Build bugs in Python 2.2.1?

[Steve Holden]

"Lars Kellogg-Stedman" <lars_news at larsshack.org> wrote in message
news:aj0mne$e2h$1 at news.fas.harvard.edu...
> > Since the build process is complex, you should at least mention the
platform
> > you are trying to build for.
>  > [ allegedly helpful message ]
>
> Steve,
>
> I'm sure you didn't mean it, but your message sounded a bit
> condescending.  You may not have had much experience building python for
> installation outside of "traditional" locations such as /usr or
> /usr/local, but I assure you that the problems I've encountered do not
> appear to be platform specific.
>
I see. You are correct in assuming I did not mean to condescend (and,
indeed, am not in much of a position to).

> The problems occur with all the platforms I have built python on.  This
> includes Solaris (2.[78]) and RedHat Linux (7.[0123]).  There does not
> appear to be a mechanism in place for the top level Makefile to
> communicate compiler flag settings to the module build process.  I've
> looked through some of the distutils code, and there's a routine called
> read_setup_file() that looks like it may provide for setting linker
> flags, but it doesn't appear to be called from anywhere.  And in fact,
> if you examine build_ext.py, you find:
>
>          # XXX and if we support CFLAGS, why not CC (compiler
>          # executable), CPPFLAGS (pre-processor options), and LDFLAGS
>          # (linker options) too?
>          # XXX should we use shlex to properly parse CFLAGS?
>
> So setting environment variables isn't an option either.
>
Which is a pity, because it doesn't seem as though it would be that
difficult to extend the existing code to action these additional items.

> The bugs are easy to reproduce:
>
>    mkdir foo
>    cd foo
>    env CC=gcc \
>      LDFLAGS='-L/my/path/lib -Wl,-rpath,/my/path/lib' \
>      CPPFLAGS='-I/my/path/include' \
>      ../Python-2.1.1/configure --prefix=/my/path/python-2.1.1
>
> Check the Makefile.  See that the LDFLAGS macro is set.  Run 'make'.
> Watch python proper get built with the proper linker options.  Watch the
> modules build without these options.
>
> If you watch closely, you also note that CPPOPTIONS in the environment
> simply don't get substituted into the top level Makefile, period.
> That's because Makefile.pre.in includes the following:
>
>    CPPFLAGS=       -I. -I$(srcdir)/Include $(DEFS)
>
> Notice that there's no @CPPFLAGS@ here, so even the interpreter build
> process may not work as expected.
>
> The second problem -- in which setup.py arbitrarily adds
> /usr/local/{lib,include} to the search path -- can be verified by code
> inspection.
>
Perhaps you should think about reporting this latter as a bug in setup?
However you would be duplicating


http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=5470&atid=105470&func=detail&aid=56
7605

to which Martin Loewis gave essentially the same reply as he gave you.

regards
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Steve Holden                                 http://www.holdenweb.com/
Python Web Programming                http://pydish.holdenweb.com/pwp/
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