CENTRUM DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO +THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND +FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL STICHTING MATHEMATISCH CENTRUM BE LIABLE +FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES +WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN +ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT +OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. + + +Signature +--------- --Guido van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam <Guido.van.Rossum@cwi.nl> URL: <http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Guido.van.Rossum.html> |