-Building wxPython 2.5 for Development and Testing
+Building wxPython 2.8 for Development and Testing
=================================================
This file describes how I build wxWidgets and wxPython while doing
development and testing, and is meant to help other people that want
to do the same thing. I'll assume that you are using either a CVS
snapshot from http://wxWidgets.org/snapshots/, a checkout from CVS, or
-one of the released wxPythonSrc-2.5.* tarballs. I'll also assume that
+one of the released wxPython-src-2.8.* tarballs. I'll also assume that
you know your way around your system, the compiler, etc. and most
importantly, that you know what you are doing! ;-)
.. _INSTALL: INSTALL.html
.. _BUILD: BUILD.html
-If you want to make changes to any of the ``*.i`` files, (SWIG interface
-definition files,) or to regenerate the extension sources or renamer
-modules, then you will need an up to date version of SWIG. Either get
-and build the current CVS version, or version 1.3.20, and then apply
-the patches in wxPython/SWIG. See the README.txt in that dir for
-details about each patch and also info about those that may already
-have been applied to the SWIG sources. If you install this build of
-SWIG to a location that is not on the PATH (so it doesn't interfere
-with an existing SWIG install for example) then you can set a setup.py
-command-line variable named SWIG to be the full path name of the
-executable and the wxPython build will use it. See below for an
-example.
+If you want to make changes to any of the ``*.i`` files, (SWIG
+interface definition files,) or to regenerate the extension sources or
+renamer modules, then you will need an up to date version of SWIG,
+plus some patches. Get the sources for version 1.3.29, and then apply
+the patches in wxPython/SWIG and then build SWIG like normal. See the
+README.txt in the wxPython/SWIG dir for details about each patch and
+also info about those that may already have been applied to the SWIG
+sources. If you install this build of SWIG to a location that is not
+on the PATH (so it doesn't interfere with an existing SWIG install for
+example) then you can use a setup.py command-line option named SWIG
+set to the full path name of the executable and the wxPython build will
+use it. See below for an example.
In the text below I'll use WXDIR with environment variable syntax
-(either $WXDIR or %WXDIR%) to refer to the top level directory were
-your wxWidgerts and wxPython sources are located. It will equate to
+(either $WXDIR or %WXDIR%) to refer to the top level directory where
+your wxWidgets and wxPython sources are located. It will equate to
whereever you checked out the wxWidgets module from CVS, or untarred
-the wxPythonSrc tarball to. You can either substitute the $WXDIR text
+the wxPython-src tarball to. You can either substitute the $WXDIR text
below with your actual dir, or set the value in the environment and
use it just like you see it below.
If you run into what appears to be compatibility issues between
wxWidgets and wxPython while building wxPython, be sure you are using
-the wxWidgets sources included with the wxPythonSrc tarball or the CVS
-snapshot, and not a previously installed version or a version
+the wxWidgets sources included with the wxPython-src tarball or the
+CVS snapshot, and not a previously installed version or a version
installed from one of the standard wxWidgets installers. With the
"unstable" releases (have a odd-numbered minor release value, where
the APIs are allowed to change) there are often significant
rerun the script without having to remember the options I used
before::
- cd $WXDIR
+ cd $WXDIR
mkdir bld
cd bld
- ../configure --prefix=/opt/wx/2.5 \
+ ../configure --prefix=/opt/wx/2.8 \
--with-gtk \
+ --with-gnomeprint \
--with-opengl \
--enable-debug \
--enable-geometry \
+ --enable-graphics_ctx \
--enable-sound --with-sdl \
+ --enable-mediactrl \
--enable-display \
+ --disable-debugreport \
On OS X of course you'll want to use --with-mac instead of
- --with-gtk.
-
- **NOTE**: Due to a recent change there is a dependency problem in the
- multilib builds of wxWidgets on OSX, so I have switched to a
- monolithic build on that platform. (IOW, all of the core code in
- one shared library instead of several.) I would also expect other
- unix builds to do just fine with a monolithic library, but I havn't
- tested it in a while so your mileage may vary. Anyway, to switch
+ --with-gtk and --with-gnomeprint.
+
+ Notice that above I used a prefix option of "/opt/wx/2.8". You can
+ use whatever path you want, such as a path in your HOME dir or even
+ one of the standard prefix paths such as /usr or /usr/local if you
+ like, but using /opt this way lets me easily have multiple versions
+ and ports of wxWidgets "installed" and makes it easy to switch
+ between them, without impacting any versions of wxWidgets that may
+ have been installed via an RPM or whatever. For the rest of the
+ steps below be sure to also substitute "/opt/wx/2.8" with whatever
+ prefix you choose for your build.
