Questions about unicodedata in python 2.6.2

[Weidong]

On Jul 28, 9:54 am, Weidong <li.weid... at gmail.com> wrote:
> I am trying to build python 2.6.2 from the source by following the
> instructions in README that comes with the source.  The configure and
> make steps are fine, but there is an error in "make install" step.
> This "make install" attempts to build a lot of lib, and it complains
> about the lack of "unicodedata" shared object,
>
> I looked at the source tree and the build result, unicodedata.so does
> not exist.  I further notice that in Modules/Setup.dist, the line for
> unicodedata.c is commented out by default.  So I uncomment it, and
> experiment with rebuilding everything.
>
> This time, with or without re-configure, the "make" step failed with a
> link-time error when linking for libpython2.6.a due to "undefined
> reference to 'initunicodedata'.  This symbol is defined in
> unicodedata.c, but unicodedata.o is not used in linking for
> libpython2.6.a, hence the error.  So this is a problem in the
> generated Makefile.
>
> Does anyone know what special things I have to do to avoid such
> error?  Is there any known problems in the configure/make files in the
> python 2.6.2 source code that require special patch?
>
> Is unicodedata.c really needed in python 2.6.2?  If it is needed, why
> it is commented out by default in Modules/Setup.dist?  If it is not
> needed, why "make install" attempts to use it in compiling the
> libraries?  Why those libraries are not designed to be compiled in the
> make step, but in the install step?
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
> - Weidong

To add some info: This experiment was done on Linux, Ubuntu 8.x.