<H1>Building Mac Python from source</H1>

This document explains how to build MacPython from source. This is

necessary if you want to make modifications to the Python core. Building

Python is not something to be undertaken lightly, you need a reasonable

<LI> You need a MacPython source distribution, of course. You can

to the other packages needed too) and possibly also from the standard

<A HREF="ftp://ftp.python.org/pub/python/mac">python.org ftp

site</A>. <BR>

<LI> You need MetroWerks CodeWarrior. The current distribution has

been built with CodeWarrior Pro 6.1. Ordering information is

available on the <A HREF="http://www.metrowerks.com/">MetroWerks

<LI> You need GUSI version 2, the Grand Unified Socket Interface, by

Matthias Neeracher. The original GUSI is obtainable from <A

2.1.1, so it may be better to check the <A

HREF="http://www.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython.html">MacPython homepage</A>

for a GUSI that is most easily used for building Python.

<A NAME="optional">The MacPython project files are configured to

HREF="mailto:[email protected]">&lt;[email protected]&gt;</A>. Python

was built using version 2.0, which is included in the CodeWarrior

package. You can also obtain it from <A

and various other places.

<LI> Gdbm library for the Mac. Available from Jack's Mac software page at

<A HREF="http://www.cwi.nl/~jack/macsoftware.html">

http://www.cwi.nl/~jack/macsoftware.html</A> and <A HREF="ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/jack/mac">

<LI> JPEG library by the Independent JPEG Group. A version including

Mac projects can be found at Jack's page mentioned above.

The most recent JPEG library can always be obtained from <A

<LI> The netpbm/pbmplus, libtiff, zlib and png libraries. The netpbm distribution

(which includes libtiff) is generally available on Internet ftp

servers. For Python pbmplus, an older incarnation of netpbm, is

functionally identical to netpbm, since Python only uses the library

and not the complete applications. A distribution with correct

projects and library source only is available from, you guessed it, Jack's Mac software

<DT> Modules

<DD> Mac-specific builtin modules. Theoretically these are all

optional, but some are rather essential (like

<code>bgen</code>, in which case the bgen input files are included so

you can attempt to regenerate them or extend them.

<DD> Modules that are not supported any longer but may still work with a little effort.

<H2>Building the PPC interpreter</H2>

<em>This is different under 2.1. You are best off using the fullbuild.py

First you optionally build the external libraries with buildlibs.prj. Next,

the projects for

For completeness sake here is a breakdown of the projects:

<DD> The shared library that contains the bulk of the interpreter and

shared library in the <code>Extensions</code> folder of your system

folder. Do exactly that: put an <em>alias</em> there, copying or

moving the file will cause you grief later if you rebuild the library and

<DT> PythonInterpeter

<DD> The interpreter. This is basically a routine to call out to the

shared library. Unlike in previous releases the same program is used for

creating applets (for which formerly PythonApplet was used). <p>

<DT> Plugin projects

After creating the alias to <code>PythonCore</code> you remove any old

(if you had python installed on your system before) and run the interpreter once

to create the correct preferences file. <p>

Next, you have to build the extension modules.

Finally, you must build the standard applets:

everything, but you need a fully-functional interpreter before you can

use it (and one that isn't rebuilt in the process: you cannot rebuild

a running program). You could copy the interpreter to a different

shared library. Rebuild it if you get unexpected undefined symbols when you

are building a plugin module. <p>

the symbols <code>__initialize</code>, <code>__terminate</code>, <code>setjmp</code>,

This rather convoluted procedure is needed to ensure that plugin modules don't

accidentally link with those entrypoints from PythonCore, which will not work because

those routines have to be in the same code fragment as they are used from.

<H2><a name="cvs">Using the CVS source archive</a></H2>

It is possible (and probably best) to access the Python sources through remote CVS. The

advantage of this is that you get the very latest sources, so any bug

fixed or new features will be immedeately available. This is also the

applesingle" and (in the "text files" section) "use ISO latin 1

conversion". <p>

control panel. Quicktime Exchange will magically map some extensions to

filetypes, and this can seriously hinder you if, for instance, <code>.bmp</code>

is not a Windows bitmap file. <p>

Python CVS archive on sourceforge.net, see the <a

href="http://www.python.org/download/cvs.html">Source access via

CVS</a> page for details. When you check the sources out you will get

something like <code>Python:dist:src</code>, and under that the

is what this document refers to as the "toplevel Python folder". <P>

<H2>Odds and ends</H2>