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How to build embeddable Python

I am wondering how to build embeddable Python for Windows. Could not find any info or build configuration for that particular package.
Reason I ask is that I could use the same variant for Mac and Linux.

Recently, I had to build an embeddable zip for 64bit Python 3.5.6 (since the official download page doesn't offer them for Python greater than 3.5.4), here are the steps.
Prerequisites (one-time install)
Install
git
TortoiseSVN
Visual Studio C++ Build Tools 2015 (you may need version 2017 when building latest Python versions)1
If you haven't Sphinx installed, install it and add sphinx-build to PATH2:
> python -m pip install --user sphinx
> set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Users\jenkins\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python35\Scripts
If you haven't blurb installed, install it, add blurb to PATH if necessary (if you've done the previous step, you already have the correct PATH):
> python -m pip install --user blurb
> set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Users\jenkins\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python35\Scripts
Configure build environment
Clone CPython repo. Here, I clone only the tag I need:
> git clone --depth 1 --branch v3.5.6 https://github.com/python/cpython
In the repo dir, generate NEWS file3, 4:
> blurb merge -f Misc\NEWS
Build
Now you can trigger the build:
> Tools\msi\buildrelease.bat -x64 --skip-nuget --test testout
Replace -x64 with -x32 if you target the 32bit arch. --skip-nuget will omit building the MSI installer. --test testout will trigger installer tests; you can skip them if you want.
Once the build finishes, check for build artifact PCbuild\amd64\en-us\python-3.5.6-embed-amd64.zip. This is your embeddable zip.
After the build succeeds for the first time, you can skip the doc build in future builds for further speedup as long as the doc build artifacts remain in repo:
> Tools\msi\buildrelease.bat -x64 --skip-doc --skip-nuget --test testout
1 Make sure you select "Custom" in the VC++ Build Tools installer and check all the options; otherwise, you may get build errors like The code execution cannot proceed because ucrtbased.dll was not found etc. I'm no Windows expert by all means, just installed everything possible to get rid of the errors.
2 Looking at the buildrelease.bat help, it seems like you can skip the doc build with --skip-doc flag, but when using that, I got the error
"C:\Users\jenkins\projects\cpython\Tools\msi\bundle\releaselocal.wixproj"
(Rebuild target) (1) ->
"C:\Users\jenkins\projects\cpython\Tools\msi\doc\doc.wixproj" (Rebuild target) (7) ->
(Link target) ->
C:\Users\jenkins\projects\cpython\Tools\msi\doc\doc_files.wxs(8): error
LGHT0103: The system cannot find the file 'python356.chm'. [C:\Users\jenkins\projects\cpython\Tools\msi\doc\doc.wixproj]
and the build aborts with an error. If you manage to circumvent this without an initial doc build (so the doc files are available in the build dir), you can skip Sphinx install.
3 Otherwise, I get the build error
"C:\Users\jenkins\projects\cpython\Tools\msi\bundle\releaselocal.wixproj" (Rebuild target) (1) ->
"C:\Users\jenkins\projects\cpython\Tools\msi\exe\exe.wixproj" (Rebuild target) (8) ->
C:\Users\jenkins\projects\cpython\Tools\msi\exe\exe_files.wxs(9): error
LGHT0103: The system cannot find the file '!(bindpath.src)Misc\NEWS'. [C:\Users\jenkins\projects\cpython\Tools\msi\exe\exe.wixproj]
4 You can replace the command with an appropriate make invocation, but I was too lazy to decipher the Doc\Makefile. After all, the news won't land in the embeddable zip anyway; this is only to make the buildrelease.bat happy.

Getting the correct version of Pmw to install

Problem:
I'd like to install Pmw 2.0.0 (project page here) so that I can use it with tkinter in python3. The setup script from the package detects which version of python you're using and installs the version that is appropriate for your system (Ubuntu 15 in my case). I can't find any references to switches to make it install the 2.0.0 instead of 1.3.3(the Python 2.7 version), nor have I been able to get the script to install to the python3 libraries.
What I've done so far:
I've changed the python version detector in the setup script from
if sys.version_info[0]<3:
version='2.0.0' # really '1.3.3'
packages=['Pmw', 'Pmw.Pmw_1_3_3', 'Pmw.Pmw_1_3_3.lib',]
to
if sys.version_info[0]<2:
version='2.0.0' # really '1.3.3'
packages=['Pmw', 'Pmw.Pmw_1_3_3', 'Pmw.Pmw_1_3_3.lib',]
to attempt to force the installer to default to the python3 version, which it does, but it installs them in the python2.7 libraries (/usr/local/lib/python2.7/distpackages).
What I want to do:
I'm looking for a way to force the installer to put the 3.4-compatible package into the python3 libraries. If that means getting it to install both packages in their respective correct directories, that's fine, too. I'm stumped about what to try next.

Answered by RazZiel on AskUbuntu:
Link here.
Instead of using the command sudo python setup.py build and then sudo python setup.py install, I should have been using python3 to execute the setup script. I've managed to outthink myself pretty badly on this one.

