--- /dev/null
+Building wxPython on Unix or Unix-like Systems
+----------------------------------------------
+
+The basic steps for building wxPython for Unix or Unix-like systems
+are:
+
+ 1. Compile and/or install glib and gtk+
+ 2. Compile and/or install wxGTK
+ 3. Compile and install wxPython
+
+We'll go into more detail of each of these steps below, but first a
+few bits of background information on tools.
+
+I use a tool called SWIG (http://www.swig.org) to help generate the
+C++ sources used in the wxPython extension module. However you don't
+need to have SWIG unless you want to modify the *.i files. If you do
+you'll want to have version 1.1-883 of SWIG and you'll need to change
+a flag in the setup.py script as described below.
+
+I use the new Python Distutils tool to build wxPython. It is included
+with Python 2.0, but if you want to use Python 1.5.2 or 1.6 then
+you'll need to download and install Distutils 1.0 from
+http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/
+
+I usually use RedHat Linux when working on the wxGTK version of
+wxPython, but I occasionally build and test on Solaris and I hope to
+be able to add some other platforms soon. The compiler I use is
+whatever comes with the current version of RedHat I am using. I find
+that there are less portability problems with the RPMs if I don't try
+using the latest and greatest compilers all the time. On the other
+platforms I usually stick with as recent a version of GCC that I can
+find pre-built for that platform.
+
+Okay, now on the the fun stuff...
+
+
+1. Compile and/or install glib and gtk+
+---------------------------------------
+
+A. First of all, check and see if you've already got glib/gtk+ on your
+ system, all the Linux distributions I know of come with it, at
+ least as an option. Look for libglib.* and libgtk.* in your system's
+ standard library directories. You'll also need the headers and
+ config scripts in order to build things that use glib/gtk. Try
+ running gtk-config:
+
+ gtk-config --version
+
+ If you have version 1.2.5 or better then you're all set. You can
+ skip to step #2.
+
+B. If your system has a binary package mechanism, (RPMs, debs,
+ whatever...) check and see if binaries for glib abd gtk+ are
+ available. Be sure to get the runtime library package as well as
+ the development package, if they are separate. Install them with
+ your package tool, and skip to step #2.
+
+C. If all else fails, you can get the source code for glib and gtk+ at
+ http://www.gtk.org/. Fetch the latest of each in the 1.2.x
+ series. Compile and install each of them like this:
+
+ gzip -d [package].tar.gz | tar xvf -
+ cd [package]
+ ./configure
+ make
+ make install
+
+ The last step will probably have to be done as root. Also, if your
+ system needs anything done to update the dynamic loader for shared
+ libraries, (such as running ldconfig on Linux) then do it after
+ each library is installed.
+
+
+
+2. Compile and/or install wxGTK
+-------------------------------
+
+A. You can find the sources and RPMs for wxGTK at
+ ftp://wesley.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/pub/linux/wxxt/source/, or
+ just follow the download links from http://wxwindows.org/. You can
+ also check out a current snapshot of the sources from the CVS
+ server. (Some information about annonymous CVS access is at
+ http://wxwindows.org/cvs.htm.) The advantage of using CVS is that
+ you can easily update as soon as the developers check in new
+ sources or fixes. The advantage of using a released version is
+ that it usually has had more testing done. You can decide which
+ method is best for you.
+
+B. You'll usually want to use a version of wxGTK that has the same
+ version number as the wxPython sources you are using. (Another
+ advantage of using CVS is that you'll get both at the same time.)
+
+C. If using the RPMs be sure to get both the wxGTK and wxGTK-devel
+ RPMs (at a minimum) and then install them as root.
+
+ rpm -Uhv wxGTK-2.2.2-0.i386.rpm wxGTK-devel-2.2.2-0.i386.rpm
+
+D. If using the sources (either from the tarball or from CVS) then
+ configure it like this:
+
+ cd wxWindows # or whatever your top-level directory is called
+ mkdir build
+ cd build
+ ../configure --with-gtk
+
+ There are gobs and gobs of options for the configure script, run
+ ../configure --help to see them all. I'll describe some that I find
+ useful here.
+
+ If you have OpenGL or compatible libraries installed, then add the
+ --with-opengl flag.
+
+ If you are on Solaris and are using a recent version of GCC, then
+ you'll probably want to add the --enable-permissive flag so the
+ compiler won't barf on your broken X11 header files.
+
+ To make a debugging version of wxGTK, add the --enable-debug flag.
+ This sets the -g flag for the compiler and also activates some
+ special debugging code in wxWindows by defining the __WXDEBUG__
+ macro. You'll get some extra asserts, failure logging, etc.
+
+E. Now just compile and install. You need to use GNU make, so if your
+ system has something else get GNU make and build and install it and
+ use it instead of your system's default make command.
+
+ make
+ make install
+
+ The last step will probably have to be done as root. Also, if your
+ system needs anything done to update the dynamic loader for shared
+ libraries, (such as running ldconfig on Linux) then do it now.
