wxPython/BUILD.unix.txt

   1 Building wxPython on Unix or Unix-like Systems
   2 ----------------------------------------------
   3
   4 The basic steps for building wxPython for Unix or Unix-like systems
   5 are:
   6
   7      1. Compile and/or install glib and gtk+
   8      2. Compile and/or install wxGTK
   9      3. Compile and install wxPython
  10
  11 We'll go into more detail of each of these steps below, but first a
  12 few bits of background information on tools.
  13
  14 I use a tool called SWIG (http://www.swig.org) to help generate the
  15 C++ sources used in the wxPython extension module.  However you don't
  16 need to have SWIG unless you want to modify the *.i files.  If you do
  17 you'll want to have version 1.1-883 of SWIG and you'll need to change
  18 a flag in the setup.py script as described below.
  19
  20 I use the new Python Distutils tool to build wxPython.  It is included
  21 with Python 2.0, but if you want to use Python 1.5.2 or 1.6 then
  22 you'll need to download and install Distutils 1.0 from
  23 http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/
  24
  25 I usually use RedHat Linux when working on the wxGTK version of
  26 wxPython, but I occasionally build and test on Solaris and I hope to
  27 be able to add some other platforms soon.  The compiler I use is
  28 whatever comes with the current version of RedHat I am using.  I find
  29 that there are less portability problems with the RPMs if I don't try
  30 using the latest and greatest compilers all the time.  On the other
  31 platforms I usually stick with as recent a version of GCC that I can
  32 find pre-built for that platform.
  33
  34 Okay, now on the the fun stuff...
  35
  36
  37 1. Compile and/or install glib and gtk+
  38 ---------------------------------------
  39
  40 A. First of all, check and see if you've already got glib/gtk+ on your
  41    system, all the Linux distributions I know of come with it, at
  42    least as an option.  Look for libglib.* and libgtk.* in your system's
  43    standard library directories.  You'll also need the headers and
  44    config scripts in order to build things that use glib/gtk.  Try
  45    running gtk-config:
  46
  47            gtk-config --version
  48
  49    If you have version 1.2.5 or better then you're all set.  You can
  50    skip to step #2.
  51
  52 B. If your system has a binary package mechanism, (RPMs, debs,
  53    whatever...) check and see if binaries for glib abd gtk+ are
  54    available.  Be sure to get the runtime library package as well as
  55    the development package, if they are separate.  Install them with
  56    your package tool, and skip to step #2.
  57
  58 C. If all else fails, you can get the source code for glib and gtk+ at
  59    http://www.gtk.org/.  Fetch the latest of each in the 1.2.x
  60    series.  Compile and install each of them like this:
  61
  62             gzip -d [package].tar.gz | tar xvf -
  63             cd [package]
  64             ./configure
  65             make
  66             make install
  67
  68    The last step will probably have to be done as root.  Also, if your
  69    system needs anything done to update the dynamic loader for shared
  70    libraries, (such as running ldconfig on Linux) then do it after
  71    each library is installed.
  72
  73
  74
  75 2. Compile and/or install wxGTK
  76 -------------------------------
  77
  78 A. You can find the sources and RPMs for wxGTK at
  79    ftp://wesley.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/pub/linux/wxxt/source/, or
  80    just follow the download links from http://wxwindows.org/.  You can
  81    also check out a current snapshot of the sources from the CVS
  82    server.  (Some information about annonymous CVS access is at
  83    http://wxwindows.org/cvs.htm.)  The advantage of using CVS is that
  84    you can easily update as soon as the developers check in new
  85    sources or fixes.  The advantage of using a released version is
  86    that it usually has had more testing done.  You can decide which
  87    method is best for you.
  88
  89 B. You'll usually want to use a version of wxGTK that has the same
  90    version number as the wxPython sources you are using.  (Another
  91    advantage of using CVS is that you'll get both at the same time.)
  92
  93 C. If using the RPMs be sure to get both the wxGTK and wxGTK-devel
  94    RPMs (at a minimum) and then install them as root.
  95
  96         rpm -Uhv wxGTK-2.2.2-0.i386.rpm wxGTK-devel-2.2.2-0.i386.rpm
  97
  98 D. If using the sources (either from the tarball or from CVS) then
  99    configure it like this:
 100
 101         cd wxWindows   # or whatever your top-level directory is called
 102         mkdir build
 103         cd build
 104         ../configure --with-gtk
 105
 106    There are gobs and gobs of options for the configure script, run
 107    ../configure --help to see them all.  I'll describe some that I find
 108    useful here.
 109
 110    If you have OpenGL or compatible libraries installed, then add the
 111    --with-opengl flag.
 112
 113    If you are on Solaris and are using a recent version of GCC, then
 114    you'll probably want to add the --enable-permissive flag so the
 115    compiler won't barf on your broken X11 header files.
 116
 117    To make a debugging version of wxGTK, add the --enable-debug flag.
 118    This sets the -g flag for the compiler and also activates some
 119    special debugging code in wxWindows by defining the __WXDEBUG__
 120    macro.  You'll get some extra asserts, failure logging, etc.
 121
 122 E. Now just compile and install.  You need to use GNU make, so if your
 123    system has something else get GNU make and build and install it and
 124    use it instead of your system's default make command.
