Develop Reference

install legacy versions of python from source on windows 10

I would like to install older versions of python for use with virtual environments, ideally from source as these versions are readily available on the official python website python 3.6 here however I can't seem to find any decent instructions.
The link above has version 3.6 full link to the tar.gz here. It downloads, I move into to program files and unzip it with 7zip:
C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe e Python-3.6.9.tgz
Then unpack the tar file:
tar -xvzf Python-3.6.9
There is no python.exe file in the unpacked directory to add to my path?
Am I missing a build step perhaps?
I found some more instructions here - where there really should be good instructions!, git is installed and setup, as is vs-code. I ran :
PCBuild\build.bat
The file 'PCBuild\pcbuild.sln' appears to have been successfully produced. Now what? I run the test described here
rt.bat -q
And I get: The system cannot find the path specified
For some reason when I run build.bat, a lot of what is printed to the seems to be mentioning python 3.8 which is now the default install on my system, its as if this method is not even pointing to the right version of python.
Please note I am looking specifically for native python approaches to this - NOT conda approaches as it is incompatible with a number of things I am doing.
I've tried; another SO queation, another SO question, here, and here, also here.
Many install guides seem to show only how to install the latest version of python using the python installer, which doesn't seem to be able to be used for legacy versions of python.
Also pythons official site has a link at the bottom labelled ' tools for unpacking archive files' which one would presume would help you to unpack, possibly even install archive files, however the link just takes you back to the top of the page?
Any help would be much appreciated?

Trouble installing JCC (required for pylucene) on mac

I am following closely the installation guide for pylucene. I am unable to get past the first step, which requires installing JCC.
To install JCC the instructions briefly note that mac users will need to:
Edit setup.py and review that values in the INCLUDES, CFLAGS,
DEBUG_CFLAGS, LFLAGS and JAVAC are correct for your system. These
values are also going to be compiled into JCC's config.py file and are
going to be used by JCC when invoking distutils or setuptools to
compile extensions it is generating code for.
I am not sure what exactly to edit. I have Java 1.6 installed. When I run the setup.py (without any edits), it gives me the error (which I expect because I haven't edited anything, as instructed):
Can't determine where the Java JDK has been installed on this machine. Please set the environment variable JCC_JDK to that location
before running setup.py.
I am a novice coder, so am having trouble finding what I should edit in the setup.py to make this work on a mac? I have tried putting in the file path to java, but this has not helped. Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