+
+ **NOTE**: Due to a recent change there is currently a dependency
+ problem in the multilib builds of wxWidgets on OSX, so I have
+ switched to using a monolithic build. That means that all of the
+ core wxWidgets code is placed in in one shared library instead of
+ several. wxPython can be used with either mode, so use whatever
+ suits you on Linux and etc. but use monolithic on OSX. To switch
to the monolithic build of wxWidgets just add this configure flag::
- --enable-monolithic \
+ --enable-monolithic \
- By default GTK2 will be selected if it is on your build system. To
- force the use of GTK 1.2.x add this flag::
+ By default GTK 2.x will be used for the build. If you would rather
+ use GTK 1.2.x for some reason then you can force configure to use
+ it by changing the --with-gtk flag to specify it like this::
- --disable-gtk2 \
+ --with-gtk=1 \
- To make the wxWidgets build be Unicode enabled (strongly
- recommended if you are building with GTK2) then add::
+ To make the wxWidgets build be unicode enabled (strongly
+ recommended unless you are building with GTK1) then add the
+ following flag. When wxPython is unicode enabled then all strings
+ that are passed to wx functions and methods will first be converted
+ to unicode objects, and any 'strings' returned from wx functions
+ and methods will actually be unicode objects.::
--enable-unicode \
- Notice that I used a prefix of /opt/wx/2.5. You can use whatever
- path you want, such as a path in your HOME dir or even one of the
- standard prefix paths such as /usr or /usr/local if you like, but
- using /opt this way lets me easily have multiple versions and ports
- of wxWidgets "installed" and makes it easy to switch between them,
- without impacting any versions of wxWidgets that may have been
- installed via an RPM or whatever. For the rest of the steps below
- be sure to also substitute "/opt/wx/2.5" with whatever prefix you
- choose for your build.
-
If you want to use the image and zlib libraries included with
wxWidgets instead of those already installed on your system, (for
example, to reduce dependencies on 3rd party libraries) then you
2. To build and install wxWidgets you could just use the "make"
- command but there are other libraries besides the main wxWidgets
- libs that also need to be built so again I make a script to do it
- all for me so I don't forget anything. This time it is called
- ".make" (I use the leading "." so when I do ``rm -r *`` in my build
- dir I don't lose my scripts too.) This is what it looks like::
+ command but there are a couple other libraries besides the main
+ wxWidgets libs that also need to be built so again I make a script
+ to do it all for me so I don't forget anything. This time it is
+ called ".make" (I use the leading "." so when I do ``rm -r *`` in
+ my build dir I don't lose my scripts too.) This is what it looks
+ like::
make $* \
&& make -C contrib/src/gizmos $* \
- && make -C contrib/src/ogl CXXFLAGS="-DwxUSE_DEPRECATED=0" $* \
- && make -C contrib/src/stc $* \
- && make -C contrib/src/xrc $*
+ && make -C contrib/src/stc $*
So you just use .make as if it where make, but don't forget to set
the execute bit on .make first!::
.make install
When it's done you should have an installed set of files under
- /opt/wx/2.5 containing just wxWidgets. Now to use this version of
- wxWidgets you just need to add /opt/wx/2.5/bin to the PATH and set
- LD_LIBRARY_PATH (or DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH on OS X) to /opt/wx/2.5/lib.
+ /opt/wx/2.8 containing just wxWidgets. Now to use this version of
+ wxWidgets you just need to add /opt/wx/2.8/bin to the PATH and set
+ LD_LIBRARY_PATH (or DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH on OS X) to /opt/wx/2.8/lib.
3. I also have a script to help me build wxPython and it is checked in
to the CVS as wxWidgets/wxPython/b, but you probably don't want to
use it as it's very cryptic and expects that you want to run SWIG,
so if you don't have the latest patched up version of SWIG then
- you'll probably get stuck. So I'll just give the raw commands
- instead.
+ you'll probably get stuck. So in this document I'll just give the
+ raw commands instead.
We're not going to install the development version of wxPython with
these commands, so it won't impact your already installed version
If you have more than one version of Python on your system then be
sure to use the version of Python that you want to use when running
wxPython programs to run the setup.py commands below. I'll be
- using python2.3.
+ using python2.5.
