/PC/VC6/readme.txt

  1Building Python using VC++ 6.0 or 5.0
  2-------------------------------------
  3This directory is used to build Python for Win32 platforms, e.g. Windows
  42000 and XP.  It requires Microsoft Visual C++ 6.x or 5.x.
  5(For other Windows platforms and compilers, see ../readme.txt.)
  6
  7All you need to do is open the workspace "pcbuild.dsw" in MSVC++, select
  8the Debug or Release setting (using Build -> Set Active Configuration...),
  9and build the projects.
 10
 11The proper order to build subprojects:
 12
 131) pythoncore (this builds the main Python DLL and library files,
 14               python26.{dll, lib} in Release mode)
 15
 162) python (this builds the main Python executable,
 17           python.exe in Release mode)
 18
 193) the other subprojects, as desired or needed (note:  you probably don't
 20   want to build most of the other subprojects, unless you're building an
 21   entire Python distribution from scratch, or specifically making changes
 22   to the subsystems they implement; see SUBPROJECTS below)
 23
 24When using the Debug setting, the output files have a _d added to
 25their name:  python26_d.dll, python_d.exe, pyexpat_d.pyd, and so on.
 26
 27SUBPROJECTS
 28-----------
 29These subprojects should build out of the box.  Subprojects other than the
 30main ones (pythoncore, python, pythonw) generally build a DLL (renamed to
 31.pyd) from a specific module so that users don't have to load the code
 32supporting that module unless they import the module.
 33
 34pythoncore
 35    .dll and .lib
 36python
 37    .exe
 38pythonw
 39    pythonw.exe, a variant of python.exe that doesn't pop up a DOS box
 40_msi
 41    _msi.c. You need to install Windows Installer SDK to build this module.
 42    http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/psdk-full.htm
 43_socket
 44    socketmodule.c
 45_testcapi
 46    tests of the Python C API, run via Lib/test/test_capi.py, and
 47    implemented by module Modules/_testcapimodule.c
 48pyexpat
 49    Python wrapper for accelerated XML parsing, which incorporates stable
 50    code from the Expat project:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/expat/
 51select
 52    selectmodule.c
 53unicodedata
 54    large tables of Unicode data
 55winsound
 56    play sounds (typically .wav files) under Windows
 57
 58The following subprojects will generally NOT build out of the box.  They
 59wrap code Python doesn't control, and you'll need to download the base
 60packages first and unpack them into siblings of PCbuilds's parent
 61directory; for example, if your PCbuild is  .......\dist\src\PCbuild\,
 62unpack into new subdirectories of dist\.
 63
 64_tkinter
 65    Python wrapper for the Tk windowing system.  Requires building
 66    Tcl/Tk first.  Following are instructions for Tcl/Tk 8.5.2.
 67
 68    Get source
 69    ----------
 70    In the dist directory, run
 71    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/tcl-8.5.2.1 tcl8.5.2
 72    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/tk-8.5.2.0 tk8.5.2
 73    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/tix-8.4.3.1 tix8.4.3
 74
 75    Debug Build
 76    -----------
 77    To build debug version, add DEBUG=1 to all nmake call bellow.
 78
 79    Build Tcl first (done here w/ MSVC 6 on Win2K)
 80    ---------------
 81    If your environment doesn't have struct _stat64, you need to apply
 82    tcl852.patch in this directory to dist\tcl8.5.2\generic\tcl.h.
 83
 84    cd dist\tcl8.5.2\win
 85    run vcvars32.bat
 86    nmake -f makefile.vc
 87    nmake -f makefile.vc INSTALLDIR=..\..\tcltk install
 88
 89    XXX Should we compile with OPTS=threads?
 90
 91    Optional:  run tests, via
 92        nmake -f makefile.vc test
 93
 94        all.tcl:        Total   24242   Passed  23358   Skipped 877     Failed  7
 95        Sourced 137 Test Files.
 96        Files with failing tests: exec.test http.test io.test main.test string.test stri
 97        ngObj.test
 98
 99    Build Tk
100    --------
101    cd dist\tk8.5.2\win
102    nmake -f makefile.vc TCLDIR=..\..\tcl8.5.2
103    nmake -f makefile.vc TCLDIR=..\..\tcl8.5.2 INSTALLDIR=..\..\tcltk install
104
105    XXX Should we compile with OPTS=threads?
106
107    XXX I have no idea whether "nmake -f makefile.vc test" passed or
108    XXX failed.  It popped up tons of little windows, and did lots of
109    XXX stuff, and nothing blew up.
110
111    Build Tix
112    ---------
113    cd dist\tix8.4.3\win
114    nmake -f python.mak TCL_MAJOR=8 TCL_MINOR=5 TCL_PATCH=2 MACHINE=IX86 DEBUG=0
115    nmake -f python.mak TCL_MAJOR=8 TCL_MINOR=5 TCL_PATCH=2 MACHINE=IX86 DEBUG=0 INSTALL_DIR=..\..\tcltk install
116
117bz2
118    Python wrapper for the libbz2 compression library.  Homepage
119        http://www.bzip.org/
120    Download the source from the python.org copy into the dist
121    directory:
122
123    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/bzip2-1.0.5
124
125    And requires building bz2 first.
126
127    cd dist\bzip2-1.0.5
128    nmake -f makefile.msc
129
130    All of this managed to build bzip2-1.0.5\libbz2.lib, which the Python
131    project links in.
