[Pythonmac-SIG] python 2.3a2 won't build on a unix file system

[Michael Toy]

I'm new to python and this list, please help me know what to do ...

I was trying to figure out why python seems to build slower on macs, so 
just for kicks i created a unix formatted partition and tried to build 
os x python.

the build fails, because of these lines in configure.in

# Test whether we're running on a non-case-sensitive system, in which
# case we give a warning if no ext is given
AC_SUBST(BUILDEXEEXT)
AC_MSG_CHECKING(for case-insensitive build directory)
if test ! -d CaseSensitiveTestDir; then
mkdir CaseSensitiveTestDir
fi

if test -d casesensitivetestdir
then
     AC_MSG_RESULT(yes)
     BUILDEXEEXT=.exe
else
         AC_MSG_RESULT(no)
         BUILDEXEEXT=$EXEEXT
fi
rmdir CaseSensitiveTestDir

The assumption seems to be that if the file system is case 
in-sensitive, then we must be on an nt-box and to use .exe as an 
extension for binaries in the build tree, which incorrectly winds up 
creating "python.exe" as the built python executable if you build 
python on Mac OSX on an HFS+ file system.

This would all be fine and dandy if all the makefiles used 
python$(BUILDEXEEXT), but unfortunately
Mac/OSX/Makefile doesn't, it assumes the python built object is called 
"python.exe", but it you
build on a case sensitive file system, it is caled "python", and the 
build fails.

The real fix would probably be to change configure.in to use a some 
other criteria than
case sensitivity to select the extension for the built python 
executeable, the quick fix
is to fix the top level and Mac/OSX Makefiles to use $(BUILDEXEEXT).

For the curious, the build ran about the same speed on the HFS file 
system as on the Unix file system.

Do I send my diffs to someone?  Does anyone even care?

-Michael Toy