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    NOTE: It has been discovered that some pre-built distributions of
 128    Python are built with options that can cause incompatibilities
 129    between wxPython and wxGTK.  Typically these are things like large
 130    file support on the platforms that have it.  This causes some basic
 131    types, like off_t, to be typedef'd differently causing the C++
 132    method signatures to be incompatible and giving link errors.  The
 133    way to fix this is to activate these same settings in the wxGTK
 134    build, usually by looking at the flags and options used in
 135    compiling wxPython that are different from the options used on
 136    wxGTK compiles.  For example, on SuSE doing the following before
 137    running wxGTK's configure seems to take care of it:
 138
 139    export CFLAGS="-D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -DHAVE_LARGEFILE_SUPPORT"
 140    export CXXFLAGS=$CFLAGS
 141
 142
 143 E. Now just compile and install.  You need to use GNU make, so if your
 144    system has something else get GNU make and build and install it and
 145    use it instead of your system's default make command.
 146
 147        make
 148        make install
 149
 150    The last step will probably have to be done as root.  Also, if your
 151    system needs anything done to update the dynamic loader for shared
 152    libraries, (such as running ldconfig on Linux) then do it now.
 153
 154 F. You can test your build by changing to one of the directories under
 155    build/samples or build/demos, running make and then running the
 156    executable that is built.
 157
 158
 159
 160 3. Compile and install wxPython
 161 -------------------------------
 162
 163 A. You have the same options (and same advantages/disadvantages) for
 164    getting the wxPython source, either a released snapshot or from
 165    CVS.  The released version file is named wxPython-[version].tar.gz
 166    and is available at http://wxpython.org/download.php.  If you want
 167    to use CVS you'll find wxPython in the wxWindows CVS tree (see
 168    above) in the wxWindows/wxPython directory.
 169
 170 B. As mentioned previouslly, wxPython is built with the standard
 171    Python Distutils tool.  If you are using Python 2.0 or later you
 172    are all set, otherwise you need to download and install Distutils
 173    1.0 from http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/.
 174
 175    On Unix systems Distutils figures out what commands and flags to
 176    use for the compiler and linker by looking in the Makefile that was
 177    used to build Python itself.  Most of the time this works okay.  If
 178    it doesn't, there doesn't seem to be a way to override the values
 179    that Distutils uses without hacking either Distutils itself, or
 180    Python's Makefile.  (Complain to the distutils-sig about this
 181    please.)  For example, on a Solaris system I had to edit
 182    /usr/local/lib/python1.5/config/Makefile and replace
 183
 184          LDSHARED=ld -G
 185
 186    with
 187
 188          LDSHARED=gcc -G
 189
 190    This particular problem has been fixed in Python 1.6 and beyond,
 191    but there may be similar issues on other platforms.
 192
 193    While we're on the subject of how Python was built... Since
 194    wxPython is a C++ extension some platforms and/or compilers will
 195    require that the Python executable was linked with the C++ linker
 196    in order for everything to work correctly.  If you build and
 197    install Python yourself then this is easy to take care of,
 198    otherwise you may have to mess with binary packages or bribe your
 199    system administrator...
 200
 201    In my case on Solaris wxPython applications would core dump on
 202    exit.  The core file indicated that the fault happened after
 203    _exit() was called and the run-time library was trying to execute
 204    cleanup code.  After relinking the Python executable the problem
 205    went away.  To build Python to link with the C++ linker do this:
 206
 207          cd Python-2.0      # wherever the root of the source tree is
 208          rm python          # in case it's still there from an old build
 209          make LINKCC=g++    # or whatever your C++ command is
 210          make install
 211
 212
 213 C. Change to the root wxPython directory and look at the setup.py
 214    file.  This is the script that configures and defines all the
 215    information that Distutils needs to build wxPython.  There are some
 216    options near the begining of the script that you may want or need
 217    to change based on your system and what options you have selected
 218    up to this point, (sources from tar.gz or from CVS, etc.)  You can
 219    either change these flags directly in setup.py or supply them on
 220    the command-line.
 221
 222         BUILD_GLCANVAS Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 223                        Open GL canvas extension module.  If you don't
 224                        have OpenGL or compatible libraries then you'll
 225                        need to set this to zero.
 226
 227              BUILD_OGL Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 228                        Object Graphics Library extension module.
 229
 230              BUILD_STC Set to zero if you don't want to build the
 231                        wxStyledTextCtrl (the Scintilla wrapper)
 232                        extension module.
 233
 234               USE_SWIG If you have edited any of the *.i files you
 235                        will need to set this flag to non-zero so SWIG
 236                        will be executed to regenerate the wrapper C++
 237                        and shadow python files.
 238
 239            IN_CVS_TREE If you are using the CVS version of the
 240                        wxWindows and wxPython sources then you will
 241                        need to set this flag to non-zero.  This is
 242                        needed because some source files from the
 243                        wxWindows tree are copied to be under the
 244                        wxPython tree in order to keep Distutils happy.
 245                        With this flag set then setup.py will
 246                        automatically keep these copied sources up to
 247                        date if the original version is ever updated.
 248                        If you are using the tar.gz version of the
 249                        Python sources then these copied sources are
 250                        already present in your source tree.
 251
 252
 253 D. To build and install wxPython you simply need to execute the
 254    setup.py script.  If you have more than one version of Python
 255    installed, be sure to execute setup.py with the version you want to
 256    build wxPython for.  Depending on the permissions on your
 257    site-packages directory you may need to be root to run the install
 258    command.
 259
 260          python setup.py build
 261          python setup.py install
 262
 263 E. At this point you should be able to change into the wxPython/demo
 264    directory and run the demo:
 265
 266          python demo.py
 267
 268 F. If you would like to make a test build that doesn't overwrite the
 269    installed version of wxPython you can do so with this command
 270    instead of the install command above:
 271
 272          python setup.py build_ext --inplace
 273
 274    This will build the wxPython package in the local wxPython
 275    directory instead of installing it under your Python installation.
 276    To run using this test version just add the base wxPython source
 277    directory to the PYTHONPATH:
 278
 279          export PYTHONPATH=~/projects/wxWindows/wxPython
 280          # or whatever is required for your shell
 281          cd ~/projects/wxWindows/wxPython/demo
 282          python demo.py
 283
 284
 285 That's all folks!
 286
 287
 288 -----------------
 289 robin@alldunn.com