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