[Python-Dev] Building a Windows MSI for Python /trunk

[C. Titus Brown]

Hi all,

I got an MSI build working on my WinXP VM just now, and I wanted to
touch base with whomever it is that is maintaining this (wonderful!)
set of scripts...

I ran into three problems, and I managed to figure out two of them; the third
wasn't fatal.  Note, the diff of my fixed checkout is attached.

First, the script that finds & builds the external dependencies has two
minor problems.

 * it puts Tcl in tcl-8.*, and Tk in tk-8.*, but msi.py looks for them in
   tcl8.* and tk8.* to grab the license text.  I changed the glob strings
   appropriately and that seemed to work.

 * Tix isn't downloaded/installed/built automatically like everything else,
   and msi.py looks for its license file, too.  I just removed the
   Tix reference.  I can't figure out how to build Tix appropriately; any
   tips?

Second, the buildmsi.bat file refers to python26a3.hhp instead of
python27a0.hhp.

Third, I could not get _tkinter to build properly, although it wasn't fatal
to the endeavor.  It couldn't find ..\..\tcltk\lib\tcl85.lib, although
tcl85g.lib existed.

Oh, and there were a bunch of missing commands that (as a non-Windows xpert) I
had to figure out with google -- things like nasm/nasmw, for example.  Are
these documented somewhere, or would it be helpful to document them?  I think I
had to install:

 - Microsoft HTML Help Compiler
 - cygwin with make and python2.5 to build the docs
 - nasm (and copy nasm.exe to nasmw.exe)
 - cabarc

Errm, and the 'buildmsi.bat' file has 'build' misspelled as 'buold' ;)

I'd love to get this build process working completely automatically and
100% correctly, too.

Hat tip to Trent Nelson, who helped me figure out where the scripts are
and what other things I needed...

cheers,
--titus
-- 
C. Titus Brown, ctb at msu.edu
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