Building Python and more on missing modules

I have another thread asking help on "missing zlib". With the nice help the problem has been resolved (almost).
Now I am interested in building Python myself (on Ubuntu 10.10).
A few important questions have caught my attention:
After building Python (say 2.7.1), do I need to rebuild Python if I have missing modules?
Is there a way to find out what modules will be missing prior to building Python? Say sqlite3. I have sqlite3 installed for the system default (Python 2.6.6), and I can import that into Python 2.6.6 shell. Now I use pythonbrew to build 2.7.1, and in the shell I cannot import sqlite3 because _sqlite3 is not available. I am sure there are a few more important one missing which I need for future development (such as Django..).
I am willing to learn how to build without using pythonbrew.
Please share with me your experience in building another version of Python, and how would you address the problem of missing modules? Is there a practical solution to building Python?
I have never bothered building one myself, so please bear with me. I am beginning to realize the importance of learning and building one myself! Thank you very much!
EDIT
First I thank you all of your inputs. They meant a lot. I did the building.
Python build finished, but the necessary bits to build these modules were not found:
_bsddb _curses _curses_panel
_tkinter bsddb185 bz2
dbm gdbm readline
sunaudiodev _sqlite3
To find the necessary bits, look in setup.py in detect_modules() for the module's name.
I got sqlite3 and readline away by
sudo apt-get install libreadline6 libreadline6-dev
sudo apt-get install libsqlite3-dev
I tried to import them, but still "no named module xxxx".
At AskUbuntu I actually asked people how to get previous commands because I couldn't use that feature when I am in Python 2.7.1 shell. I believe it's due to readline.
Readline
I installed the Python-2.7.1 under this directory: /home/jwxie518/python27/
I looked into setup.py, I found the following lines:
# The sqlite interface
sqlite_setup_debug = False # verbose debug prints from this script?
# We hunt for #define SQLITE_VERSION "n.n.n"
# We need to find >= sqlite version 3.0.8
sqlite_incdir = sqlite_libdir = None
sqlite_inc_paths = [ '/usr/include',
'/usr/include/sqlite',
'/usr/include/sqlite3',
'/usr/local/include',
'/usr/local/include/sqlite',
'/usr/local/include/sqlite3',
]
All the paths listed above do not exist.
So I guess I have to install sqlite3 manually? I got another reference here (it's in Chinese, however)
# Download the latest and extract
# Go into the extracted directory
./configure --prefix=/home/jwxie518/python27/python
make && make install
# Then edit python-2.7 's setup.py before rebuild it
# Sample (add these two lines to the end....)
'~/share/software/python/sqlite-3.6.20/include',
'~/share/software/python/sqlite-3.6.20/include/sqlite3',
# Then rebuild python like how we did before
I went into my directory where I installed sqlite3. I found include/sqlite3.h only. So I went back and check /usr/include/. I can only find sqlite3.h too.
So what is going on here? Readline is also non-importable.
3RD EDIT
I started everything over, except I didn't reinstall sqlite3.
# Extract Python-2.7.1
# cd into Python-2.7.1
# ./configure
make >make.out 2>&1
less make.out
make.out is here: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=7k3BfxZQ
I still couldn't import sqlite3. So I went into setup.py and made changes:
# We hunt for #define SQLITE_VERSION "n.n.n"
# We need to find >= sqlite version 3.0.8
sqlite_incdir = sqlite_libdir = None
sqlite_inc_paths = [ '/usr/include',
'/usr/include/sqlite',
'/usr/include/sqlite3',
'/usr/local/include',
'/usr/local/include/sqlite',
'/usr/local/include/sqlite3',
'/home/jwxie518/python-mod/include/sqlite',
'/home/jwxie518/python-mod/include/sqlite3',
]
Then again, ran everything over (this time I also did make clean)
Output is here: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=8ZKgAcWn
According to the output, I don't think the custom path is included.... (for complete output please go to the link above and search for sqlite)
build/temp.linux-i686-2.7/home/jwxie518/Python-2.7.1/Modules/_sqlite/util.o
-L/usr/lib -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-R/usr/lib -lsqlite3 -o build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/_sqlite3.so
I still cannot import sqlite3.
THanks!
Thank you very much, Michael Dillon, for helping me out. Your tutorial was neat and clear.
I solved the problem as soon as I realized whenever I tried Python-2.7.1, I was actually using the one installed by Pythonbrew.
The moral of the story is read all the errors. I neglected the errors generated by importing sqlite3. The one installed by Pythonbrew didn't have sqlite3 installed. The development package for sqlite3 was installed after Pythonbrew installed the Python-2.7.1
Thanks.

Here is how to build Python and fix any dependencies. I am assuming that you want this Python to be entirely separate from the Ubuntu release Python, so I am specifying the --prefix option to install it all in /home/python27 using the standard Python layout, i.e. site-packages instead of dist-packages.
1. Get the .tar.gz file into your own home directory.
2. tar zxvf Py*.tar.gz
3. cd Py*1
4. ./configure --prefix=/home/python27
5. make
6. make install
Step 5 is the important one. At the end, it will display a list of any modules that could not be built properly. Often you can fix this by installing an Ubuntu package, and rerunning make.
a. sudo apt-get install something-dev
b. make
It is pretty common to have a problem because you are missing the -dev addon to some module or other. But sometimes you should start over like this:
a. make clean
b. ./configure --prefix=/home/python27
c. make
Starting over never hurts if you are unsure. An important note about step 6. I am not using sudo on this command which means that you will need to have the /home/python27 directory already created with the appropriate ownership.
Don't hesitate to try out ./configure --help |less before building something because there may be interesting options that you could use. One time on a minimal distro I had to do --with-dbmliborder=gdbm:bdb in order to get gdbm working. When you run ./configure, the last few lines will tell you where it put the information that it learned. In the case of Python, Modules/Setup has been useful to figure out how to get a module to build.
Another useful thing is to make clean and then run make >make.out 2>&1 to capture all the output from the full make process. Then, after it is complete, use less or an editor to look for the details on a problem module such as _sqlite. For instance, check all the -I options that are passed to gcc. If the correct include directory is not on the list that would cause a problem. You can edit setup.py to change the list of include directories.
In the past it was more common to have library problems that would be fixed by logging out, logging in again, and running "sudo ldconfig" before doing a complete rebuild.

