Hi folks,
Despite the fact that dlopen() is available on OS X for 10.3 and
above, the python dl module has not been made available on 10.3 and
10.4.
Specifically, some code in the python setup.py script explicitly
prevents the dl module from being built on darwin even if python sees
dlfcn.h:
dl_inc = find_file('dlfcn.h', [], inc_dirs)
if (dl_inc is not None) and (platform not in ['atheos',
'darwin']):
exts.append( Extension('dl', ['dlmodule.c']) )
Does anyone know the reason for this explicit check to keep the dl
module from being built on darwin?
Now, currently dl is not too useful since mac python does not respect
sys.setdlopenflags(), and since ctypes are coming in python 2.5.
However, I am testing a patch to make python on the mac use dlopen()
instead of the NeXT-derived extension loading mechanism, precisely so
that sys.setdlopenflags() can be used meaningfully on may python.
In addition to providing functions to call dlopen(), the python dl
module declares the values of the various dlopenflags that a user
might want to pass to sys.setdlopenflags(). Thus, it would be
worthwhile making the dl module work in the future.
So, is there any reason that one could not just remove the 'darwin'
from the above platform check in setup.py? Presumably versions of OS
X below 10.3 would not have dlfcn.h, and thus on those platforms, the
dl module would not be built. But on 10.3 and up, it would be built.
Is this an acceptable solution? Or do there need to be explicit
checks to keep dl from being build on 10.2 and below (say, because
10.2 actually does have some inoperative dlfcn.h header somewhere?)
Zach Pincus
Program in Biomedical Informatics and Department of Biochemistry
Stanford University School of Medicine
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