CentOS 5.3 vs. Python 2.5

[Jeff McNeil]

On Nov 25, 4:45 am, Jon Clements <jon... at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Nov 25, 8:13 am, Steven D'Aprano
>
>
>
>
>
> <ste... at REMOVE.THIS.cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> > On Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:42:28 -0800, John Nagle wrote:
> > > My dedicated hosting provider wants to switch me to a new server with
> > > CentOS 5.3, so I have to look at how much work is required.
>
> > >     CentOS 5.3 apparently still ships with Python 2.4.  Worse, it
> > > requires Python 2.4 for its own internal purposes, and actually
> > > installing Python 2.5 breaks the package manager.  There's no supported
> > > RPM for upgrading.
>
> > >     It's apparently necessary to build Python 2.5 from source,
> > > build all the packages, and debug.
>
> > You shouldn't need *quite* that much effort, particularly if you don't
> > care about tkinter. Just use the alternate installation so it doesn't
> > stomp all over the 2.4 installation:
>
> > .configure
> > make
> > make altinstall
>
> > You will need root or sudo for that last one.
>
> > I don't have Centos 5.3, but I have Centos 5, and it seems to work fairly
> > easily for me:
>
> > $ wgethttp://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.5.4/Python-2.5.4.tgz
> > ...
> > 18:39:11 (69.6 KB/s) - `Python-2.5.4.tgz' saved [11604497/11604497]
> > $
> > $ tar xzf Python-2.5.4.tgz
> > $ cd Python-2.5.4
> > $ ./configure
> > ...
> > $ make
> > ...
> > $ sudo make altinstall
> > Password:
> > ...
> > $ python -V
> > Python 2.4.3
> > $ python2.5 -V
> > Python 2.5.4
>
> > And it all seems to just work for me.
>
> > > Nor does that "just work". There's
> > > documentation, but some of it is in Japanese.
>
> > >http://blog.bashton.com/2008/python-25-rpms-for-rhel-5-centos-5/
>
> > I don't understand why you're using documentation for third-party RPMs as
> > evidence that building from source will be troublesome.
>
> > --
> > Steven
>
> And might I add on a box where there is no root access, but sufficient
> tools (compilers etc...)
>
> 1) Compile from source
> 2) Set PYTHONPATH correctly for your shell
> 3) Set your normal path to include your Python rather than the
> system's default Python
> 4) When installing modules (via setup.py install or easy_install)
> include a "home_dir=" (I think that's right OTTOMH) to somewhere in
> your home directory, and make sure step 2) complies with this.
> 5) Double check with "which python" to make sure it's the correct
> version.
>
> hth
> Jon.

I'm in a RHEL3 - RHEL5.4 environment and the situation is exactly the
same.  The code I've written requires 2.5 or higher.  I keep a /usr/
local/pythons directory and manually install the versions I need
there.  I then use virtualenv so I don't have to worry about setting
PYTHONPATH manually or anything. I just need to remember to use the
right Python executable. I got to doing this when I discovered that
there are issues with the Cluster Manager (Lucci) and some external
Python packages (some of the Zope stuff, if I remember correctly).

So, in addition to the above steps, you'll probably also want to
include a '--prefix=.....' on the command line to the configure script
in order to install in a non-standard location.