[Distutils] compiling an extension on solaris: genshi, mercurial, ... python-dev installed?

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 10:39 AM 9/13/2008 -0700, rupert.thurner wrote:
>phillip eby suggested that "python-dev" is not installed and this
>should be the cause. blastwave does not really offer such a thing, so
>i tried to check the files, and took debian solaris as example:
>http://packages.debian.org/sid/sparc/python2.5-dev/filelist
>
>the header files are there, as well as the .so file /opt/csw/lib/
>libpython2.5.so. but
>
>/opt/csw/lib/python2.5/config/Setup
>/opt/csw/lib/python2.5/config/Setup.config
>/opt/csw/lib/python2.5/config/Setup.local
>/opt/csw/lib/python2.5/config/config.c
>/opt/csw/lib/python2.5/config/config.c.in
>/opt/csw/lib/python2.5/config/install-sh
>/opt/csw/lib/python2.5/config/libpython2.5-pic.a
>/opt/csw/lib/python2.5/config/libpython2.5.a
>/opt/csw/lib/python2.5/config/libpython2.5.so
>/opt/csw/lib/python2.5/config/makesetup
>/opt/csw/lib/python2.5/config/python.o
>
>is missing. could it be that setuptools would miss this?

It's not setuptools that cares; it's the distutils.  Or more likely, 
the linker.  IIUC, these files are not optional.

This appears to suggest that there's a bug in the Python 
configuration on the platform:

http://blogs.sun.com/dp/entry/a_screencasting_toolchain

You might want to follow up with the person who reported(?) the bug 
back to Sun or whoever it is.  This is not a setuptools problem nor a 
distutils problem: the missing files are clearly symptomatic of 
breakage in your platform's Python installation.  You might want to 
consider building your own Python from source, as often these kinds 
of breakage are caused by platform distributors "cleaning things up" 
that shouldn't be moved or deleted.  (For example, separating the 
headers and libraries into a separate "lib", "dev", or "devel" 
package.)  If that's what happened here, then building a fresh Python 
from source (without the platform vendor's "improvements") would fix it.