[Python-checkins] r88438 - in python/branches/py3k/Misc: NEWS README.AIX

[georg.brandl]

Author: georg.brandl
Date: Sat Feb 19 09:44:47 2011
New Revision: 88438

Log:
#10709: add back an updated AIX-NOTES (as README.AIX).

Added:
   python/branches/py3k/Misc/README.AIX
Modified:
   python/branches/py3k/Misc/NEWS

Modified: python/branches/py3k/Misc/NEWS
==============================================================================
--- python/branches/py3k/Misc/NEWS	(original)
+++ python/branches/py3k/Misc/NEWS	Sat Feb 19 09:44:47 2011
@@ -18,6 +18,11 @@
 
 - Issue #941346: Fix broken shared library build on AIX.
 
+Documentation
+-------------
+
+- Issue #10709: Add updated AIX notes in Misc/README.AIX.
+
 
 What's New in Python 3.2 Release Candidate 3?
 =============================================

Added: python/branches/py3k/Misc/README.AIX
==============================================================================
--- (empty file)
+++ python/branches/py3k/Misc/README.AIX	Sat Feb 19 09:44:47 2011
@@ -0,0 +1,137 @@
+
+This documentation tries to help people who intend to use Python on
+AIX.
+
+There used to be many issues with Python on AIX, but the major ones
+have been corrected for version 3.2, so that Python should now work
+rather well on this platform. The remaining known issues are listed in
+this document.
+
+
+======================================================================
+			   Compiling Python
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+You can compile Python with gcc or the native AIX compiler. The native
+compiler used to give better performances on this system with older
+versions of Python.  With Python 3.2 it may not be the case anymore,
+as this compiler does not allow compiling Python with computed gotos.
+Some benchmarks need to be done.
+
+Compiling with gcc:
+
+cd Python-3.2
+CC=gcc OPT="-O2" ./configure --enable-shared
+make
+
+There are various aliases for the native compiler.  The recommended
+alias for compiling Python is 'xlc_r', which provides a better level of
+compatibility and handles thread initialization properly.
+
+It is a good idea to add the '-qmaxmem=70000' option, otherwise the
+compiler considers various files too complex to optimize.
+
+Compiling with xlc:
+
+cd Python-3.2
+CC=xlc_r OPT="-O2 -qmaxmem=70000" ./configure --without-computed-gotos --enable-shared
+make
+
+Note:
+On AIX 5.3 and earlier, you will also need to specify the
+"--disable-ipv6" flag to configure. This has been corrected in AIX
+6.1.
+
+
+======================================================================
+			  Memory Limitations
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Note: this section may not apply when compiling Python as a 64 bit
+application.
+
+By default on AIX each program gets one segment register for its data
+segment. As each segment register covers 256 MB, a Python program that
+would use more than 256MB will raise a MemoryError.  The standard
+Python test suite is one such application.
+
+To allocate more segment registers to Python, you must use the linker
+option -bmaxdata or the ldedit tool to specify the number of bytes you
+need in the data segment.
+
+For example, if you want to allow 512MB of memory for Python (this is
+enough for the test suite to run without MemoryErrors), you should run
+the following command at the end of compilation:
+
+ldedit -b maxdata:0x20000000 ./python
+
+You can allow up to 2GB of memory for Python by using the value
+0x80000000 for maxdata.
+
+It is also possible to go beyond 2GB of memory by activating Large
+Page Use. You should consult the IBM documentation if you need to use
+this option. You can also follow the discussion of this problem
+in issue 11212 at bugs.python.org.
+
+http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/aix/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.cmds/doc/aixcmds3/ldedit.htm
+
+
+======================================================================
+			     Known issues
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Those issues are currently affecting Python on AIX:
+
+* Python has not been fully tested on AIX when compiled as a 64 bit
+  application.
+
+* issue 3526: the memory used by a Python process will never be
+  released to the system. If you have a Python application on AIX that
+  uses a lot of memory, you should read this issue and you may
+  consider using the provided patch that implements a custom malloc
+  implementation
+
+* issue 11184: support for large files is currently broken
+
+* issue 11185: os.wait4 does not behave correctly with option WNOHANG
+
+* issue 1745108: there may be some problems with curses.panel
+
+* issue 11192: test_socket fails
+
+* issue 11190: test_locale fails
+
+* issue 11193: test_subprocess fails
+
+* issue 9920: minor arithmetic issues in cmath
+
+* issue 11215: test_fileio fails
+
+* issue 11188: test_time fails
+
+
+======================================================================
+		Implementation details for developers
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Python and python modules can now be built as shared libraries on AIX
+as usual.
+
+AIX shared libraries require that an "export" and "import" file be
+provided at compile time to list all extern symbols which may be
+shared between modules.  The "export" file (named python.exp) for the
+modules and the libraries that belong to the Python core is created by
+the "makexp_aix" script before performing the link of the python
+binary. It lists all global symbols (exported during the link) of the
+modules and the libraries that make up the python executable.
+
+When shared library modules (.so files) are made, a second shell
+script is invoked.  This script is named "ld_so_aix" and is also
+provided with the distribution in the Modules subdirectory.  This
+script acts as an "ld" wrapper which hides the explicit management of
+"export" and "import" files; it adds the appropriate arguments (in the
+appropriate order) to the link command that creates the shared module.
+Among other things, it specifies that the "python.exp" file is an
+"import" file for the shared module.
+
+This mechanism should be transparent.