py2app built app displays `ERROR: pygame.macosx import FAILED` on other machines

Trying to build an app on the Mac using py2app. Got everything working fine on my machine, but when moving the app to another, it crashes and the console displays this error.
ERROR: pygame.macosx import FAILED
Anybody have a solution to this?

Found the problem and solution after many hours. Turns out other people have experienced similar problems and their articles were quite helpful:
http://b.atcg.us/blog/2010/04/13/py2app-hell-the-first.html
http://www.vijayp.ca/blog/?p=62
In case someone else runs into the issue, this particular problem was caused because the Python framework was not being bundled into the application. You can confirm this by right-clicking your app to view package contents, then proceed to Contents/Frameworks/. If Python.framework is not there, it should be.
Be sure to download Python -
My first issue was reliance on Apple's build in Python package. Don't use this. You need to install your own version of python. Go to http://www.python.org/download/releases/, find a version (I stuck with 2.6), download the gzip (not the mac package), and install with the following if you are running Snow Leopard:
./configure --enable-framework MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.6 --with-universal-archs=intel --enable-universalsdk=/
make
sudo make install
Adjust Paths, Install Packages - From here there you need to adjust your paths to ensure you are using your custom-installed version. From here, I reinstalled the following packages - this turned out to be a dependency nightmare so I'm including the version numbers as well:
py2app 0.5.2
macholib 1.3
modulegraph .8.0
If these packages actually worked, you should be able to build and run your app now. Unfortunately, they don't. I'll go into the errors and my hacked solutions in a bit, but there's some settings in the build file that need to be made first.
First the setup.py file should like a little somethin' like this:
setup.py
from setuptools import setup
APP = ['Game.py']
DATA_FILES = ['data']
OPTIONS = {
"argv_emulation": False,
"compressed" : True,
"optimize":2,
"iconfile":'data/game.icns',
}
setup(
app=APP,
data_files=DATA_FILES,
options={'py2app': OPTIONS},
)
then to be extra safe, I use a shell script to call this.
build.sh
## Remove previous builds. Start with clean slate.
rm -rf build dist
## Force python into 32 bit mode.
export VERSIONER_PYTHON_PREFER_32_BIT=yes
## Force build with custom installed python
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/bin/python setup.py py2app
Running build.sh should compile the app. If it does not compile, I have good news -- it's not your fault. Due to glitches in the libraries, you may run into some (or all) of the following:
Potential Problems
If the build script fails, scan the traceback for some of the following keywords:
pygame not found - basic path problem in py2app. Add...
sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(os.getcwd(), 'lib', 'python2.6','lib-dynload')) ## Added to fix dynlib bug
after the import statements in boot_app.py in the py2app lib.
pythonNone - This appears to be a bug in the macho package where it cannot determine the version number of your python build. To solve this, I added the following lines to build_app.py in py2app.
## Add these two lines...
if not info["version"]:
info["version"] = "2.6"
## Before this line. (line 941 in method copy_python_framework() at time of writing)
pydir = 'python%s'%(info['version'])
No such file or directory...Python.framework/[lib|include] - py2app is simply looking for directories that exist deeper in the file system tree. Go to the Python.framework directory and symlink up the place...
cd /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework
sudo ln -s Versions/Current/include/ include
sudo ln -s Versions/Current/lib lib
That should do it! - These steps created a compiled app that worked on other intel machines.

