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 apply
  18 the patches and updates in wxPython/SWIG and rebuild it.  Then you'll
  19 need to change a flag in the setup.py script as described below so the
  20 wxPython build process will use SWIG if needed.
  21
  22 I use the new Python Distutils tool to build wxPython.  It is included
  23 with Python 2.0, but if you want to use Python 1.5.2 or 1.6 then
  24 you'll need to download and install Distutils 1.0 from
  25 http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/
  26
  27 I usually use RedHat Linux when working on the wxGTK version of
  28 wxPython, but I occasionally build and test on Solaris and I hope to
  29 be able to add some other platforms soon.  The compiler I use is
  30 whatever comes with the current version of RedHat I am using.  I find
  31 that there are less portability problems with the RPMs if I don't try
  32 using the latest and greatest compilers all the time.  On the other
  33 platforms I usually stick with as recent a version of GCC that I can
  34 find pre-built for that platform.
  35
  36 Okay, now on the the fun stuff...
  37
  38
  39 1. Compile and/or install glib and gtk+
  40 ---------------------------------------
  41
  42 A. First of all, check and see if you've already got glib/gtk+ on your
  43    system, all the Linux distributions I know of come with it, at
  44    least as an option.  Look for libglib.* and libgtk.* in your system's
  45    standard library directories.  You'll also need the headers and
  46    config scripts in order to build things that use glib/gtk.  Try
  47    running gtk-config:
  48
  49            gtk-config --version
  50
  51    If you have version 1.2.5 or better then you're all set.  You can
  52    skip to step #2.
  53
  54 B. If your system has a binary package mechanism, (RPMs, debs,
  55    whatever...) check and see if binaries for glib abd gtk+ are
  56    available.  Be sure to get the runtime library package as well as
  57    the development package, if they are separate.  Install them with
  58    your package tool, and skip to step #2.
  59
  60 C. If all else fails, you can get the source code for glib and gtk+ at
  61    http://www.gtk.org/.  Fetch the latest of each in the 1.2.x
  62    series.  Compile and install each of them like this:
  63
  64             gzip -d [package].tar.gz | tar xvf -
  65             cd [package]
  66             ./configure
  67             make
  68             make install
  69
  70    The last step will probably have to be done as root.  Also, if your
  71    system needs anything done to update the dynamic loader for shared
  72    libraries, (such as running ldconfig on Linux) then do it after
  73    each library is installed.
  74
  75
  76
  77 2. Compile and/or install wxGTK
  78 -------------------------------
  79
  80 A. You can find the sources and RPMs for wxGTK at
  81    ftp://wesley.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/pub/linux/wxxt/source/, or
  82    just follow the download links from http://wxwindows.org/.  You can
  83    also check out a current snapshot of the sources from the CVS
  84    server.  (Some information about annonymous CVS access is at
  85    http://wxwindows.org/cvs.htm.)  The advantage of using CVS is that
  86    you can easily update as soon as the developers check in new
  87    sources or fixes.  The advantage of using a released version is
  88    that it usually has had more testing done.  You can decide which
  89    method is best for you.
  90
  91 B. You'll usually want to use a version of wxGTK that has the same
  92    version number as the wxPython sources you are using.  (Another
  93    advantage of using CVS is that you'll get both at the same time.)
  94
  95 C. If using the RPMs be sure to get both the wxGTK and wxGTK-devel
  96    RPMs (at a minimum) and then install them as root.
  97
  98         rpm -Uhv wxGTK-2.2.2-0.i386.rpm wxGTK-devel-2.2.2-0.i386.rpm
  99
 100 D. If using the sources (either from the tarball or from CVS) then
 101    configure it like this:
 102
 103         cd wxWindows   # or whatever your top-level directory is called
 104         mkdir build
 105         cd build
 106         ../configure --with-gtk
 107
 108    There are gobs and gobs of options for the configure script, run
 109    ../configure --help to see them all.  I'll describe some that I find
 110    useful here.
 111
 112    If you have OpenGL or compatible libraries installed, then add the
 113    --with-opengl flag.
 114
 115    If you are on Solaris and are using a recent version of GCC, then
 116    you'll probably want to add the --enable-permissive flag so the
 117    compiler won't barf on your broken X11 header files.
 118
 119    To make a debugging version of wxGTK, add the --enable-debug flag.
 120    This sets the -g flag for the compiler and also activates some
 121    special debugging code in wxWindows by defining the __WXDEBUG__
 122    macro.  You'll get some extra asserts, failure logging, etc.
 123
 124    To make a static library and not make a shared library, use the
 125    --disable-shared and --enable-static flags.
 126
 127 E. Now just compile and install.  You need to use GNU make, so if your
 128    system has something else get GNU make and build and install it and
 129    use it instead of your system's default make command.
 130
 131        make
 132        make install
 133
 134    The last step will probably have to be done as root.  Also, if your
 135    system needs anything done to update the dynamic loader for shared
 136    libraries, (such as running ldconfig on Linux) then do it now.
 137
 138 F. You can test your build by changing to one of the directories under
 139    build/samples or build/demos, running make and then running the
 140    executable that is built.
