wxPython/docs/BUILD.txt

   1 Building wxPython 2.5 for Development and Testing
   2 =================================================
   3
   4 This file describes how I build wxWidgets and wxPython while doing
   5 development and testing, and is meant to help other people that want
   6 to do the same thing.  I'll assume that you are using either a CVS
   7 snapshot from http://wxWidgets.org/snapshots/, a checkout from CVS, or
   8 one of the released wxPythonSrc-2.5.* tarballs.  I'll also assume that
   9 you know your way around your system, the compiler, etc. and most
  10 importantly, that you know what you are doing!  ;-)
  11
  12 If you want to also install the version of wxPython you build to be in
  13 your site-packages dir and be your default version of wxPython, then a
  14 few additional steps are needed, and you may want to use slightly
  15 different options.  See the INSTALL_ document for more details.  If
  16 you only use the instructions in this BUILD_ document file then you
  17 will end up with a separate installation of wxPython and you can
  18 switch back and forth between this and the release version that you
  19 may already have installed.
  20
  21 .. _INSTALL: INSTALL.html
  22 .. _BUILD: BUILD.html
  23
  24 If you want to make changes to any of the ``*.i`` files, (SWIG interface
  25 definition files,) or to regenerate the extension sources or renamer
  26 modules, then you will need an up to date version of SWIG.  Either get
  27 and build the current CVS version, or version 1.3.20, and then apply
  28 the patches in wxPython/SWIG.  See the README.txt in that dir for
  29 details about each patch and also info about those that may already
  30 have been applied to the SWIG sources.  If you install this build of
  31 SWIG to a location that is not on the PATH (so it doesn't interfere
  32 with an existing SWIG install for example) then you can set a setup.py
  33 command-line variable named SWIG to be the full path name of the
  34 executable and the wxPython build will use it.  See below for an
  35 example.
  36
  37 In the text below I'll use WXDIR with environment variable syntax
  38 (either $WXDIR or %WXDIR%) to refer to the top level directory were
  39 your wxWidgerts and wxPython sources are located.  It will equate to
  40 whereever you checked out the wxWidgets module from CVS, or untarred
  41 the wxPythonSrc tarball to.  You can either substitute the $WXDIR text
  42 below with your actual dir, or set the value in the environment and
  43 use it just like you see it below.
  44
  45 If you run into what appears to be compatibility issues between
  46 wxWidgets and wxPython while building wxPython, be sure you are using
  47 the wxWidgets sources included with the wxPythonSrc tarball or the CVS
  48 snapshot, and not a previously installed version or a version
  49 installed from one of the standard wxWidgets installers.  With the
  50 "unstable" releases (have a odd-numbered minor release value, where
  51 the APIs are allowed to change) there are often significant
  52 differences between the W.X.Y release of wxWidgets and the W.X.Y.Z
  53 release of wxPython.
  54
  55
  56
  57 Building on Unix-like Systems (e.g. Linux and OS X)
  58 ---------------------------------------------------
  59
  60 These platforms are built almost the same way while in development
  61 so I'll combine the descriptions about their build process here.
  62 First we will build wxWidgets and install it to an out of the way
  63 place, then do the same for wxPython.
  64
  65
  66 1. Create a build directory in the main wxWidgets dir, and configure
  67    wxWidgets.  If you want to have multiple builds with different
  68    configure options, just use different subdirectories.  I normally
  69    put the configure command in a script named ".configure" in each
  70    build dir so I can easily blow away everything in the build dir and
  71    rerun the script without having to remember the options I used
  72    before::
  73
  74          cd $WXDIR
  75          mkdir bld
  76          cd bld
  77          ../configure --prefix=/opt/wx/2.5 \
  78                       --with-gtk \
  79                       --with-opengl \
  80                       --disable-monolithic \
  81                       --enable-debug \
  82                       --enable-geometry \
  83                       --enable-sound --with-sdl \
  84                       --enable-display \
  85
  86
  87    On OS X of course you'll want to use --with-mac instead of
  88    --with-gtk.  For GTK2 and unicode add::
  89
  90                       --enable-gtk2 \
  91                       --enable-unicode \
  92
  93    Notice that I used a prefix of /opt/wx/2.5.  You can use whatever
  94    path you want, such as a path in your HOME dir or even one of the
  95    standard prefix paths such as /usr or /usr/local if you like, but
  96    using /opt this way lets me easily have multiple versions and ports
  97    of wxWidgets "installed" and makes it easy to switch between them,
  98    without impacting any versions of wxWidgets that may have been
  99    installed via an RPM or whatever.  For the rest of the steps below
 100    be sure to also substitute "/opt/wx/2.5" with whatever prefix you
 101    choose for your build.
