Recompiling Python to fix arrow keys in interactive mode issue

Question

I am working in python 2.6 (installed alongside Python2.4.3 required for CentOS) and I am having issues with the arrow keys and backspace etc.

I compiled from source and I imagine the solution is to recompile after installing readline-devel as outlined in:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/893053/python-shell-arrow-keys-do-not-work-on-remote-machine

Question is, I have a lot of modules installed and am worried of things breaking. Is it normal to be able to just recompile without breaking existing modules.

Thanks

Answer 1

As long as you use the same compiler that was originally used, you should be fine, I think. Especially if you don't have any extensions to recompile, because those are what would be affected.

http://docs.python.org/release/2.6.5/install/index.html#building-extensions-tips-and-tricks

the same compiler and linker flags used to compile Python will also be used for compiling extensions.

I might have missed something, though, so...