 141
 142
 143
 144 3. Compile and install wxPython
 145 -------------------------------
 146
 147 A. You have the same options (and same advantages/disadvantages) for
 148    getting the wxPython source, either a released snapshot or from
 149    CVS.  The released version file is named wxPython-[version].tar.gz
 150    and is available at http://wxpython.org/download.php.  If you want
 151    to use CVS you'll find wxPython in the wxWindows CVS tree (see
 152    above) in the wxWindows/wxPython directory.
 153
 154 B. As mentioned previouslly, wxPython is built with the standard
 155    Python Distutils tool.  If you are using Python 2.0 or later you
 156    are all set, otherwise you need to download and install Distutils
 157    1.0 from http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/.
 158
 159    On Unix systems Distutils figures out what commands and flags to
 160    use for the compiler and linker by looking in the Makefile that was
 161    used to build Python itself.  Most of the time this works okay.  If
 162    it doesn't, there doesn't seem to be a way to override the values
 163    that Distutils uses without hacking either Distutils itself, or
 164    Python's Makefile.  (Complain to the distutils-sig about this
 165    please.)  For example, on my Solaris system I had to edit
 166    /usr/local/lib/python1.5/config/Makefile and replace
 167
 168          LDSHARED=ld -G
 169
 170    with
 171
 172          LDSHARED=gcc -G
 173
 174    This particular problem has been fixed in Python 1.6 and beyond,
 175    but there may be similar issues on other platforms.
 176
 177    While we're on the subject of how Python was built... Since
 178    wxPython is a C++ extension some platforms and/or compilers will
 179    require that the Python executable was linked with the C++ linker
 180    in order for everything to work correctly.  If you build and
 181    install Python yourself then this is easy to take care of,
 182    otherwise you may have to mess with binary packages or bribe your
 183    system administrator...
 184
 185    In my case on Solaris wxPython applications would core dump on
 186    exit.  The core file indicated that the fault happened after
 187    _exit() was called and the run-time was trying to execute cleanup
 188    code.  After relinking the Python executable the problem went away.
 189    To build Python to link with the C++ linker do this:
 190
 191          cd Python-2.0      # wherever the root of the source tree is
 192          rm python          # in case it's still there from an old build
 193          make LINKCC=g++    # or whatever your C++ command is
 194          make install
 195
 196
 197 C. Change to the root wxPython directory and look at the setup.py
 198    file.  This is the script that configures and defines all the
 199    information that Distutils needs to build wxPython.  There are some
 200    options near the begining of the script that you may want or need
 201    to change based on your system and what options you have selected
 202    up to this point, (sources from tar.gz or from CVS, etc.)  You can
 203    either change these flags directly in setup.py or supply them on
 204    the command-line.
 205
 206         BUILD_GLCANVAS Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 207                        Open GL canvas extension module.  If you don't
 208                        have OpenGL or compatible libraries then you'll
 209                        need to set this to zero.
 210
 211              BUILD_OGL Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 212                        Object Graphics Library extension module.
 213
 214              BUILD_STC Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 215                        wxStyledTextCtrl (the Scintilla wrapper)
 216                        extension module.
 217
 218               USE_SWIG If you have edited any of the *.i files you
 219                        will need to set this flag to non-zero so SWIG
 220                        will be executed to regenerate the wrapper C++
 221                        and shadow python files.
 222
 223            IN_CVS_TREE If you are using the CVS version of the
 224                        wxWindows and wxPython sources then you will
 225                        need to set this flag to non-zero.  This is
 226                        needed because some source files from the
 227                        wxWindows tree are copied to be under the
 228                        wxPython tree in order to keep Distutils happy.
 229                        With this flag set then setup.py will
 230                        automatically keep these copied sources up to
 231                        date if the original version is ever updated.
 232                        If you are using the tar.gz version of the
 233                        Python sources then these copied sources are
 234                        already present in your source tree.
 235
 236
 237 D. To build and install wxPython you simply need to execute the
 238    setup.py script.  If you have more than one version of Python
 239    installed, be sure to execute setup.py with the version you want to
 240    build wxPython for.  Depending on the permissions on your
 241    site-packages directory you may need to be root to run the install
 242    command.
 243
 244          python setup.py build
 245          python setup.py install
 246
 247 E. At this point you should be able to change into the wxPython/demo
 248    directory and run the demo:
 249
 250          python demo.py
 251
 252 F. If you would like to make a test build that doesn't overwrite the
 253    installed version of wxPython you can do so with this command
 254    instead of the install command above:
 255
 256          python setup.py build_ext --inplace
 257
 258    This will build the wxPython package in the local wxPython
 259    directory instead of installing it under your Python installation.
 260    To run using this test version just add the base wxPython source
 261    directory to the PYTHONPATH:
 262
 263          export PYTHONPATH=~/projects/wxWindows/wxPython
 264          # or whatever is required for your shell
 265          cd ~/projects/wxWindows/wxPython/demo
 266          python demo.py
 267
 268
 269 That's all folks!
 270
 271
 272 -----------------
 273 robin@alldunn.com