"Build from Scratch"
Installation
There are many GNU/Linux variants, and we can't even begin to cover
each variant. You can use a similar installation on Windows or the Mac OS,
if you have the GCC compiler installed. Here's an overview of how to install
using a largely manual sequence of steps.
-
Pre-Installation. Make backups and download the installation kit. You're looking
for the a file named
python-2.5.
x
.tgz.
-
Installation. The installation involves a fairly common set of commands. If
you are an experienced system administrator, but a novice
programmer, you may recognize these.
Change to the /opt/python directory with the following
command.
cd /opt/python
Unpack the archive file with the following
command.
tar -zxvf Python-2.5.
x
.tgz
Do the following four commands to configure the installation
scripts, make the Python package and then install Python on your
computer.
cd Python-2.5
./configure
make
make install
- Post-installation: check to be sure everything
worked.
Testing
Run the Terminal tool. At the command line prompt, enter env
python, and see what happens.
[slott@linux01 ~]$ python
Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, Oct 30 2007, 13:54:11)
[GCC 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
If you hit Ctrl-D (the GNU/Linux end-of-file character), Python will
exit. The basic Python program works.
Debugging Other Unix
Installation
The most likely problem you'll encounter in doing a generic
installation is not having the appropriate GNU GCC compiler. In this
case, you will see error messages from
configure
which identifies the list of missing packages. Installing the GNU GCC
can become a complex undertaking.
