[Distutils] distutils+numpy problem on AIX

[Greg Ward]

Mike Hammill <mike@pdc.kth.se>:
> Does anyone know why I might get the following messages when trying to use 
> distutils 0.8 to install NumPy on an AIX machine?
> 
>    unable to execute ./ld_so_aix: No such file or directory
>    error: command './ld_so_aix' failed with exit status 1

This is a "quirk" in how Python's Makefile is installed under AIX.  (I
won't call it a bug, since I just skimmed through the Makefile and don't
see a clean way to fix it -- you'd have to install a slightly altered
Makefile with an absolute path for ld_so_aix, which would both be ugly
and break the relocatability of the Python installation.

I think I see how to workaround it in the Distutils, but for now you'll
have to do it yourself.  Try this: edit Python's installed Makefile
($exec_prefix/lib/python1.5/config/Makefile; I assume you know your own
exec_prefix!) and change "./ld_so_aix" to "$(LIBPL)/ld_so_aix".

*PLEASE* save a copy of your original Makefile -- this is both for your
own sanity, and so that I can use you as a guinea pig when I have a
Distutils patch to workaround this quirk!

> My goal is to get Python 1.5.2 running with NumPy for the users of our SP at 
> the Royal Institute of Technology.  I recently downloaded NumPy from LLNL:
>    LLNLDistribution11.tgz and 
>    Numerical-14.tar.gz

Incidentally, this is an old version of Numerical.  You should get the
latest release, 15.2, from http://numpy.sourceforge.net/.

Thanks for the failure-to-workaround-Python-quirk report!  (OK, OK, it's
a bug report.)

        Greg
-- 
Greg Ward - Linux nerd                                  gward@ase.com
http://starship.python.net/~gward/
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.