[Pythonmac-SIG] readline: where and how installed?

[Zachary Pincus]

>> So... I have found that IPython exposes a bug in GNU readline 5.1,  
>> sadly enough. This bug causes segfaults when the up-arrow key is  
>> used under certain situations. Ugh. Fortunately, the extant  
>> readline 5.1 patches solve this issue nicely. Hopefully you'll get  
>> a chance in the near future to update the Universal MacPython  
>> 2.4.3 distribution so that it doesn't have this issue.
>
> Which patch? Please provide a link to that patch, I won't go  
> hunting for it.

I don't really like how they do it, but on the readline page ( http:// 
tiswww.tis.case.edu/~chet/readline/rltop.html ) they give you a link  
to download the latest version of readline ( ftp://ftp.cwru.edu/pub/ 
bash/readline-5.1.tar.gz ) as well as the link to the patch directory  
( ftp://ftp.cwru.edu/pub/bash/readline-5.1-patches ). I don't know  
why they don't spin out x.x.1 point releases to fix known bugs, but  
they don't, and instead provide the fixes as patches. So any readline  
build must include the current sources and any patches for that  
version to be considered bug-free. What a pain.

>> Also, a related query: Is there somewhere in the Python Framework  
>> structure that is appropriate for placing dynamic libraries that  
>> Python would link to? Judicious use of the install_name_tool and  
>> friends could produce a libreadline.dylib that the python binary  
>> would expect at a particular relative path from itself. This would  
>> allow that library to be dynamically linked, yet still live within  
>> (and be distributed with) the framework. Just a thought -- but it  
>> might be more work than it's worth.
>
> I don't see what this would buy us. It is possible to do this, but  
> IMHO not really worth the trouble.

It doesn't buy much really, except obviating the need to re-link  
python every time a library needs to be changed. So in this case,  
Michael could have built a fixed readline, put it in the right place,  
and gone on his merry way with the MacPython distribution. Instead he  
had to rebuild python himself, from scratch. It's not a big deal  
though either way. I was just mentioning the possibility, but not  
really advocating for it.

Zach