[Mailman-Developers] continued problem with the 2.1b3 installation

[Barry A. Warsaw]

>>>>> "DB" == Denis Beauchemin <Denis.Beauchemin@USherbrooke.ca> writes:

    | I think I found the solution: install some more Python RPM:
    | python2-devel-2.2.1-1.i386.rpm
    | python2-docs-2.2.1-1.i386.rpm (probably not needed but...)
    | python2-tools-2.2.1-1.i386.rpm

    DB> and the problem just goes away.

Dang.

Of course, if this is a packaging problem, it explains why I can never
reproduce this.  I always use a Python built from source.

I suspect that it's the python2-devel package that you need, and not
the docs or tools packages.  If anybody has the time to spend digging
into this in more detail, I'd love to know for sure which package is
necessary and why.

I'm having a hard time understanding why bin/update would complain
about the "import paths", although it is suspicious that bin/update is
the first script the Makefile tries to run out of $prefix, and paths
is the first non-standard library that bin/update tries to import.

Still paths doesn't do anything /that/ wacky, and it doesn't require
anything but the os and sys modules and those better be part of the
base python package.

Note that I've had reports that Debian seems to want the python2.2-dev
package, so this could be related.

In the meantime I'm expanding README.LINUX with this information:

-------------------- snip snip --------------------
PYTHON PACKAGES

    Note that if you installed Python from your Linux distribution's
    package manager (e.g. .rpms for Redhat-derived systems or .deb for
    Debian), you must install the `development' package of Python, or
    you may not get everything you need.

    For example, using Python 2.2 on Debian, you will need to install
    the python2.2-dev package.  On Redhat, you probably need the
    python2-devel package.

    If you install Python from source, you should be fine.
-------------------- snip snip --------------------

I hope that helps.
-Barry