[ python-Bugs-1669349 ] make install fails if no previous Python installation

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Bugs item #1669349, was opened at 2007-02-26 15:22
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by sbassi
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Category: Installation
Group: Python 2.5
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Matthias S. Benkmann (mbenkmann)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: make install fails if no previous Python installation

Initial Comment:
When installing Python 2.5 on a completely Python-less system 'make install' failed. The error that caused the failure was

Compiling /usr/lib/python2.5/test/test_multibytecodec.py ...
Sorry: UnicodeError: ("\\N escapes not supported (can't load unicodedata module)",)
[snip]
Compiling /usr/lib/python2.5/zipfile.py ...
make: *** [libinstall] Error 1

'find -name unicodedata.so' showed me that the library did not exist in the build tree. However, after a 'make -i install' to force make to continue despite the error, unicodedata.so was there. So apparently the library is not built until a later stage of make install. And indeed, subsequent 'make install' calls without -i were successful. 

It is important to note that if you have a previous Python installation (at least of the same version), 'make install' will go through, because it'll load the library from there. So if you want to reproduce the issue you will have to install from a freshly unpacked tarball on a system with no Python installation.



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Comment By: Sebastian Bassi (sbassi)
Date: 2007-04-03 12:50

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Another workaround (by Jaroslaw Zabiello):

After executing
./configure
you have to edito
Modules/Setup
file and uncomment the following line:
#zlib zlibmodule.c -I$(prefix)/include -L$(exec_prefix)/lib -lz
Then continue with normal make; make install.

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Comment By: Sebastian Bassi (sbassi)
Date: 2007-04-03 12:05

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The same problem arises when installing Python using "make altinstall",
even with another Python installed. 

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Comment By: Simon Percivall (percivall)
Date: 2007-03-21 08:26

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It shouldn't be a problem changing the Makefile to do sharedinstall before
libinstall in the altinstall target. I'm guessing that would solve the
problem.

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