- Make sure that the first wx-config found on the PATH is the one you
- installed above, and then change to the $WXDIR/wxPython dir and
- run the this command::
+ Make sure that the first wx-config found on the PATH is the one
+ belonging to the wxWidgets that you installed above, and then
+ change to the $WXDIR/wxPython dir and run the this command::
cd $WXDIR/wxPython
- python2.3 setup.py build_ext --inplace --debug
+ python2.5 setup.py build_ext --inplace --debug
If your new wx-config script is not on the PATH, or there is some
other version of it found first, then you can add this to the
command line to ensure your new one is used instead::
- WX_CONFIG=/opt/wx/2.5/bin/wx-config
+ WX_CONFIG=/opt/wx/2.8/bin/wx-config
By default setup.py will assume that you built wxWidgets to use
GTK2. If you built wxWidgets to use GTK 1.2.x then you should add
this flag to the command-line::
- WXPORT=gtk
+ WXPORT=gtk
- If you would like to do a Unicode enabled build (all strings sent
- to or retruned from wx functions are Unicode objects) and your
- wxWidgets was built with unicode enabled then add this flag::
+ Setup.py will assume by default that you are using a unicode build
+ of wxWidgets. If not then you can use this flag::
- UNICODE=1
+ UNICODE=0
If you are wanting to have the source files regenerated with swig,
+ (only neccessary if you make modifications to the ``*.i`` files,)
then you need to turn on the USE_SWIG flag and optionally tell it
where to find the new swig executable, so add these flags::
BUILD_GLCANVAS=0 to the setup.py command line to disable the
building of the glcanvas module.
- When the setup.py command is done you should have fully populated
- wxPython and wx packages locally in $WXDIR/wxPython/wxPython and
- $WXDIR/wxPython/wx, with all the extension modules (``*.so`` files)
- located in the wx package.
-
+ When the setup.py command is done you should have a fully populated
+ (but uninstalled) wx package located in your $WXDIR/wxPython/wx
+ directory.
+
4. To run code with the development version of wxPython, just set the
PYTHONPATH to the wxPython dir located in the source tree. For
example::
- export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/wx/2.5/lib
+ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/wx/2.8/lib
export PYTHONPATH=$WXDIR/wxPython
cd $WXDIR/wxPython/demo
- python2.3 demo.py
-
- OS X NOTE: You need to use "pythonw" on the command line to run
- wxPython applications. This version of the Python executable is
- part of the Python Framework and is allowed to interact with the
- display. You can also double click on a .py or a .pyw file from
- the finder (assuming that the PythonLauncher app is associated with
- these file extensions) and it will launch the Framework version of
- Python for you. For information about creating Applicaiton Bundles
- of your wxPython apps please see the wiki and the mail lists.
+ python2.5 demo.py
+
+ OS X NOTE: Depending on your version of OS X and Python you may
+ need to use "pythonw" on the command line to run wxPython
+ applications. This version of the Python executable is part of the
+ Python Framework and is allowed to interact with the display. You
+ can also double click on a .py or a .pyw file from the finder
+ (assuming that the PythonLauncher app is associated with these file
+ extensions) and it will launch the Framework version of Python for
+ you. For information about creating Applicaiton Bundles of your
+ wxPython apps please see the wiki and the mail lists.
SOLARIS NOTE: If you get unresolved symbol errors when importing
wxPython and you are running on Solaris and building with gcc, then
you may be able to work around the problem by uncommenting a bit of
- code in setup.py and building again. Look for 'SunOS' in setup.py
+ code in config.py and building again. Look for 'SunOS' in config.py
and uncomment the block containing it. The problem is that Sun's ld
does not automatically add libgcc to the link step.
happen. If you want to try that then first you'll want to find out if
there are any tricks that have to be done to make Python extension
modules using that compiler, and then make a few changes to setup.py
-to accomodate that. (And send the patches to me.) If you plan on
-using VisualStudio.Net (a.k.a. MSVC 7.1) keep in mind that you'll also
-have to build Python and any other extension modules that you use with
-that compiler because a different version of the C runtime library is
-used. The Python executable that comes from PythonLabs and the
-wxPython extensions that I distribute are built with MSVC 6 with all
-the Service Packs applied. This policy will change with Python 2.4
-and MSVC 7.1 will be used starting with that version.
+to accommodate that. (And send the patches to me.)
+
+The standard Python 2.3 and earlier are built with MS Visual C 6.0 and
+so you must also build with MSVC 6 in order to be used with the stock
+python.exe. If you woudl rather use a different version of
+VisualStudio keep in mind that you'll also have to build Python and
+any other extension modules that you use with that compiler because a
+different version of the C runtime library is used. The stock Python
+2.4 and 2.5 executables are built with MSVC 7.1, and the same rules
+apply to it.
If you want to build a debuggable version of wxWidgets and wxPython you
will need to have also built a debug version of Python and any other
extension modules you need to use. You can tell if you have them
already if there is a _d in the file names, for example python_d.exe
-or python23_d.dll. If you don't need to trace through the C/C++ parts
+or python25_d.dll. If you don't need to trace through the C/C++ parts
of the code with the debugger then building the normal (or hybrid)
version is fine, and you can use the regular python executables with
it.
+Starting with 2.5.3.0 wxPython can be built for either the monlithic
+or the multi-lib wxWidgets builds. (Monolithic means that all the
+core wxWidgets code is in one DLL, and multi-lib means that the core
+code is divided into multiple DLLs.) To select which one to use
+specify the MONOLITHIC flag for both the wxWidgets build and the
+wxPython build as shown below, setting it to either 0 or 1.