+
+F. You can test your build by changing to one of the directories under
+ build/samples or build/demos, running make and then running the
+ executable that is built.
+
+
+
+3. Compile and install wxPython
+-------------------------------
+
+A. You have the same options (and same advantages/disadvantages) for
+ getting the wxPython source, either a released snapshot or from
+ CVS. The released version file is named wxPython-[version].tar.gz
+ and is available at http://wxpython.org/download.php. If you want
+ to use CVS you'll find wxPython in the wxWindows CVS tree (see
+ above) in the wxWindows/wxPython directory.
+
+B. As mentioned previouslly, wxPython is built with the standard
+ Python Distutils tool. If you are using Python 2.0 or later you
+ are all set, otherwise you need to download and install Distutils
+ 1.0 from http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/.
+
+ On Unix systems Distutils figures out what commands and flags to
+ use for the compiler and linker by looking in the Makefile that was
+ used to build Python itself. Most of the time this works okay. If
+ it doesn't, there doesn't seem to be a way to override the values
+ that Distutils uses without hacking either Distutils itself, or
+ Python's Makefile. (Complain to the distutils-sig about this
+ please.) For example, on my Solaris system I had to edit
+ /usr/local/lib/python1.5/config/Makefile and replace
+
+ LDSHARED=ld -G
+
+ with
+
+ LDSHARED=gcc -G
+
+ This particular problem has been fixed in Python 1.6 and beyond,
+ but there may be similar issues on other platforms.
+
+ While we're on the subject of how Python was built... Since
+ wxPython is a C++ extension some platforms and/or compilers will
+ require that the Python executable was linked with the C++ linker
+ in order for everything to work correctly. If you build and
+ install Python yourself then this is easy to take care of,
+ otherwise you may have to mess with binary packages or bribe your
+ system administrator...
+
+ In my case on Solaris wxPython applications would core dump on
+ exit. The core file indicated that the fault happened after
+ _exit() was called and the run-time was trying to execute cleanup
+ code. After relinking the Python executable the problem went away.
+ To build Python to link with the C++ linker do this:
+
+ cd Python-2.0 # wherever the root of the source tree is
+ rm python # in case it's still there from an old build
+ make LINKCC=g++ # or whatever your C++ command is
+ make install
+
+
+C. Change to the root wxPython directory and look at the setup.py
+ file. This is the script that configures and defines all the
+ information that Distutils needs to build wxPython. There are some
+ options near the begining of the script that you may want or need
+ to change based on your system and what options you have selected
+ up to this point, (sources from tar.gz or from CVS, etc.) You can
+ either change these flags directly in setup.py or supply them on
+ the command-line.
+
+ BUILD_GLCANVAS Set to zero if you don't want to build the
+ Open GL canvas extension module. If you don't
+ have OpenGL or compatible libraries then you'll
+ need to set this to zero.
+
+ BUILD_OGL Set to zero if you don't want to build the
+ Object Graphics Library extension module.
+
+ BUILD_STC Set to zero if you don't want to build the
+ wxStyledTextCtrl (the Scintilla wrapper)
+ extension module.
+
+ USE_SWIG If you have edited any of the *.i files you
+ will need to set this flag to non-zero so SWIG
+ will be executed to regenerate the wrapper C++
+ and shadow python files.
+
+ IN_CVS_TREE If you are using the CVS version of the
+ wxWindows and wxPython sources then you will
+ need to set this flag to non-zero. This is
+ needed because some source files from the
+ wxWindows tree are copied to be under the
+ wxPython tree in order to keep Distutils happy.
+ With this flag set then setup.py will
+ automatically keep these copied sources up to
+ date if the original version is ever updated.
+ If you are using the tar.gz version of the
+ Python sources then these copied sources are
+ already present in your source tree.
+
+
+D. To build and install wxPython you simply need to execute the
+ setup.py script. If you have more than one version of Python
+ installed, be sure to execute setup.py with the version you want to
+ build wxPython for. Depending on the permissions on your
+ site-packages directory you may need to be root to run the install
+ command.
+
+ python setup.py build
+ python setup.py install
+
+E. At this point you should be able to change into the wxPython/demo
+ directory and run the demo:
+
+ python demo.py
+
+F. If you would like to make a test build that doesn't overwrite the
+ installed version of wxPython you can do so with this command
+ instead of the install command above:
+
+ python setup.py build_ext --inplace
+
+ This will build the wxPython package in the local wxPython
+ directory instead of installing it under your Python installation.
+ To run using this test version just add the base wxPython source
+ directory to the PYTHONPATH:
+
+ export PYTHONPATH=~/projects/wxWindows/wxPython
+ # or whatever is required for your shell
+ cd ~/projects/wxWindows/wxPython/demo
+ python demo.py
+
+
+That's all folks!
+
+
+-----------------
+robin@alldunn.com
projects / wxWidgets.git / blobdiff