[ python-Bugs-832799 ] Please link modules with shared lib

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Bugs item #832799, was opened at 2003-10-29 20:36
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by benson_basis
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Category: Build
Group: Python 2.3
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: benson margulies (benson_basis)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: Please link modules with shared lib

Initial Comment:
We've been working with libraries that are loaded with 
dlopen (on Linux and Solaris, the land of ELF) and 
which, in turn, use the embedded python interpreter.

Due to the behavior of the dynamic linker, this would 
work much better if modules were, by default, linked 
with -lpython2.3 instead of just left with hanging 
undefined symbols. Here's why.

The main executable isn't linked with python, and none 
of it's direct dependents are. So, the python symbols 
aren't in the global namespace.

The dlopened library is linked with python. However, 
when the dlopened library dlopens the modules, the 
linux linker is not clever enough to allow the second-
order library to use symbols from its parent. (Solaris 
has such a feature, but not linux). So, one has to 
manually dlopen the python library with RTLD_GLOBAL 
to make it work.

If each module had a NEED for the python lib (via -l at 
linktime), all this would just work.

I've got some local patches to build_ext.py for this 
purpose, but it would be nice to have official support.


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>Comment By: benson margulies (benson_basis)
Date: 2003-11-23 15:44

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I'm running into issues trying to come up with a clean version 
of this. I'd like to know what you think of some of these 
before I try to port what I've got into 2.4 and come up with 
patches.

1) setup.py seems to have no way to be selective about 
which modules to build. What if I don't want to try (and then 
fail make install) to build, for example, ssl?

2) setup.py makes assumptions about pathnames. It always 
puts /usr/local/lib into the build path. On a 64-bit solaris or HP 
system, this can lead to a mess, if the 64 bit libraries are 
somewhere else.

3) There is an existing provision to add additional libs to the 
build in setup.py, but it's disabled if the prefix is /usr. Why?

I have this feeling that someone had a plan here that I'm too 
obtuse to make out which would offer a shorter path to a 
solution then I'm getting tangled up in, for managing the build 
of these modules. 


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Comment By: Martin v. Löwis (loewis)
Date: 2003-10-31 08:42

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You can probably rely on libpythonxy.so ending up in
$(DESTDIR)$(LIBDIR)/$(INSTSONAME), whose values you can
retrieve from the installed Makefile (i.e. through
distutils.config).

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Comment By: benson margulies (benson_basis)
Date: 2003-10-31 07:22

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To turn my patches into things that anyone else would want, 
I need to know what to put in the -L that will be required. At 
the time we're building the main python distro, that's 
straightforward. When a user builds an individual module, is 
there a sensible path relative to PYTHONHOME I can use?

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Comment By: Martin v. Löwis (loewis)
Date: 2003-10-31 05:05

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Please do provide patches. Take into account that modules
may be built either with distutils, or through Modules/Setup.

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