 102
 103    If you want to use the image and zlib libraries included with
 104    wxWidgets instead of those already installed on your system, (for
 105    example, to reduce dependencies on 3rd party libraries) then you
 106    can add these flags to the configure command::
 107
 108                      --with-libjpeg=builtin \
 109                      --with-libpng=builtin \
 110                      --with-libtiff=builtin \
 111                      --with-zlib=builtin \
 112
 113
 114 2. To build and install wxWidgets you could just use the "make"
 115    command but there are other libraries besides the main wxWidgets
 116    libs that also need to be built so again I make a script to do it
 117    all for me so I don't forget anything.  This time it is called
 118    ".make" (I use the leading ".  so when I do ``rm -r *`` in my build
 119    dir I don't lose my scripts too.)  This is what it looks like::
 120
 121         make $* \
 122             && make -C contrib/src/gizmos $* \
 123             && make -C contrib/src/ogl CXXFLAGS="-DwxUSE_DEPRECATED=0" $* \
 124             && make -C contrib/src/stc $* \
 125             && make -C contrib/src/xrc $*
 126
 127    So you just use .make as if it where make, but don't forget to set
 128    the execute bit on .make first!::
 129
 130          .make
 131          .make install
 132
 133    When it's done you should have an installed set of files under
 134    /opt/wx/2.5 containing just wxWidgets.  Now to use this version of
 135    wxWidgets you just need to add /opt/wx/2.5/bin to the PATH and set
 136    LD_LIBRARY_PATH (or DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH on OS X) to /opt/wx/2.5/lib.
 137
 138
 139 3. I also have a script to help me build wxPython and it is checked in
 140    to the CVS as wxWidgets/wxPython/b, but you probably don't want to
 141    use it as it's very cryptic and expects that you want to run SWIG,
 142    so if you don't have the latest patched up version of SWIG then
 143    you'll probably get stuck.  So I'll just give the raw commands
 144    instead.
 145
 146    We're not going to install the development version of wxPython with
 147    these commands, so it won't impact your already installed version
 148    of the latest release.  You'll be able test with this version when
 149    you want to, and use the installed release version the rest of the
 150    time.  If you want to install the development version please read
 151    INSTALL.txt.
 152
 153    If you have more than one version of Python on your system then be
 154    sure to use the version of Python that you want to use when running
 155    wxPython programs to run the setup.py commands below.  I'll be
 156    using python2.3.
 157
 158    Make sure that the first wx-config found on the PATH is the one you
 159    installed above, and then change to the $WXDIR/wxPython dir and
 160    run the this command::
 161
 162          cd $WXDIR/wxPython
 163          python2.3 setup.py build_ext --inplace --debug
 164
 165    If your new wx-config script is not on the PATH, or there is some
 166    other version of it found first, then you can add this to the
 167    command line to ensure your new one is used instead::
 168
 169          WX_CONFIG=/opt/wx/2.5/bin/wx-config
 170
 171    If you are building with GTK2 then add the following flags to the
 172    command line::
 173
 174          WXPORT=gtk2 UNICODE=1
 175
 176    If you are wanting to have the source files regenerated with swig,
 177    then you need to turn on the USE_SWIG flag and optionally tell it
 178    where to find the new swig executable, so add these flags::
 179
 180          USE_SWIG=1 SWIG=/opt/swig/bin/swig
 181
 182    If you get errors about being unable to find libGLU, wxGLCanvas
 183    being undeclared, or something similar then you can add
 184    BUILD_GLCANVAS=0 to the setup.py command line to disable the
 185    building of the glcanvas module.
