Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 6.3

Chapter 12. Programming

Python-2.5.2

Introduction to Python

The Python package contains the Python development environment. This is useful for object-oriented programming, writing scripts, prototyping large programs or developing entire applications.

Package Information

Additional Downloads

Required Patch

Optional HTML Documentation

Python Dependencies

Optional

Pth-2.0.7

Optional (to create package-specific support modules)

OpenSSL-0.9.8g, Tk-8.4.18, GDBM-1.8.3, and SQLite 3

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/Python

Installation of Python

Install Python by running the following commands: 

patch -Np1 -i ../Python-2.5.2-gdbm-1.patch &&
./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-shared &&
make

To test the results, issue: make test. Note that if you have an existing Python installation which includes the PyXML module, the tests could produce a segmentation fault.

Now, as the root user: 

make install

There is no documentation installed using the instructions above. However, There are LaTeX sources included with the distribution. See the Doc/README file in the source distribution for instructions to format the LaTeX sources. Alternatively, you can download preformatted documentation from http://docs.python.org/download.html.

In order to use the help ('name_string') feature of the python interpreter with some statements and keywords, you must download (or create) the optional HTML documentation and install it. If you downloaded the HTML docs, issue the following commands as the root user: 

install -v -m755 -d /usr/share/doc/Python-2.5.2/html &&
tar --strip-components=1 \
    --no-same-owner \
    --no-same-permissions \
    -C /usr/share/doc/Python-2.5.2/html \
    -xvf ../html-2.5.tar.bz2

In order for python to find the installed documentation, you must add the following environment variable to individual user's or the system's profile: 

export PYTHONDOCS=/usr/share/doc/Python-2.5.2/html

Contents

Installed Programs: pydoc, python, python2.5, smtpd.py, and optionally if Tk is installed, idle
Installed Libraries: libpython2.5.so and numerous modules installed in /usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload
Installed Directories: /usr/include/python2.5, /usr/lib/python2.5, and /usr/share/doc/python-2.5.2

Short Descriptions

idle

is a wrapper script that opens a Python aware GUI editor.

pydoc

is the Python documentation tool.

python

is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language.

python2.5

is a version-specific name for the python program.

smtpd.py

is an SMTP proxy implemented in Python.

Last updated on 2008-08-11 15:13:59 -0500