Python installation problem (sorry if this is a dup)

[bruno.desthuilliers at gmail.com]

On 1 mar, 06:22, Ray Buck <r... at xmission.com> wrote:
> I've been trying to install Mailman, which requires a newer version
> of the Python language compiler (p-code generator?)

It's actually the whole thing : (byte-code) compiler, virtual machine,
and stdlib.

> than the one I
> currently have on my linux webserver/gateway box.
>
> It's running a ClarkConnect 2.01 package based on Red Hat 7.2 linux.
>
> I downloaded the zipped tarball (Python-2.4.4.tgz), ran gunzip, then
> un-tarred it in /usr/local.  Then (logged in as root) from
> /usr/local/Python-2.4.4 I ran the configure script which appeared to
> run properly.  At least there were no error messages that I
> saw.  Then I attempted to run "make install" and ended up with an
> error "make *** Error 1".  It was right at the "libinstall" section
> of the make, so I did some googling and came up with the following command:
> [root at gateway Python-2.4.4]# make libinstall inclinstall
>
> After thrashing for about 5 minutes, I got basically the same message:
> Compiling /usr/local/lib/python2.4/zipfile.py ...
> make: *** [libinstall] Error 1

Nothing else between these two lines ?

> I dunno if this is relevant, but I have Python 2.2.2 in the
> /usr/Python-2.2.2 directory.  Do I have to blow this away in order to
> install the newer distro?

I don't know your distrib, but it may depend on this specific python
version.
<wild-guess>
You may want to specify the --prefix before running configure, and use
make altinstall instead of make install.
</wild-guess>

> Or do I need to install the new one in/usr
> instead of /usr/local?

The old one is in /usr/local ? If so, it may not be part of your linux
distro.

FWIW, you should perhaps post the same question on your linux distro's
mailing list.

> Although I'm a retired programmer (mainframes), I'm still learning
> this linux stuff.  I guess that makes me a noob...I hope you'll take
> that into consideration.

We're all newbies one way or another !-)