 186
 187    When the setup.py command is done you should have fully populated
 188    wxPython and wx packages locally in $WXDIR/wxPython/wxPython and
 189    $WXDIR/wxPython/wx, with all the extension modules (``*.so`` files)
 190    located in the wx package.
 191
 192
 193 4. To run code with the development version of wxPython, just set the
 194    PYTHONPATH to the wxPython dir located in the source tree.  For
 195    example::
 196
 197         export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/wx/2.5/lib
 198         export PYTHONPATH=$WXDIR/wxPython
 199         cd $WXDIR/wxPython/demo
 200         python2.3 demo.py
 201
 202    OS X NOTE: You need to use "pythonw" on the command line to run
 203    wxPython applications.  This version of the Python executable is
 204    part of the Python Framework and is allowed to interact with the
 205    display.  You can also double click on a .py or a .pyw file from
 206    the finder (assuming that the PythonLauncher app is associated with
 207    these file extensions) and it will launch the Framework version of
 208    Python for you.  For information about creating Applicaiton Bundles
 209    of your wxPython apps please see the wiki and the mail lists.
 210
 211    SOLARIS NOTE: If you get unresolved symbol errors when importing
 212    wxPython and you are running on Solaris and building with gcc, then
 213    you may be able to work around the problem by uncommenting a bit of
 214    code in setup.py and building again.  Look for 'SunOS' in setup.py
 215    and uncomment the block containing it.  The problem is that Sun's ld
 216    does not automatically add libgcc to the link step.
 217
 218
 219
 220
 221 Building on Windows
 222 -------------------
 223
 224 The Windows builds currently require the use of Microsoft Visual C++.
 225 Theoretically, other compilers (such as mingw32 or the Borland
 226 compilers) can also be used but I've never done the work to make that
 227 happen.  If you want to try that then first you'll want to find out if
 228 there are any tricks that have to be done to make Python extension
 229 modules using that compiler, and then make a few changes to setup.py
 230 to accomodate that.  (And send the patches to me.)  If you plan on
 231 using VisualStudio.Net (a.k.a. MSVC 7.1) keep in mind that you'll also
 232 have to build Python and any other extension modules that you use with
 233 that compiler because a different version of the C runtime library is
 234 used.  The Python executable that comes from PythonLabs and the
 235 wxPython extensions that I distribute are built with MSVC 6 with all
 236 the Service Packs applied.  This policy will change with Python 2.4
 237 and MSVC 7.1 will be used starting with that version.
 238
 239 If you want to build a debuggable version of wxWidgets and wxPython you
 240 will need to have also built a debug version of Python and any other
 241 extension modules you need to use.  You can tell if you have them
 242 already if there is a _d in the file names, for example python_d.exe
 243 or python23_d.dll.  If you don't need to trace through the C/C++ parts
 244 of the code with the debugger then building the normal (or hybrid)
 245 version is fine, and you can use the regular python executables with
 246 it.
 247
 248 Just like the unix versions I also use some scripts to help me build
 249 wxWidgets, but I use some non-standard stuff to do it.  So if you want
 250 to use my scripts you'll need to get a copy or 4DOS or 4NT from
 251 http://www.jpsoft.com/ and also a copy of unix-like cat and sed
 252 programs.  You can also do by hand what my scripts are doing, but
 253 there are alot of steps involved and I won't be going into details
 254 here.  There is a copy of my build scripts in %WXDIR%\\wxPython\\distrib\\msw
 255 that you can use for reference (if you don't use them directly) for
 256 adapting these instructions to your specific needs.  The directions
 257 below assume that you are using my scripts.
 258
 259
 260 1. Set an environment variable to the root of the wxWidgets source
 261    tree.  This is used by the makefiles::
 262
 263          set WXWIN=%WXDIR%
 264
 265 2. Copy setup0.h to setup.h::
 266
 267          cd %WXDIR%\include\wx\msw
 268          copy setup0.h setup.h
 269
 270
 271 3. Edit %WXDIR%\\include\\wx\\msw\\setup.h and change a few settings.
