[Python-Dev] Unable to build regex module against Python 3.5 32-bit

[MRAB]

On 2015-05-27 09:25, Paul Moore wrote:
> On 27 May 2015 at 09:10, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The old distutils docs aren't gone, the top level links just moved to the
>> distutils package docs: https://docs.python.org/3/library/distutils.html
>>
>> I kept them (with the same deep link URLs) because I know there's stuff in
>> there that isn't currently documented anywhere else. I moved them to a more
>> obscure location because there's also stuff in there that's thoroughly
>> outdated, and it's a non-trivial task to figure out which is which and move
>> the still useful stuff to a more appropriate home :)
>
> Thanks.
>
> Your plan worked perfectly, because I never knew they were there :-)
>
> https://docs.python.org/3/install/index.html#older-versions-of-python-and-mingw
> implies that the libpythonXY.a files are only needed in older versions
> of Python/mingw. I don't know how true that is, although I do know
> that mingw should be able to link directly to a DLL without needing a
> lib file.
>
> It would be interesting to know if MRAB's build process can use the
> DLL, rather than requiring a lib file (or for that matter if distutils
> works without the lib file!)
>
Steve Dower's post has prompted me to look again at building the regex
module for Python 3.5, 32-bit and 64-bit, using just Mingw64 and
linking against python32.dll. It works!

Earlier versions of Python, however, including Python 2.7, still seem
to want libpython??.a.