Alternative meson based build script for the CPython interpreter.

The aspiration of this script is to have a modular and easy to customize build script that facilitates cross compilation of the CPython interpreter.

Basic use

Make sure meson is installed :

    sudo dnf install meson ninja-build

Download and unzip the Python source code.

Start the build script by pointing it to the Python source code :

    meson -Dsource=../cpython builddir
    ninja -C builddir

In the example above it is assumed the CPython source code is checked out in ../cpython.

Terminology

Meson definitions are the following :

• build machine is the computer that is doing the actual compiling.

• host machine is the machine on which the compiled binary will run.

• target machine is the machine on which the compiled binary's output will run, only meaningful if the program produces machine-specific output.

Cross compiling

Different configuration files for cross compiling are in the cross-files directory

Windows (mingw)

• binfmt-misc support running exe files under linux when wine is installed, it creates /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/wine which allows the configure tests work.

• https://tecadmin.net/steps-install-wine-centos-rhel-fedora-systems/

• the default configuration of wine might need to be changed to allow the CPython interpreter to start :

  • start winecfg
  • Go to the Libraries tab
  • Select api-ms-win-core-path-xxx in New override for library
  • Press Add
  • Select the library in Existing overrides, press Edit
  • Set the library to disabled

Start the build script by using a cross-file :

    meson -Dsource=../cpython --cross-file cross-files/x86_64-w64-mingw32.txt --prefix="${PWD}/x86_64-w64-mingw32" builddir-x86_64-w64-mingw32
    ninja -C builddir-x86_64-w64-mingw32
    ninja -C builddir-x86_64-w64-mingw32 install

To run the python for windows build, the mingw runtime library and dependencies need to be avialable in the path :

    cd x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin
    export WINEPATH=/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/sys-root/mingw/bin/
    ./python.exe

Related

https://mingwpy.github.io/motivation.html

https://github.com/numpy/numpy/wiki/Numerical-software-on-Windows