Python and Autoconf

[Glen Starchman]

Martin von Loewis wrote:
> 
> Glen Starchman <glen at enabledventures.com> writes:
> 
> > Anyone have any more Python-specific autoconf macros?
> 
> While I believe that you can solve your problems with autoconf, you
> may consider using distutils for the Python parts. That has a
> convenient procedure for building and installing Python libraries,
> both for Python and C modules.
> 
> Also, much of the compile-time configuration stuff is often done at
> runtime. E.g. you don't check at installation time whether a certain
> module is available (unless you plan to install it if it is
> not). Instead, if you have fallback code, you perform a runtime check
> by importing the module, and falling back on ImportError.


> You can still integrate distutils nicely into a make(1) driven build
> procedure, see Python 2.1 for an example.

Your points are extremely valid. I haven't done much work with
distutils.

In my case, I am not really interested in creating YAS (yet another
script) to manage the build/install process, however, if it is
beneficial then I will do it. 

The other reason I have gone with Autoconf is that it is a standard.
The people who I will be turning this project over to are not um,
technically competent. They *do* know how to run ./configure --help
and that's about it. I can't see them editing a setup.py script,
which is what they would have to do if something went wrong (eg... a
bad path).


> 
> Regards,
> Martin