[Idle-dev] Installation Notes

Kurt B. Kaiser kbk@shore.net
16 Jul 2001 03:17:14 -0400


I've put together some installation instructions for idlefork IDLE. They are
detailed enough so that even if a person has not tried installing something
from CVS before, they should be successful. Please let me know about
suggestions and improvements.  Here's a copy of INSTALLATION:

*******************************
IDLE Fork Installation on Linux:

Until the tarball is released, you must download a CVS copy.  An excellent
place for it is

/usr/local/src/PythonX.X/Tools/idlefork, assuming that's where your Python
source is located. Put the correct version in for X.X .

# cd /usr/local/src/PythonX.X/Tools

Now do the CVS login and checkout:

# cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.idlefork.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/idlefork login

Type an <enter> for the password.

# cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.idlefork.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/idlefork \
      -d idlefork checkout idle

The -d option to checkout puts the files in an idlefork directory, so you don't
step on "official" idle.

# cd idlefork
# su      to root

# python setup.py install

# echo  "idle" > /usr/local/lib/pythonX.X/site-packages.pth

This last is necessary so idle can find itself.  I hope we can create/append
this file via setup.py at some point, but it needs to be done manually now, and
it only needs to be done once (unless you totally remove and reinstall python
itself).

# exit    from root

NOTE that the above procedure will install idlefork IDLE on top of any
"official" IDLE that may be already installed.  If you wish to avoid doing
that, there is a patch file, coexist.patch, in the idlefork directory. If,
_*before*_ you install idle, you run

# patch -p0 < coexist.patch

idlefork will be modified so that it installs as .../site-packages/fildlelib,
idle as fidle, and idles as fidles. (If you previously installed without
patching, remove the idlefork/build directory before running the install.)

NOTE: You must then append "fidlelib" to site-packages.pth !

Then "official" IDLE and idlefork IDLE will exist side by side for comparision.
And if idlefork is temporarily broken :-(, well, you have your old IDLE ways.

This is obviously an expedient development hack, but if popular, I imagine
there could be a setup option.
**************************

If setup.py or PyShell.py get modified much, the patch will break and need to
be regenerated. That's one of the disadvantages of doing it this way, but it's
quick.

The names chosen, fidle and fidles, are again only suggestions. It's easy to
type f's in front of things!


KBK