Building Python using VC++ 6.0 or 5.0

-------------------------------------

This directory is used to build Python for Win32 platforms, e.g. Windows

2000 and XP.  It requires Microsoft Visual C++ 6.x or 5.x.

(For other Windows platforms and compilers, see ../readme.txt.)

All you need to do is open the workspace "pcbuild.dsw" in MSVC++, select

the Debug or Release setting (using Build -> Set Active Configuration...),

and build the projects.

The proper order to build subprojects:

1) pythoncore (this builds the main Python DLL and library files,

               python26.{dll, lib} in Release mode)

2) python (this builds the main Python executable,

           python.exe in Release mode)

3) the other subprojects, as desired or needed (note:  you probably don't

   want to build most of the other subprojects, unless you're building an

   entire Python distribution from scratch, or specifically making changes

   to the subsystems they implement; see SUBPROJECTS below)

When using the Debug setting, the output files have a _d added to

their name:  python26_d.dll, python_d.exe, pyexpat_d.pyd, and so on.

SUBPROJECTS

-----------

These subprojects should build out of the box.  Subprojects other than the

main ones (pythoncore, python, pythonw) generally build a DLL (renamed to

.pyd) from a specific module so that users don't have to load the code

supporting that module unless they import the module.

pythoncore

    .dll and .lib

python

    .exe

pythonw

    pythonw.exe, a variant of python.exe that doesn't pop up a DOS box

_msi

    _msi.c. You need to install Windows Installer SDK to build this module.

    http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/psdk-full.htm

_socket

    socketmodule.c

_testcapi

    tests of the Python C API, run via Lib/test/test_capi.py, and

    implemented by module Modules/_testcapimodule.c

pyexpat

    Python wrapper for accelerated XML parsing, which incorporates stable

    code from the Expat project:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/expat/

select

    selectmodule.c

unicodedata

    large tables of Unicode data

winsound

    play sounds (typically .wav files) under Windows

The following subprojects will generally NOT build out of the box.  They

wrap code Python doesn't control, and you'll need to download the base

packages first and unpack them into siblings of PCbuilds's parent

directory; for example, if your PCbuild is  .......\dist\src\PCbuild\,

unpack into new subdirectories of dist\.

_tkinter

    Python wrapper for the Tk windowing system.  Requires building

    Tcl/Tk first.  Following are instructions for Tcl/Tk 8.4.12.

    Get source

    ----------

    In the dist directory, run

    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/tcl8.4.12

    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/tk8.4.12

    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/tix-8.4.0

    Build Tcl first (done here w/ MSVC 6 on Win2K)

    ---------------

    cd dist\tcl8.4.12\win

    run vcvars32.bat

    nmake -f makefile.vc

    nmake -f makefile.vc INSTALLDIR=..\..\tcltk install

    XXX Should we compile with OPTS=threads?

    Optional:  run tests, via

        nmake -f makefile.vc test

        all.tcl:        Total   10835   Passed  10096   Skipped 732     Failed  7

        Sourced 129 Test Files.

        Files with failing tests: exec.test expr.test io.test main.test string.test stri

        ngObj.test

    Build Tk

    --------

    cd dist\tk8.4.12\win

    nmake -f makefile.vc TCLDIR=..\..\tcl8.4.12

    nmake -f makefile.vc TCLDIR=..\..\tcl8.4.12 INSTALLDIR=..\..\tcltk install

    XXX Should we compile with OPTS=threads?

    XXX I have no idea whether "nmake -f makefile.vc test" passed or

    XXX failed.  It popped up tons of little windows, and did lots of

    XXX stuff, and nothing blew up.

   Built Tix

   ---------

   cd dist\tix-8.4.0\win

   nmake -f python.mak

   nmake -f python.mak install

bz2

    Python wrapper for the libbz2 compression library.  Homepage

        http://sources.redhat.com/bzip2/

    Download the source from the python.org copy into the dist

    directory:

    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/bzip2-1.0.3

    And requires building bz2 first.

    cd dist\bzip2-1.0.3

    nmake -f makefile.msc

    All of this managed to build bzip2-1.0.3\libbz2.lib, which the Python

    project links in.

