[Spambayes] i can't even get off the ground with spambayes

[Skip Montanaro]

    brown> i am not familiar with python and the programs that it can run,
    brown> but i was asked to install spambayes. both python and spambayes
    brown> are installed, but in trying to run the first test, it blows up:

    ...
    brown> "/usr/depot/irix6x/python/2.3.3/lib/python2.3/socket.py",
    brown> line 44, in ?
    brown>     import _socket
    brown> ImportError: No module named _socket

This tells me that when you built python either the underlying _socket
module didn't get built for some reason or that the python interpreter can't
find the one you did build.  There are some troubleshooting hints.
(Anywhere I say "foo.so" replace ".so" with whatever extension IRIX uses.)

    1. Poke around in /usr/depot/irix6x/python/2.3.3/ and see if you find a
       file named _socket.so.  If so, let us know where you found it and
       what the output of this command is:

          python -c 'import sys ; print sys.path'

    2. If you don't find _socket.so in your installation tree, go back to
       your build tree and see if it's there.  If it is, let us know where
       you found it.

    3. If not, check for _socket_failed.so.  This would indicate that it
       built successfully but couldn't be imported.  If you find it, cd to
       that directory and run

          python -c 'import _socket_failed'

       and let us know what python says.  If IRIX has a command similar to
       ldd which will display shared library dependencies, run that against
       it to see if you can identify a missing library.

    4. If step 3 doesn't locate socket_failed.so, try running make again and
       see if it attempts to build _socket.so but barfs.  If so, let us have
       a look at the virtual vomit...

Skip