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# Build and Install

## Build Steps

PyV8 is using the setuptools [1], which is a famous building system for the Python. You could use it to build the PyV8 module or distribution with one command.

### Precompiled Packages

If you want to try pyv8 ASAP, we suggest you use the precompiled package for your platform.

Please downloads the precompiled packages for Windows and Linux/Debian.

### Build the module

Run the setup.py with install or build command

    $python setup.py install     # build and install the PyV8
    $python setup.py build       # build the PyV8 package

### Build the distribution

Run the setup.py with bdist or bdist_wininst command

    $python setup.py bdist           # build the distribution package for Linux/Mac
    $python setup.py bdist_wininst   # build the distribution package for Windows

## Third Party Library

### Python

Please download and install Python 2.5 or later first.

Set environment variable PYTHON_HOME to the python root folder

    C:\>set PYTHON_HOME=C:\Program Files\Python

### Boost

PyV8 use boost.python [2] for interoperability, please download or install the latest version of Boost, and follow the getting started guide to build the library.

Set environment variable BOOST_HOME to the boost root folder

    $export BOOST_HOME=~/boost_1_47_0

### Google V8

Please follow the building document to download and build v8 engine as static library

set environment variable V8_HOME to the v8 root folder

    $export V8_HOME=~/v8

If PyV8’s setup.py can’t found the v8 source from V8_HOME, it will automatic try to checkout the latest v8 SNV trunk code and build it.

Note

If you want to build v8 with GCC 4.x at x64 platform, you should compile v8 with PIC (Position-Independent Code) mode [3],and set the arch to x64 for scons.

    $export CCFLAGS=-fPIC
    $scons arch=x64

You may also need build Boost with ‘-fPIC’ argument.

    $./bjam --clean
    $./bjam cxxflags=-fPIC

Note

From the v8 engine 3.0, the build script of v8 engine has disabled the C++ RTTI and exception supports by default. It may save some bits of memory, but will broke the boost::python library and PyV8.

So, we must enable it before build PyV8.

For the GCC and other environment base on the SCons, please remove the -fno-rtti and -fno-exceptions from SConstruct

    Index: SConstruct
    ===================================================================
    --- SConstruct  (revision 6041)
    +++ SConstruct  (working copy)
    @@ -126,7 +126,7 @@
       'gcc': {
         'all': {
           'CCFLAGS':      ['$DIALECTFLAGS', '$WARNINGFLAGS'],
    -      'CXXFLAGS':     ['$CCFLAGS', '-fno-rtti', '-fno-exceptions'],
    +      'CXXFLAGS':     ['$CCFLAGS'],
         },
         'visibility:hidden': {
           # Use visibility=default to disable this.
    @@ -455,7 +455,6 @@
       'gcc': {
         'all': {
           'LIBPATH': ['.'],
    -      'CCFLAGS': ['-fno-rtti', '-fno-exceptions']
         },
         'os:linux': {
           'LIBS':         ['pthread'],

If you are using PyV8’s setup.py to checkout and build v8, it will automatic patch the SConstruct file before build v8.

## Debug Mode

You could build Google v8 and PyV8 with debug mode, for more detail debug information.

1. Build v8 with debug mode

    $scons mode=debug            # x86
    $scons mode=debug arch=x64   # amd64

2. Set or export DEBUG=1

    $export DEBUG=1

3. Build pyv8 with setup.py

    $python setup.py build

## FAQ

1. Fail to load PyV8.so with AttributeError exception

   > If you got the exception “AttributeError: ‘Boost.Python.StaticProperty’ object attribute ‘doc’ is read-only”, please check your Python version. The Python 2.6.4 introduce a known issue which will break boost 1.40 or earlier version. Please use Python 2.5.x/2.6.3, or upgrade your boost to 1.41 or later.

Footnotes

[1] | setuptools is a collection of enhancements to the Python distutils (for Python 2.3.5 and up on most platforms; 64-bit platforms require a minimum of Python 2.4) that allow you to more easily build and distribute Python packages, especially ones that have dependencies on other packages.

[2] | Boost.Python is a C++ library which enables seamless interoperability between C++ and the Python programming language. The new version has been rewritten from the ground up, with a more convenient and flexible interface, and many new capabilities, including support for: References and Pointers Globally Registered Type Coercions Automatic Cross-Module Type Conversions Efficient Function Overloading C++ to Python Exception Translation Default Arguments Keyword Arguments Manipulating Python objects in C++ Exporting C++ Iterators as Python Iterators Documentation Strings

[3] | Position-Independent Code (PIC) is machine instruction code that executes properly regardless of where in memory it resides. PIC is commonly used for shared libraries, so that the same library code can be loaded in a location in each program address space where it will not overlap any other uses of memory (for example, other shared libraries).

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