Problems installing Python on server

[Yansky]

I asked my hosting company if they would upgrade Python on my server
to the latest version. They responded with:

"Sorry no. We tend to stick with what comes packaged with the unix
distribution to ease maintenance issues.

There is nothing stopping you from running your own version of python
from within your own account. Download the source and compile it and
install it into your own space. Adjust the fist line of your python
scripts to reflect the location of YOUR python binary:

#! /home/youraccount/yourlibs/python

and you should be all set."

The build instructions for Python are:
To start building right away (on UNIX): type "./configure" in the
current directory and when it finishes, type "make". This creates an
executable "./python"; to install in usr/local, first do "su root" and
then "make install".

The problem is, I don't have root access to the server so I can't do
the "make install". I have ubuntu on my computer, but from what I
understand I can't compile it on that and upload it because the server
runs Red Had and the ./configure would have made it incompatible
right?

So how can I build Python without root access?

 

[bruno.desthuilliers]

I asked my hosting company if they would upgrade Python on my server
to the latest version. They responded with:

"Sorry no. We tend to stick with what comes packaged with the unix
distribution to ease maintenance issues.

There is nothing stopping you from running your own version of python
from within your own account. Download the source and compile it and
install it into your own space. Adjust the fist line of your python
scripts to reflect the location of YOUR python binary:

#! /home/youraccount/yourlibs/python

and you should be all set."

The build instructions for Python are:
To start building right away (on UNIX): type "./configure" in the
current directory and when it finishes, type "make". This creates an
executable "./python"; to install in usr/local, first do "su root" and
then "make install".

This is the "default" install. You want to have a look at the ./
configure flags (doing ./configure --help) and set the right options
for your custom install.

The problem is, I don't have root access to the server so I can't do
the "make install".

You don't need root access to install in your own home directory -
this is only needed to do a system wide install.

I have ubuntu on my computer, but from what I
understand I can't compile it on that and upload it because the server
runs Red Had and the ./configure would have made it incompatible
right?
Indeed

So how can I build Python without root access?

cf above : type ./configure --help, read on, set appropriate options,
and proceed !-)

HTH

 

[Devraj]

Also be careful and setup all the paths that is required for compiling
various Python modules etc.

 

[jim-on-linux]

Also be careful and setup all the paths
that is required for compiling various
Python modules etc.


Go to the ReadME file after you unpack
python.
Open and look for "Installing".
Read the section, it explains how to install
on the entire system and how to install
locally.
"Make altinstall" is what you are looking
for.

jim-on-linux
http:\\www.inqvista.com

 

[jim-on-linux]

Also be careful and setup all the paths
that is required for compiling various
Python modules etc.



Go to the ReadME file after you unpack
python.
Open and look for "Installing".
Read the section, it explains how to
install on the entire system and how to
install locally.
"Make altinstall" is what you are looking
for.

jim-on-linux
http:\\www.inqvista.com

Will the "make install" make my Python the
default one? If I want to install some
Python modules, will I need to alter their
installation as well or will it see my
Python version as the right one to install
too?

Cheers.

-------------------------------------------------------

 

[Steve Holden]

Will the "make install" make my Python the
default one? If I want to install some
Python modules, will I need to alter their
installation as well or will it see my
Python version as the right one to install
too?

The "default one"? That's just the one that runs when a user enters the

python

command, right? "make install" will install Python wherever you told the
configure utility to build it for. "make altinstall" is a convenience
method that (IIRC) builds for /usr/local/bin.

Generally speaking when you install an extension or other module,
nowadays you use the command

python setup.py install

The installation takes place in whichever copy of Python runs setup.py,
so with a "default" /usr/bin/python and an "alternate"
/usr/local/bin/python, to install a module in the alternate you would run

/usr/local/bin/python setup.py install

The same is true of a Python you have installed somewhere under your
home directory.

regards
Steve

 

[jim-on-linux]

Will the "make install" make my Python the
default one? If I want to install some
Python modules, will I need to alter
their installation as well or will it see
my Python version as the right one to
install too?

Cheers.

From the Readme file enclose with Python;

------
" If you have a previous installation of
Python that you don't
want to replace yet, use

make altinstall

This installs the same set of files as "make
install" except it
doesn't create the hard link to
"python<version>" named "python" and
it doesn't install the manual page at all. "
------


I installed python 2.5
using make altinstall by going to

" /usr/local/lib "
unpacking, then using
make altinstall

Folder 2.5 is created.
To add modules, as I have added PIL to my
system, I go to;

" /usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages "
where I installed PIL.

installing a py module in the site-packages
folder is where I would install any package
unless otherwise directed. When upgrading
you can go to the site directory and see
what's in there, and what has to be added to
a new upgrade.

http:\\www.inqvista.com

jim-on-linux

 

[Paul Boddie]

I asked my hosting company if they would upgrade Python on my server
to the latest version. They responded with:

"Sorry no. We tend to stick with what comes packaged with the unix
distribution to ease maintenance issues.

Which version are they running, by the way?

There is nothing stopping you from running your own version of python
from within your own account. Download the source and compile it and
install it into your own space. Adjust the fist line of your python
scripts to reflect the location of YOUR python binary:

#! /home/youraccount/yourlibs/python

and you should be all set."

This sounds like reasonable advice, I suppose.

The build instructions for Python are:
To start building right away (on UNIX): type "./configure" in the
current directory and when it finishes, type "make". This creates an
executable "./python"; to install in usr/local, first do "su root" and
then "make install".

The problem is, I don't have root access to the server so I can't do
the "make install".

I think that the "su root" stuff is just there in anticipation of
people trying to configure, build and install Python without thinking
too hard about it and then finding that they get lots of errors about
installing into places they don't have permissions for. If you're
installing into a different location, you only need to have
permissions to write to that location.

I have ubuntu on my computer, but from what I understand I can't
compile it on that and upload it because the server
runs Red Had and the ./configure would have made it incompatible
right?

If you have shell access on the hosting service and they have
compilers available, you can just do the build and install there.
Building on your own computer and having the executable work on the
server is likely to be more difficult due to the usual library
versioning issues that arise between distributions - it'd be
interesting to see if anyone can suggest a solution for this involving
the LSB tools.

So how can I build Python without root access?

Something like this:

mkdir /home/youraccount/apps # optional - see below
./configure --prefix=/home/youraccount/apps
make
make install

Here, the apps directory in your home directory will contain the usual
UNIX directory structure that you would otherwise see in /usr:
directories such as bin, lib, share (probably), and so on. You'll find
the python executable as /home/youraccount/apps/bin/python.

Some people like to mimic the full UNIX structure and have a usr
directory (either underneath or instead of the apps directory employed
above); others prefer to have the bin, lib (and other directories) in
their home directory (thus omitting the apps directory); you get to
choose. ;-)

I hope this helps!

Paul