 272    Some of them are changed by my build scripts depending on the type
 273    of build (debug/hybrid, unicode/ansi). I change a few of the other
 274    defaults to have these values::
 275
 276          wxDIALOG_UNIT_COMPATIBILITY    0
 277          wxUSE_DEBUG_CONTEXT            1
 278          wxUSE_MEMORY_TRACING           1
 279          wxUSE_DIALUP_MANAGER           0
 280          wxUSE_GLCANVAS                 1
 281          wxUSE_POSTSCRIPT               1
 282          wxUSE_AFM_FOR_POSTSCRIPT       0
 283          wxUSE_DISPLAY                  1
 284
 285
 286 4. Make sure that %WXDIR%\\lib\\vc_dll directory is on the PATH.  The
 287    wxWidgets DLLs will end up there as part of the build and so you'll
 288    need it on the PATH for them to be found at runtime.
 289
 290
 291 5. Change to the %WXDIR%\\build\\msw directory and copy my build scripts
 292    there from their default location in %WXDIR%\\wxPython\\distrib\\msw
 293    if they are not present already.
 294
 295
 296 6. Use the .make.btm command to build wxWidgets.  It needs one
 297    command-line parameter which controls what kind of build(s) to do.
 298    Use one of the following::
 299
 300          debug          Build debug version
 301          hybrid         Build hybrid version
 302          both           Both debug and hybrid
 303          debug-uni      Build a debug unicode library
 304          hybrid-uni     Hybrid unicode (see the pattern yet? ;-)
 305          both-uni       and finally both unicode libraries
 306
 307    For example::
 308
 309          .make hybrid
 310
 311     You can also pass additional command line parameters as needed and
 312     they will all be passed on to the nmake commands, for example to
 313     clean up the build::
 314
 315          .make hybrid clean
 316
 317
 318 7.  When that is done it will have built the main wxWidgets DLLs and
 319     also some of the contribs DLLs.  There should be a ton of DLLs and
 320     lots of lib files and other stuff in %WXDIR%\\lib\\vc_dll.
 321
 322
 323 8. Building wxPython on Windows is very similar to doing it for the
 324    unix systems.  We're not going to install the development version
 325    of wxPython with these commands, so it won't impact your already
 326    installed version of the latest release.  You'll be able to test
 327    with this version when you want to, and use the installed release
 328    version the rest of the time.  If you ever do want to install the
 329    development version please refer to INSTALL.txt.
 330
 331    Change to the %WXDIR%\\wxPython dir and run the this command,
 332    makeing sure that you use the version of python that you want to
 333    build for (if you have more than one on your system)::
 334
 335          cd %WXDIR%\wxPython
 336          python setup.py build_ext --inplace
 337
 338    If you are wanting to have the source files regenerated with swig,
 339    then you need to turn on the USE_SWIG flag and optionally tell it
 340    where to find the new swig executable, so add these flags::
 341
 342          USE_SWIG=1 SWIG=e:\projects\SWIG-cvs\swig.exe
 343
 344    If you built a Unicode version of wxWidgets and want to also build
 345    the Unicode version of wxPython then add this flag::
 346
 347          UNICODE=1
 348
 349    If you have a debug version of Python and wxWidgets and want to
 350    build a debug version of wxPython too, add the --debug flag to the
 351    command line.  You should then end up with a set of ``*_d.pyd``
 352    files in the wx package and you'll have to run ``python_d.exe`` to
 353    use them.  The debug and hybrid(release) versions can coexist.
 354
 355    When the setup.py command is done you should have fully populated
 356    wxPython and wx packages locally in %WXDIR%/wxPython/wxPython and
 357    %WXDIR%/wxPython/wx, with all the extension modules (``*.pyd``
 358    files) located in the wx package.
 359
 360
 361 9. To run code with the development version of wxPython, just set the
 362    PYTHONPATH to the wxPython dir in the CVS tree.  For example::
 363
 364         set PYTHONPATH=%WXDIR%\wxPython
 365         cd %WXDIR\wxPython\demo
 366         python demo.py
 367
 368