Building Python using VC++ 6.0 or 5.0

-------------------------------------

This directory is used to build Python for Win32 platforms, e.g. Windows

95, 98 and NT. It requires Microsoft Visual C++ 6.x or 5.x.

(For other Windows platforms and compilers, see ../readme.txt.)

All you need to do is open the workspace "pcbuild.dsw" in MSVC++, select

the Debug or Release setting (using Build -> Set Active Configuration...),

and build the projects.

The proper order to build subprojects:

1) pythoncore (this builds the main Python DLL and library files,

python21.{dll, lib} in Release mode)

NOTE: in previous releases, this subproject was

named after the release number, e.g. python20.

2) python (this builds the main Python executable,

python.exe in Release mode)

3) the other subprojects, as desired or needed (note: you probably don't

want to build most of the other subprojects, unless you're building an

entire Python distribution from scratch, or specifically making changes

to the subsystems they implement; see SUBPROJECTS below)

When using the Debug setting, the output files have a _d added to

their name: python21_d.dll, python_d.exe, parser_d.pyd, and so on.

SUBPROJECTS

-----------

These subprojects should build out of the box. Subprojects other than the

main ones (pythoncore, python, pythonw) generally build a DLL (renamed to

.pyd) from a specific module so that users don't have to load the code

supporting that module unless they import the module.

pythoncore

.dll and .lib

python

.exe

pythonw

pythonw.exe, a variant of python.exe that doesn't pop up a DOS box

_socket

socketmodule.c

_testcapi

tests of the Python C API, run via Lib/test/test_capi.py, and

implemented by module Modules/_testcapimodule.c

pyexpat

Python wrapper for accelerated XML parsing, which incorporates stable

code from the Expat project: http://sourceforge.net/projects/expat/

select

selectmodule.c

unicodedata

large tables of Unicode data

winsound

play sounds (typically .wav files) under Windows

The following subprojects will generally NOT build out of the box. They

wrap code Python doesn't control, and you'll need to download the base

packages first and unpack them into siblings of PCbuilds's parent

directory; for example, if your PCbuild is .......\dist\src\PCbuild\,

unpack into new subdirectories of dist\.

_tkinter

Python wrapper for the Tk windowing system. Requires building

Tcl/Tk first. Following are instructions for Tcl/Tk 8.4.12.

Get source

----------

In the dist directory, run

svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/tcl8.4.12

svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/tk8.4.12

svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/tix-8.4.0

Build Tcl first (done here w/ MSVC 6 on Win2K)

---------------

cd dist\tcl8.4.12\win

run vcvars32.bat

nmake -f makefile.vc

nmake -f makefile.vc INSTALLDIR=..\..\tcltk install

XXX Should we compile with OPTS=threads?

Optional: run tests, via

nmake -f makefile.vc test

all.tcl: Total 10835 Passed 10096 Skipped 732 Failed 7

Sourced 129 Test Files.

Files with failing tests: exec.test expr.test io.test main.test string.test stri

ngObj.test

Build Tk

--------

cd dist\tk8.4.12\win

nmake -f makefile.vc TCLDIR=..\..\tcl8.4.12

nmake -f makefile.vc TCLDIR=..\..\tcl8.4.12 INSTALLDIR=..\..\tcltk install

XXX Should we compile with OPTS=threads?

XXX I have no idea whether "nmake -f makefile.vc test" passed or

XXX failed. It popped up tons of little windows, and did lots of

XXX stuff, and nothing blew up.

Built Tix

---------

cd dist\tix-8.4.0\win

nmake -f python.mak

nmake -f python.mak install

bz2

Python wrapper for the libbz2 compression library. Homepage

http://sources.redhat.com/bzip2/

Download the source from the python.org copy into the dist

directory:

svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/bzip2-1.0.3

And requires building bz2 first.

cd dist\bzip2-1.0.3

nmake -f makefile.msc

All of this managed to build bzip2-1.0.3\libbz2.lib, which the Python

project links in.

_bsddb

To use the version of bsddb that Python is built with by default, invoke

(in the dist directory)

svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/db-4.4.20

Then open db-4.4.20\build_win32\Berkeley_DB.dsw and build the "db_static"

project for "Release" mode.

Alternatively, if you want to start with the original sources,

go to Sleepycat's download page:

http://www.sleepycat.com/downloads/releasehistorybdb.html

and download version 4.4.20.

With or without strong cryptography? You can choose either with or

without strong cryptography, as per the instructions below. By

default, Python is built and distributed WITHOUT strong crypto.

Unpack the sources; if you downloaded the non-crypto version, rename

the directory from db-4.4.20.NC to db-4.4.20.

Now apply any patches that apply to your version.

To run extensive tests, pass "-u bsddb" to regrtest.py. test_bsddb3.py

is then enabled. Running in verbose mode may be helpful.

XXX The test_bsddb3 tests don't always pass, on Windows (according to

XXX me) or on Linux (according to Barry). (I had much better luck

XXX on Win2K than on Win98SE.) The common failure mode across platforms

XXX is

XXX DBAgainError: (11, 'Resource temporarily unavailable -- unable

XXX to join the environment')

XXX

XXX and it appears timing-dependent. On Win2K I also saw this once:

XXX

XXX test02_SimpleLocks (bsddb.test.test_thread.HashSimpleThreaded) ...

XXX Exception in thread reader 1:

XXX Traceback (most recent call last):

XXX File "C:\Code\python\lib\threading.py", line 411, in __bootstrap

XXX self.run()

XXX File "C:\Code\python\lib\threading.py", line 399, in run

XXX apply(self.__target, self.__args, self.__kwargs)

XXX File "C:\Code\python\lib\bsddb\test\test_thread.py", line 268, in

XXX readerThread

XXX rec = c.next()

XXX DBLockDeadlockError: (-30996, 'DB_LOCK_DEADLOCK: Locker killed

XXX to resolve a deadlock')

XXX

XXX I'm told that DBLockDeadlockError is expected at times. It

XXX doesn't cause a test to fail when it happens (exceptions in

XXX threads are invisible to unittest).

_ssl

Python wrapper for the secure sockets library.

Get the latest source code for OpenSSL from

http://www.openssl.org

You (probably) don't want the "engine" code. For example, get

openssl-0.9.6g.tar.gz

not

openssl-engine-0.9.6g.tar.gz

Unpack into the "dist" directory, retaining the folder name from

the archive - for example, the latest stable OpenSSL will install as

dist/openssl-0.9.6g

You can (theoretically) use any version of OpenSSL you like - the

build process will automatically select the latest version.

You must also install ActivePerl from

http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/

as this is used by the OpenSSL build process. Complain to them <wink>.

The MSVC project simply invokes PC/VC6/build_ssl.py to perform

the build. This Python script locates and builds your OpenSSL

installation, then invokes a simple makefile to build the final .pyd.

build_ssl.py attempts to catch the most common errors (such as not

being able to find OpenSSL sources, or not being able to find a Perl

that works with OpenSSL) and give a reasonable error message.

If you have a problem that doesn't seem to be handled correctly

(eg, you know you have ActivePerl but we can't find it), please take

a peek at build_ssl.py and suggest patches. Note that build_ssl.py

should be able to be run directly from the command-line.

build_ssl.py/MSVC isn't clever enough to clean OpenSSL - you must do

this by hand.

YOUR OWN EXTENSION DLLs

-----------------------

If you want to create your own extension module DLL, there's an example

with easy-to-follow instructions in ../PC/example/; read the file

readme.txt there first.