 125
 126        make
 127        make install
 128
 129    The last step will probably have to be done as root.  Also, if your
 130    system needs anything done to update the dynamic loader for shared
 131    libraries, (such as running ldconfig on Linux) then do it now.
 132
 133 F. You can test your build by changing to one of the directories under
 134    build/samples or build/demos, running make and then running the
 135    executable that is built.
 136
 137
 138
 139 3. Compile and install wxPython
 140 -------------------------------
 141
 142 A. You have the same options (and same advantages/disadvantages) for
 143    getting the wxPython source, either a released snapshot or from
 144    CVS.  The released version file is named wxPython-[version].tar.gz
 145    and is available at http://wxpython.org/download.php.  If you want
 146    to use CVS you'll find wxPython in the wxWindows CVS tree (see
 147    above) in the wxWindows/wxPython directory.
 148
 149 B. As mentioned previouslly, wxPython is built with the standard
 150    Python Distutils tool.  If you are using Python 2.0 or later you
 151    are all set, otherwise you need to download and install Distutils
 152    1.0 from http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/.
 153
 154    On Unix systems Distutils figures out what commands and flags to
 155    use for the compiler and linker by looking in the Makefile that was
 156    used to build Python itself.  Most of the time this works okay.  If
 157    it doesn't, there doesn't seem to be a way to override the values
 158    that Distutils uses without hacking either Distutils itself, or
 159    Python's Makefile.  (Complain to the distutils-sig about this
 160    please.)  For example, on my Solaris system I had to edit
 161    /usr/local/lib/python1.5/config/Makefile and replace
 162
 163          LDSHARED=ld -G
 164
 165    with
 166
 167          LDSHARED=gcc -G
 168
 169    This particular problem has been fixed in Python 1.6 and beyond,
 170    but there may be similar issues on other platforms.
 171
 172    While we're on the subject of how Python was built... Since
 173    wxPython is a C++ extension some platforms and/or compilers will
 174    require that the Python executable was linked with the C++ linker
 175    in order for everything to work correctly.  If you build and
 176    install Python yourself then this is easy to take care of,
 177    otherwise you may have to mess with binary packages or bribe your
 178    system administrator...
 179
 180    In my case on Solaris wxPython applications would core dump on
 181    exit.  The core file indicated that the fault happened after
 182    _exit() was called and the run-time was trying to execute cleanup
 183    code.  After relinking the Python executable the problem went away.
 184    To build Python to link with the C++ linker do this:
 185
 186          cd Python-2.0      # wherever the root of the source tree is
 187          rm python          # in case it's still there from an old build
 188          make LINKCC=g++    # or whatever your C++ command is
 189          make install
 190
 191
 192 C. Change to the root wxPython directory and look at the setup.py
 193    file.  This is the script that configures and defines all the
 194    information that Distutils needs to build wxPython.  There are some
 195    options near the begining of the script that you may want or need
 196    to change based on your system and what options you have selected
 197    up to this point, (sources from tar.gz or from CVS, etc.)  You can
 198    either change these flags directly in setup.py or supply them on
 199    the command-line.
 200
 201         BUILD_GLCANVAS Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 202                        Open GL canvas extension module.  If you don't
 203                        have OpenGL or compatible libraries then you'll
 204                        need to set this to zero.
 205
 206              BUILD_OGL Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 207                        Object Graphics Library extension module.
 208
 209              BUILD_STC Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 210                        wxStyledTextCtrl (the Scintilla wrapper)
 211                        extension module.
 212
 213               USE_SWIG If you have edited any of the *.i files you
 214                        will need to set this flag to non-zero so SWIG
 215                        will be executed to regenerate the wrapper C++
 216                        and shadow python files.
 217
 218            IN_CVS_TREE If you are using the CVS version of the
 219                        wxWindows and wxPython sources then you will
 220                        need to set this flag to non-zero.  This is
 221                        needed because some source files from the
 222                        wxWindows tree are copied to be under the
 223                        wxPython tree in order to keep Distutils happy.
 224                        With this flag set then setup.py will
 225                        automatically keep these copied sources up to
 226                        date if the original version is ever updated.
 227                        If you are using the tar.gz version of the
 228                        Python sources then these copied sources are
 229                        already present in your source tree.
 230
 231
 232 D. To build and install wxPython you simply need to execute the
 233    setup.py script.  If you have more than one version of Python
 234    installed, be sure to execute setup.py with the version you want to
 235    build wxPython for.  Depending on the permissions on your
 236    site-packages directory you may need to be root to run the install
 237    command.
 238
 239          python setup.py build
 240          python setup.py install
 241
 242 E. At this point you should be able to change into the wxPython/demo
 243    directory and run the demo:
 244
 245          python demo.py
 246
 247 F. If you would like to make a test build that doesn't overwrite the
 248    installed version of wxPython you can do so with this command
 249    instead of the install command above:
 250
 251          python setup.py build_ext --inplace
 252
 253    This will build the wxPython package in the local wxPython
 254    directory instead of installing it under your Python installation.
 255    To run using this test version just add the base wxPython source
 256    directory to the PYTHONPATH:
 257
 258          export PYTHONPATH=~/projects/wxWindows/wxPython
 259          # or whatever is required for your shell
 260          cd ~/projects/wxWindows/wxPython/demo
 261          python demo.py
 262
 263
 264 That's all folks!
 265
 266
 267 -----------------
 268 robin@alldunn.com