+
Just like the unix versions I also use some scripts to help me build
wxWidgets, but I use some non-standard stuff to do it. So if you have
bash (cygwin or probably MSYS too) or 4NT plus unix-like cat and sed
The \*.btm files are for 4NT and the others are for bash. They are::
- .make/.make.btm Builds the main lib and the needed contribs
- .mymake/.mymake.btm Builds just one lib, use by .make
- .makesetup.mk A makefile that will copy and edit setup.h
- as needed for the different types of builds
+ .make/.make.btm Builds the main lib and the needed contribs
+ .mymake/.mymake.btm Builds just one lib, used by .make
+ .makesetup.mk A makefile that will copy and edit setup.h
+ as needed for the different types of builds
Okay. Here's what you've been waiting for, the instructions! Adapt
accordingly if you are using the bash shell.
3. Edit %WXDIR%\\include\\wx\\msw\\setup.h and change a few settings::
- wxDIALOG_UNIT_COMPATIBILITY 0
- wxUSE_DEBUG_CONTEXT 1
- wxUSE_MEMORY_TRACING 1
- wxUSE_DIALUP_MANAGER 0
- wxUSE_GLCANVAS 1
- wxUSE_POSTSCRIPT 1
- wxUSE_AFM_FOR_POSTSCRIPT 0
- wxUSE_DISPLAY 1
+ wxUSE_DEBUGREPORT 0
+ wxUSE_EXCEPTIONS 0
+ wxUSE_DIALUP_MANAGER 0
+ wxUSE_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT 1
+ wxUSE_GLCANVAS 1
+ wxUSE_POSTSCRIPT 1
+ wxUSE_DIB_FOR_BITMAP 1
+
If you are using my build scripts then a few more settings will be
- changed and then a copy of setup.h is placed in a subdir of
- %WXWIN%\\lib\vc_dll. If you are doing it by hand and making a
- UNICODE build, then also change these::
+ changed automatically and then a copy of setup.h is placed in a
+ subdir of %WXWIN%\\lib\vc_dll. If you are doing it by hand and
+ making a UNICODE build, then also change these::
wxUSE_UNICODE 1
- wxUSE_UNICODE_MSLU 1
+ wxUSE_UNICODE_MSLU 1
If you are doing a "hybrid" build (which is the same as the
binaries that I release) then also change these::
5. Change to the %WXDIR%\\build\\msw directory
- cd %WXDIR%\\build\\msw
+ cd %WXDIR%\\build\\msw
6. If using my scripts then use the .make.btm command to build
executing nmake with a bunch of extra command line parameters.
The base set are::
- -f makefile.vc OFFICIAL_BUILD=1 SHARED=1 MONOLITHIC=0 USE_OPENGL=1
+ nmake -f makefile.vc OFFICIAL_BUILD=1 SHARED=1 MONOLITHIC=0 USE_OPENGL=1 USE_GDIPLUS=1
If doing a debug build then add::
UNICODE=1 MSLU=1
Now, from the %WXDIR%\\build\\msw directory run nmake with your
- selection of command-line flags as described above. Repeat this
- same command from the following directories in order to build the
- contrib libraries::
-
- %WXDIR%\contrib\build\gizmos
- %WXDIR%\contrib\build\xrc
- %WXDIR%\contrib\build\stc
- %WXDIR%\contrib\build\ogl
-
- Note, that the ogl lib build will need an additional flag::
+ selection of command-line flags as described above.
- CPPFLAGS="-DwxUSE_DEPRECATED=0"
7. When that is all done it will have built the main wxWidgets DLLs
and also some of the contribs DLLs. There should be a ton of DLLs
Change to the %WXDIR%\\wxPython dir and run the this command,
making sure that you use the version of python that you want to
- build for (if you have more than one on your system)::
+ build for (if you have more than one on your system) and to match
+ the MONOLITHIC flag with how you built wxWidgets::
cd %WXDIR%\wxPython
- python setup.py build_ext --inplace
+ python setup.py build_ext --inplace MONOLITHIC=0
If you are wanting to have the source files regenerated with swig,
+ (only neccessary if you make modifications to the ``*.i`` files,)
then you need to turn on the USE_SWIG flag and optionally tell it
where to find the new swig executable, so add these flags::
- USE_SWIG=1 SWIG=e:\projects\SWIG-cvs\swig.exe
+ USE_SWIG=1 SWIG=e:\\projects\\SWIG-1.2.29\\swig.exe
If you built a Unicode version of wxWidgets and want to also build
the Unicode version of wxPython then add this flag::
PYTHONPATH to the wxPython dir in the CVS tree. For example::
set PYTHONPATH=%WXDIR%\wxPython
- cd %WXDIR\wxPython\demo
+ cd %WXDIR\wxPython\demo
python demo.py