Thank you for posting what you found!
I had a similar problem. I tried various combinations of what you suggested, and isolated the single issue for me to be the bug in boot_app.py which you identify above.
Once I added the one-line fix to boot_app.py which you identify above, everything worked, even using the pre-installed Apple build of python (version 2.6.1).
I should note that when I say "everything worked," I really mean building a py2app app for actual distribution, i.e. using the normal command:
python setup.py py2app
The "alias" mode. i.e.
python setup.py py2app -A
which the py2app documentation suggests for use during development, still does not work for me (with the same module not found error). But better the actual distribution build working than nothing at all! Again, thanks.

Mechanize not being installed by easy_install?

I am in the process of migrating from an old Win2K machine to a new and much more powerful Vista 64 bit PC. Most of the migration has gone fairly smoothly - but I did find that I needed to reinstall ALL of my Python related tools.
I've downloaded the mechanize-0.1.11.tar.gz file and ran easy_install to install it. This produced C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\mechanize-0.1.11-py2.5.egg.
I then ran a python script to test it, and it worked fine under the interpreter. But, when I ran py2exe to compile the script, I get a message that mechanize cannot be found.
I then moved the egg to a new folder, used easy_install to install it - and got every indication that it did install.
But, I still get the same message when trying to use py2exe - that mechanize does not exist!
I did a search for "mechanize" of the entire disk, and get only the 2 egg files as a result. What files should be produced by the install - and where should I expect them to be located?
Obviously, I'm missing something here...any suggestions?
Also, perhaps related, the python I am running is the 32 bit 2.5.4 version...which is what I had before and wanted to get everything working properly prior to installing the 64 bit version - plus, I don't see some of the tools (easy_install & py2exe) which seem to support the 64 bit versions. Is that part of the problem, do I need to install & run the 64-bit version - and will that be a problem for those who run 32-bit PC's when they run my scripts?

There is a note on the py2exe site that it does not work if the source is in egg format:
py2exe does not currently (as of
0.6.5) work out of the box if some of your program's dependencies are in
.egg form.
If your program does not itself use
setuptools facilities (eg,
pkg_resources), then all you need to
do is make sure the dependencies are
installed on your system in unzipped
form, rather than in a zipped .egg.
One way to achieve this is to use the
--always-unzip option to easy_install.
Which version are you running? The latest version listed at pypi.python.org is version 0.6.9 but there is no indication I can find if the problem with eggs is fixed in this release.

As other users suggested as above... I hereby summarize the steps I need to make Mechanize and BeautifulSoup work with py2exe.
Converting .py Files to Windows .exe
Follow instructions in here: py2exe Tutorial
STEP 1
Download py2exe from here… http://sourceforge.net/projects/py2exe/files/
(I am using Python 2.7)
I installed 0.6.9 for Python 2.7
py2exe-0.6.9.win32-py2.7.exe (201KB)
Install it
STEP 2
Try a hello world file.. to make sure all works.. as given in
http://www.py2exe.org/index.cgi/Tutorial
Python setup.py install (step 2 on web tutorial)
Then use a setup.py (step 3 on web tutorial).
See Issues below for any problems with Modules (under this folder: C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages)
STEP 3
Test the executable file.. in the dist directory.
In summary, when you have problems with modules, make sure you visit the site packages directory.. and see if the full package is there instead of just the .egg file.
py2exe cannot make use of just the .egg file (a layman's understanding).
Issues:
Mechanize module was not found by py2exe.. this was due to my first installation of mechanize on my local machine was just an .egg file (mechanize-0.2.5-py2.7.egg.OLD 324KB).. I need to install the full mechanize like this:
easy_install --always-unzip <library_name>
I did that.. then this time mechanize was installed in a folder named mechanize-0.2.5-py2.7.egg (1.1MB).
Also beautifulsoup-3.2.0-py2.7.egg originally the .egg file was 69KB… and after installing with
easy_install -–always-unzip BeautifulSoup
it was installed in a folder named beautifulsoup-3.2.0-py2.7.egg (229KB).
Some instructions in here: http://www.daniweb.com/software-development/python/threads/204941