_bsddb

    To use the version of bsddb that Python is built with by default, invoke

    (in the dist directory)

     svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/db-4.4.20

    Then open db-4.4.20\build_win32\Berkeley_DB.dsw and build the "db_static"

    project for "Release" mode.

    Alternatively, if you want to start with the original sources,

    go to Sleepycat's download page:

        http://www.sleepycat.com/downloads/releasehistorybdb.html

    and download version 4.4.20.

    With or without strong cryptography? You can choose either with or

    without strong cryptography, as per the instructions below.  By

    default, Python is built and distributed WITHOUT strong crypto.

    Unpack the sources; if you downloaded the non-crypto version, rename

    the directory from db-4.4.20.NC to db-4.4.20.

    Now apply any patches that apply to your version.

    To run extensive tests, pass "-u bsddb" to regrtest.py.  test_bsddb3.py

    is then enabled.  Running in verbose mode may be helpful.

    XXX The test_bsddb3 tests don't always pass, on Windows (according to

    XXX me) or on Linux (according to Barry).  (I had much better luck

    XXX on Win2K than on Win98SE.)  The common failure mode across platforms

    XXX is

    XXX     DBAgainError: (11, 'Resource temporarily unavailable -- unable

    XXX                         to join the environment')

    XXX

    XXX and it appears timing-dependent.  On Win2K I also saw this once:

    XXX

    XXX test02_SimpleLocks (bsddb.test.test_thread.HashSimpleThreaded) ...

    XXX Exception in thread reader 1:

    XXX Traceback (most recent call last):

    XXX File "C:\Code\python\lib\threading.py", line 411, in __bootstrap

    XXX    self.run()

    XXX File "C:\Code\python\lib\threading.py", line 399, in run

    XXX    apply(self.__target, self.__args, self.__kwargs)

    XXX File "C:\Code\python\lib\bsddb\test\test_thread.py", line 268, in

    XXX                  readerThread

    XXX    rec = c.next()

    XXX DBLockDeadlockError: (-30996, 'DB_LOCK_DEADLOCK: Locker killed

    XXX                                to resolve a deadlock')

    XXX

    XXX I'm told that DBLockDeadlockError is expected at times.  It

    XXX doesn't cause a test to fail when it happens (exceptions in

    XXX threads are invisible to unittest).

_sqlite3

    Python wrapper for SQLite library.

    Get the source code through

    svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/sqlite-source-3.3.4

    To use the extension module in a Python build tree, copy sqlite3.dll into

    the PC/VC6 folder.

_ssl

    Python wrapper for the secure sockets library.

    Get the latest source code for OpenSSL from

        http://www.openssl.org

    You (probably) don't want the "engine" code.  For example, get

        openssl-0.9.6g.tar.gz

    not

        openssl-engine-0.9.6g.tar.gz

    Unpack into the "dist" directory, retaining the folder name from

    the archive - for example, the latest stable OpenSSL will install as

        dist/openssl-0.9.6g

    You can (theoretically) use any version of OpenSSL you like - the

    build process will automatically select the latest version.

    You must also install ActivePerl from

        http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/

    as this is used by the OpenSSL build process.  Complain to them <wink>.

    The MSVC project simply invokes PC/VC6/build_ssl.py to perform

    the build.  This Python script locates and builds your OpenSSL

    installation, then invokes a simple makefile to build the final .pyd.

    build_ssl.py attempts to catch the most common errors (such as not

    being able to find OpenSSL sources, or not being able to find a Perl

    that works with OpenSSL) and give a reasonable error message.

    If you have a problem that doesn't seem to be handled correctly

    (eg, you know you have ActivePerl but we can't find it), please take

    a peek at build_ssl.py and suggest patches.  Note that build_ssl.py

    should be able to be run directly from the command-line.

    build_ssl.py/MSVC isn't clever enough to clean OpenSSL - you must do

    this by hand.

YOUR OWN EXTENSION DLLs

-----------------------

If you want to create your own extension module DLL, there's an example

with easy-to-follow instructions in ../PC/example/; read the file

readme.txt there first.