Re: WARNING - Python 1.2 and Linux

guido@CNRI.Reston.VA.US
Fri, 21 Apr 95 17:16:08 -0400

>In the README file it suggests for Linux:
>
> It is possible that "makesetup" fails with an obscure sed
> error. This is a bug in bash. Replace /bin/sh with /bin/ash
> in both makesetup and Makefile.pre.in. This has been observed
> in Slackware version 2.2, bash 1.14.3; Slackware 2.1 did not
> have the problem.
>
>I am running Linux 1.2.4 with bash 1.14.3. I installed ash and replaced
>the symbolic link for sh from bash to ash. Python built without problem.
>HOWEVER, upon reboot the root file system could not be changed from
>read only to read write. This is not good.

Perhaps the words could have been better, but that's not what they say.
The fix is to *edit* makesetup and change the references to /bin/sh
(these are in the first line, #!/bin/sh). I'm sorry that your boot
failed.

There was a suggestion in the newsgroup that changing

NL="\\
"

into

NL='\
'

would be a better fix; I've added this to my working files and if someone
would please confirm that this indeed works, I can remove the warning from
the README file! (bash still needs to be fixed, but that's not my job :-)

--Guido van Rossum <guido@CNRI.Reston.VA.US>
URL: http://www.cwi.nl/~guido/