Compiling Python 3.1.1 32-bit

Question

We're using this configure script with an option we spotted in the configure help menu:

./configure --with-universal-archs=32-bit --prefix="$HOME/python"
make
make install

But when all the dust is settled and we check out what it gives us:

✔python-3.1.1⤿ file ~/python/bin/python3
python/bin/python3: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

How do we compile it so we're given a 32-bit python? We're looking to use the uno module provided by OpenOffice, which requires 32-bit python.

Answer 1

I'd try CFLAGS=-m32 LDFLAGS=-m32 although I don't have the requisite hardware to test that it works.

I'm not familiar with the --with-universal-archs option -- must be specific to OS X?

Answer 2

There's no need to build your own. Use the Python 3.1.1 OS X installer from python.org. It's 32-bit only and will work just fine on OS X 10.4 through 10.6. If you need to install any packages with C extension modules on 10.6, you'll need to install the optional 10.4 SDK from the the Snow Leopard Xcode mpkg and you'll need to tell Distutils to use GCC 4.0:

$ export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.0