132
133
134_bsddb
135    To use the version of bsddb that Python is built with by default, invoke
136    (in the dist directory)
137
138     svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/db-4.7.25.0 db-4.7.25
139
140    Then open db-4.7.25\build_windows\Berkeley_DB.dsw and build the
141    "db_static" project for "Release" mode.
142
143    Alternatively, if you want to start with the original sources,
144    go to Oracle's download page:
145        http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/berkeley-db/db/
146
147    and download version 4.7.25.
148
149    With or without strong cryptography? You can choose either with or
150    without strong cryptography, as per the instructions below.  By
151    default, Python is built and distributed WITHOUT strong crypto.
152
153    Unpack the sources; if you downloaded the non-crypto version, rename
154    the directory from db-4.7.25.NC to db-4.7.25.
155
156    Now apply any patches that apply to your version.
157
158    To run extensive tests, pass "-u bsddb" to regrtest.py.  test_bsddb3.py
159    is then enabled.  Running in verbose mode may be helpful.
160
161    XXX The test_bsddb3 tests don't always pass, on Windows (according to
162    XXX me) or on Linux (according to Barry).  (I had much better luck
163    XXX on Win2K than on Win98SE.)  The common failure mode across platforms
164    XXX is
165    XXX     DBAgainError: (11, 'Resource temporarily unavailable -- unable
166    XXX                         to join the environment')
167    XXX
168    XXX and it appears timing-dependent.  On Win2K I also saw this once:
169    XXX
170    XXX test02_SimpleLocks (bsddb.test.test_thread.HashSimpleThreaded) ...
171    XXX Exception in thread reader 1:
172    XXX Traceback (most recent call last):
173    XXX File "C:\Code\python\lib\threading.py", line 411, in __bootstrap
174    XXX    self.run()
175    XXX File "C:\Code\python\lib\threading.py", line 399, in run
176    XXX    apply(self.__target, self.__args, self.__kwargs)
177    XXX File "C:\Code\python\lib\bsddb\test\test_thread.py", line 268, in
178    XXX                  readerThread
179    XXX    rec = c.next()
180    XXX DBLockDeadlockError: (-30996, 'DB_LOCK_DEADLOCK: Locker killed
181    XXX                                to resolve a deadlock')
182    XXX
183    XXX I'm told that DBLockDeadlockError is expected at times.  It
184    XXX doesn't cause a test to fail when it happens (exceptions in
185    XXX threads are invisible to unittest).
186
187
188_sqlite3
189    Python wrapper for SQLite library.
190    
191    Get the source code through
192    
193    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/sqlite-source-3.3.4
194    
195    To use the extension module in a Python build tree, copy sqlite3.dll into
196    the PC/VC6 folder.
197
198
199_ssl
200    Python wrapper for the secure sockets library.
201
202    Get the latest source code for OpenSSL from
203        http://www.openssl.org
204
205    You (probably) don't want the "engine" code.  For example, get
206        openssl-0.9.8g.tar.gz
207    not
208        openssl-engine-0.9.8g.tar.gz
209
210    Unpack into the "dist" directory, retaining the folder name from
211    the archive - for example, the latest stable OpenSSL will install as
212        dist/openssl-0.9.8g
213
214    You can (theoretically) use any version of OpenSSL you like - the
215    build process will automatically select the latest version.
216
217    You must also install ActivePerl from
218        http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/
219    as this is used by the OpenSSL build process.  Complain to them <wink>.
220
221    The MSVC project simply invokes PC/VC6/build_ssl.py to perform
222    the build.  This Python script locates and builds your OpenSSL
223    installation, then invokes a simple makefile to build the final .pyd.
224
225    build_ssl.py attempts to catch the most common errors (such as not
226    being able to find OpenSSL sources, or not being able to find a Perl
227    that works with OpenSSL) and give a reasonable error message.
228    If you have a problem that doesn't seem to be handled correctly
229    (eg, you know you have ActivePerl but we can't find it), please take
230    a peek at build_ssl.py and suggest patches.  Note that build_ssl.py
231    should be able to be run directly from the command-line.
232
233    build_ssl.py/MSVC isn't clever enough to clean OpenSSL - you must do
234    this by hand.
235
236
237YOUR OWN EXTENSION DLLs
238-----------------------
239If you want to create your own extension module DLL, there's an example
240with easy-to-follow instructions in ../PC/example/; read the file
241readme.txt there first.