How do I install python on a windows machine using a cygwin terminal?

I am trying to install python through cygwin on a windows machine in order to make use of a statistical program that can only be implemented using python in a linux environment.
I have run setup-x86_64.exe and installed all python related cygwin packages in an attempt to install python, but when I open a terminal and type python I just get
$ python
-bash: python: command not found
which is the same for all python commands I try so clearly the installation has not occurred. However, I have found a path to Python-2.7.9 which appears to contain the files required to build python from source.
When I run ./configure it is successful, but when I then input make it fails due to:
File "build/temp.cygwin-1.7.35-x86_64-2.7/libffi/fficonfig.py", line 33, in <module>
ffi_sources += ffi_platforms['X86_WIN64']
KeyError: 'X86_WIN64'
Makefile:488: recipe for target 'sharedmods' failed
make: *** [sharedmods] Error 1
Anyone know why make won't work?
The options in ./configure --help are unfamiliar to me, could any of these options allow for successful installation?
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Cygwin comes with an installer, called setup.exe or setup-x86_64.exe. Just run it and type python to the search box. Then let it install it for you.
python language interpreter is the basic package you need.

So, this question is 3 years old, but this error still happens with most recent versions of Python 2 (tested with 2.7.13 and 2.7.15)
I was able to get python to build by modifying the following file in the build directory.
--- build/temp.cygwin-2.11.1-x86_64-2.7/libffi/fficonfig.py~ 2018-11-03 14:51:53.290000000 -0400
+++ build/temp.cygwin-2.11.1-x86_64-2.7/libffi/fficonfig.py 2018-11-03 14:53:41.793000000 -0400
## -9,6 +9,7 ##
'X86': ['src/x86/ffi.c', 'src/x86/sysv.S', 'src/x86/win32.S'],
'X86_FREEBSD': ['src/x86/ffi.c', 'src/x86/freebsd.S'],
'X86_WIN32': ['src/x86/ffi.c', 'src/x86/win32.S'],
+ 'X86_WIN64': ['src/x86/ffi.c', 'src/x86/win64.S'],
'SPARC': ['src/sparc/ffi.c', 'src/sparc/v8.S', 'src/sparc/v9.S'],
'ALPHA': ['src/alpha/ffi.c', 'src/alpha/osf.S'],
'IA64': ['src/ia64/ffi.c', 'src/ia64/unix.S'],
The source files, in particular src/x86/win64.S, are present in the source tree. For some reason, ./configure does not seem to be properly adding the option to the dictionary in the fficonfig.py file, which causes the KeyError posted in the question. After making this modification, make and make install completed successfully and I was able to install an alternate version of python in addition to the normal Cygwin package.
I'm not yet sure why this happens, but I thought I would attempt to provide a solution to the question actually asked rather than just telling the asker to install a pre-compiled version using the package manager.

Since building Python from source was said to be a bad idea, I assumed my Cygwin was broken. I attempted to uninstall Cygwin following the instructions on the Cygwin website, but I was unable to remove it due to permission difficulties (I use a university-supplied Windows machine). My last resort was to run the Cygwin installation wizard setup-x86_64.exe and uninstall all packages, then run the wizard once more and select the necessary packages again as if starting from new. Miraculously, installing the required packages from scratch solved the problem and I am now running Python through my Cygwin terminal with no errors.

If you want to run Python on Cygwin, you might need to build it from source.
download the source
unpack it to the directory you could delete later, eg: build
run Cygwin, type: cd /path/to/build
run ./configure --help and read the help about the options you'll need
./configure #options
make

Cannot find tk.h despite having the dev packages installed

I am trying to install wck. But I ran into the following error when running setup.py :
fatal error : tk.h : no such file or directory
But I already have all the -dev packages installed! I went on and installed tk-dev, tk8.5-dev and tk8.4-dev and the problem persists. I did a 'locate tk.h' and there was no tk.h anywhere in my system. Wherever this problem was reported, people were trying to get tcl.h too. So I did a sudo apt-get install tcl-dev and did a 'locate tcl.h'. Nothing! Where did all the header files go?

Your problem is, that WCKs setup.py and setuplib.py don't have a clue where to look with the layout on your system, so you will have to fix those to get it working.
I assume your using some variant of Debian Linux there, so maybe have a look at their guidelines for packaging Tcl/Tk.
Basically they recommend adding configure switches like:
--with-tcl=/usr/lib/tclX.Y
--with-tk=/usr/lib/tkX.Y
--with-tclincludes=/usr/include/tclX.Y
http://pkg-tcltk.alioth.debian.org/tcltk-policy.html/ap-debian_oddities.html
http://pkg-tcltk.alioth.debian.org/tcltk-policy.html/ch-tcltk.html
With that info, you might be able to get it to work by editing setup.py and simply adding a version of find_tk() that works for your system.

