[IronPython] Building IronPython/IronRuby for Mono?

[Doug Blank]

On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 11:55 AM, Vernon Cole <vernondcole at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 8:14 AM, Markus Schaber
> <m.schaber at 3s-software.com> wrote:
>> Doug Blank wrote:
>>
>>> > IronPython 2.7 and newer seem to need at least .NET 4.0, which needs
>>> > at least Mono 2.8.
>>>
>>> Is that you need Mono 2.8 to build IronPython, or to run it?
>>> IronPython2.6 beta 2 is running fine under Mono 2.6.7.
>>
>> As far as I can see, you need .NET 4 / Mono 2.8 for both compiling and
>> running. [...]
>> IronPython 2.6.2 is delivered in two versions, one for .NET 4 and the
>> other one for .NET 2 (but using some C# 3 language features).
>>
>> Markus Schaber

Thanks, Vernon, for this useful information. Some additional comments below:

> Correct!  IronPython 2.6.2 will work ALMOST correctly on Ubuntu 10.10,
> IF you use the binary which is linked for .NET 2.0.  The error I
> experienced is that the black typeface on the default Gnome Terminal
> (with a white background) turns to light grey when IPy starts.  If you
> switch Gnome Terminal to the black background, all is well.  I assume
> that change happened after 2.6.b2.

I'm not too concerned about ipy.exe itself, but about being about to
use the dlls.

I'm trying to verify that the IronPython 2.7 dlls absolutely need Mono
2.8 or later. If that is true, I'll have to stay with IronPython 2.6
until the rest of the Linux distros catch up (or I make my own version
of Mono to download). Perhaps Miguel or someone from SuSE can add more
details to the dependencies for building and running IronPython 2.7?

> The version of mono is a more interesting story.  (Bear with me, I
> spent a lot of time last week learning this.)  Ubuntu has made the
> corporate decision to go with mono as part of their core. Ubuntu will
> not work without mono, and about 40 supported applications (they tell
> me) use mono. This is great news for the mono people, IMHO.  But it
> comes with a cost.  Mono is created on a Redhat-like system, SUSE.
> This is easy to understand, since the core group lives at Novell, the
> sponsor of SUSE.  It seems that Redhat/SUSE have diverged enough from
> Debian that a significant amount of patching is required to make the
> stock (SUSE) release of mono work correctly on Debian.

andrew recently was talking about RPM build scripts on this list, but
I never heard a follow-up regarding if that information was being
shared:

>On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 3:41 PM, Andrew Jorgensen
><andrew at jorgensenfamily.us> wrote:
>> Hello Folks,
>>
>> First let me thank you for making IronPython easy to compile on Mono.
>> I'm the release manager for the Mono Project at Novell and I'm
>> currently working on packaging IronPython and IronRuby for openSUSE
>> (also to be included in the Mono Mac framework package). Where I've
>> run into trouble is the stdlibs for both. I can see that the -Bin.zip
>> contains a Lib directory with various standard libraries in it but I
>> don't see how I can reliably and repeatably get that exact content
>> into my RPM packages (short of including the -Bin.zip in the build).
>>
>> Is there a script of some sort that takes the appropriate files from
>> the correct source and puts them where I need them (the script used to
>> build the -Bin.zip perhaps?)
>
>+1 Happy Happy Joy Joy
>
> I was wondering if there is any effort to document (or publish) this
> build process on Linux so that other distributions can also build
> these packages for distribution?

Perhaps that is a way forward?

> The Debian maintainers apply their patches to the LTS [long term
> support] version of mono, which at this point is 2.6.3.  One of the
> Debian mono maintainers has supplied a patched 2.10 mono as a PPA on
> launchpad, but he only supports LTS versions of Ubuntu, which 10.10 is
> not.  Therefore, the newest (i.e. .NET 4) software will not run on the
> newest Ubuntu. A very frustrating paradox.

FYI, the latest LTS Ubuntu is 10.04. Which means (I think) that the
next LTS Ubuntu is due in 2012 (12.04). (Vernon corrected in separate
email the point that Ubuntu is shipping with Mono 2.6.7 as the current
version.)

I need a solution for general installs. Perhaps a stand-alone Mono
2.10 install will work, if I can't build IronPython 2.7 on Mono 2.10,
and then run with Mono 2.6.7...

-Doug

> I received several suggestions about how to get around this problem,
> most of them involving virtual machines, or sandboxes.  Since Redhat
> and SUSE are not as heavily invested in mono, they run more current
> versions. The latest suggestion, which I must rebuild my Linux
> partition before I can test, is this:
> v v v v v v v
> from    Christopher James Halse Rogers <raof at ubuntu.com>
> sender-time     Sent at 7:24 PM (GMT+11:00). Current time there: 2:27 AM. ✆
> to      Vernon Cole <vernondcole at gmail.com>
> cc      ubuntu-devel-discuss at lists.ubuntu.com
> subject Re: IronPython and Mono are very old. How can we get an update?
> [...snip...]
> Hm.  I should have linked http://apebox.org/wordpress/linux/370/ which
> is a description of how to do a parallel mono install in a way that
> works with the Debian CLI policy and tools.
> ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
> ===========================  NEW SUBJECT =================================
>
> The current source of IronPython is not on codeplex!
> (and the documentation on codeplex has not yet been updated to reflect
> the change.  Real soon now...)
>
> The current source is on github. On Ubuntu, the download of the source
> is a snap. [Windows users, eat your heart out.]
> Having already registered an ssl key with github, I do this:
> v v v v
> vernon at dlc-ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install bzr-git
> vernon at dlc-ubuntu:~$ bzr branch git://github.com/IronLanguages/main
> ^ ^ ^ ^
> Which gives me a lovely, user friendly, bazaar repository.
> --
> Vernon
> _______________________________________________
> Users mailing list
> Users at lists.ironpython.com
> http://lists.ironpython.com/listinfo.cgi/users-ironpython.com
>