How do I install GASP for Python 2.6.2 on a Mac

I'm currently trying to learn Python and am going through How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning With Python. I have installed Python 2.6.2 on Mac OSX 10.4.11 and am using the IDLE.
At the end of chapter 4 Elkner et al. refer to GASP. However their instructions don't work as when I enter:
>>> from gasp import*
I get:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#17>", line 1, in <module>
from gasp import*
ImportError: No module named gasp
I've had a look around on google and can only find outdated methods of installation or pages of gobbledegook. I believe I have to install PyObjC first and haven't been able to accomplish this either.
Can anyone please help me out with some plain English instructions?

Well everybody, sorry for the incomplete sentences and overall poor English but I wanted to make this simple to read and understand for someone who is completely inexperienced in any sort of programming, as I am (very first day messing with this stuff, e.g., terminal). This is the result of hours of Googling that was all done in one day. Perhaps someone who is familiar with the commands below (in bold) wouldn’t mind explaining what exactly is taking place. Additionally, this was all done in terminal on a MacBook Pro running Mac OS Lion.
Install macport binary (comes with installer; easy)
sudo port install py-game
not sure if this is necessary, as it doesn’t appear to cause pygame to be functional for python version 2.7.1 (stock python on lion)
sudo port select --set python python 2.7
I believe this set the default python version to 2.7.2 which I also believe was
downloaded during step 2 (therefore why I think this ends up being a necessary step)
Download setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.tar
In folder gasp-0.3.4, which appears after clicking on the .tar, place setup.py in the
gasp folder
sudo python gasp/setup.py install
make sure your directory is the folder gasp-0.3.4
sudo port –v install py27-pygtk
takes about an hour for this step to complete
sudo port uninstall py-game
this step is not necessary for gasp to work; I simply didn’t want any unnecessary
stuff on my computer that was downloaded during the second step; however, this step
put python 2.7.2 on my computer; could install 2.7.2 separately I guess but this way
worked for me; a lot of other unnecessary stuff is installed during this step too but
I think it’ll remain even after this command, oh well

This is actually somewhat of a coincidence; I'm one of the packagers of GASP. On our download page, which is linked by our main project page, there are instructions on how to install it on most major platforms. Hadn't considered OSX, however. Will write something up shortly.
Essentially, install the Official Python from the PSF. Then add MacPorts and run
sudo ports install py-game
Extract the source tarball from the download page linked above to your site-packages directory.
There are also some alternative instructions I found that might work better, as I have not tested the above.

This is an interesting problem faced by most of the readers using "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist : Learning with Python", when they reach 4th chapter.
Now to install GASP, you need to check whether you have python installed on your machine.
Assumption: I am going to assume that you are using Mac.
Type the following command on your terminal,
`$ python -V`
{If your system has python installed on it, you will get an answer like Python 2.7.1 ( if the version is 2.7.1).}
Once you have python available on your system, you should install PyObjC.
An easy way out is to type on to your terminal prompt,
`$ easy_install pyobjc==2.2`
{this will install the version 2.2}
Next step is to install pygame package , you can do this in two ways either by downloading the .dmg file or using "homebrew". I prefer the second method.
to install pygame package using "brew" you have to install mercurial first. It's a simple procedure, just type in
$ brew install mercurial
Then type in the following commands,
$ brew install sdl sdl_image sdl_mixer sdl_ttf smpeg portmidi
$ sudo pip install hg+http://bitbucket.org/pygame/pygame
Next step is to install GASP. Download gasp from https://launchpad.net/gasp-core/+download
Extract the .tar file, you will get a folder structure. Our aim is to copy the folder named "gasp" to the Systems Library folder. To check which folder or version of python is used and to know their correct path type in the following command on terminal.
$ python -c 'import sys, pprint; pprint.pprint(sys.path)'
generally it will print a path similar to '/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages' , you can notice this either as the last line or the second last line of the output that above commands generate.
Copy the gasp folder to the site-packages folder,
$ sudo cp -R ~/Desktop/python-gasp-0.1.1/gasp/ /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/gasp
This should copy all the required files to the location specified as the second argument.
Now go to terminal and type
$ python
>>> import gasp
If everything goes fine, you will not get any error or any messages.
PS: Ensure that in your site-packages directory there are no duplicate copies of pygame/gasp. In case of duplicates, it may throw lots of tantrums. Also, if any of the steps go wrong you may get error "import cairo" some 25th or 26th line on base.py in gasp package.In that event, please clean up your site packages directory by removing pygame and gasp and re-install them, that should solve it.
Also while installing mercurial you may get some warning related to Certificates. You can solve them by typing in following commands,
$ openssl req -new -x509 -extensions v3_ca -keyout /dev/null -out dummycert.pem -days 3650
$ sudo cp dummycert.pem /etc/hg-dummy-cert.pem
$ cd ~
$ nano .hgrc
{ This will open up an empty .hgrc file }
Type in the following
[web]
cacerts = /etc/hg-dummy-cert.pem
save the above 2 lines by pressing ctrl+ o
exit nano by pressing ctrl + x
Thats it. This should solve your problems with GASP installation and enjoy the book " How to Think Like a Computer Scientist" it's a wonderful introduction to the world of computing.