Python 2.7 32-bit install on Win 7: No registry keys? - python

I have downloaded the Python 2.7.2 Windows x86 32-bit MSI from python.org and installed it on a 64-bit Windows 7 system. Everything works (at least the command-line interpreter starts and runs), but the install process does not create any Python entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE in the Windows registry.
Various blogs refer to problems created by incomplete Python registry entries when attempting to configure third-party libraries, but I have not found a description of the complete absence of a Python entry in the registry.
I plan to use Python only with the Google Apps Engine SDK and (hopefully) django-nonrel for some fairly simple Google Apps projects. The absence of a Python registry key may not even be an issue for me, but the Django setup docs assume its existence and suggest adding path information to it as a way to populate Python's sys.path list.
Anyone else run into this? Is an additional install step necessary to create the key? Should I manually create it using regedit? Is it even needed, or can the PATH and/or PYTHONPATH environment variables be used for everything instead?

32-bit applications installed on 64-bit OSes store their registry values in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node. If you look there, you should see the settings you are looking for.

Related

Python Manual/Isolated/Portable Windows Installation

I thought it is an easy question but I spent a lot of google time to find the answer with no luck. Hope you can help me.
My company has a large SW system on windows which is portable, meaning copy some folders, add some folder to windows path and you are ready to go.
No registry, no dll in system directory, no shortcuts, Nothing!
I want to start using python 3.x in our system in the same paradigm. I also want the ability to add to this distribution a pip/conda 3rd packages from time to time.
I don't want to install python msi on all the systems.
I don't want to pack it to standalone executable like py2exe and pyinstaller or use special python distribution like PyWin32.
Somehow, I couldn't find a formal official solution for that.
The closest thing was here but no pip is supported, python is minimal, and the system isolation is "almost".
3.8. Embedded Distribution New in version 3.5.
The embedded distribution is a ZIP file containing a minimal Python
environment. It is intended for acting as part of another application,
rather than being directly accessed by end-users.
When extracted, the embedded distribution is (almost) fully isolated
from the user’s system, including environment variables, system
registry settings, and installed packages. The standard library is
included as pre-compiled and optimized .pyc files in a ZIP, and
python3.dll, python36.dll, python.exe and pythonw.exe are all
provided. Tcl/tk (including all dependants, such as Idle), pip and the
Python documentation are not included.
Note The embedded distribution does not include the Microsoft C
Runtime and it is the responsibility of the application installer to
provide this. The runtime may have already been installed on a user’s
system previously or automatically via Windows Update, and can be
detected by finding ucrtbase.dll in the system directory. Third-party
packages should be installed by the application installer alongside
the embedded distribution. Using pip to manage dependencies as for a
regular Python installation is not supported with this distribution,
though with some care it may be possible to include and use pip for
automatic updates. In general, third-party packages should be treated
as part of the application (“vendoring”) so that the developer can
ensure compatibility with newer versions before providing updates to
users.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
How about... installing Python in one machine and replicate that installation on others computers?
Usually, I install Python in a Windows Virtualbox machine (Microsoft usually give it for free to try it or for testing old Internet Explorer versions).
Then I copy the Python directory to my Windows machine (the real host) and usually works. This makes possible to using various python versions.
Did you try to complete the Python Embedded Distribution? Usually they not come with Tkinter, but once I could copy files and put in this distribution in a way that works. Try it too.
You can install pip with get-pip.py

Installing Multiple Python Distributions, Windows

I am using PythonXY (2.7, 32-bit) and the official Python (2.7, 32-bit).
Normally it is recommended to install according to python version, example C:\python27. But since they are both python27, can I arbitrarily change the base name (example C:\pythonxy27)?
When using python extras like pylauncher, or when utilizing the setuptools user-site, will they automatically recognize my custom installation sites (they will easily differentiate C:\python27 and C:\python33), or will both installations compete for the python27 namespace. (specifically when installing 3rd party packages to user-site, which normally locates as such \APPDATA\Python\PythonVer)
As far as setuptools/distribute are concerned, the python installer will handle custom locations for you. As long as you don't move that directory, all should be fine.
As for Pylauncher:
Things are not quite so clean. Pylauncher has simple configuration/call-parameters (for shebang lines in particular), that can handle version/platform selection quite well (2.7 vs 3.3, and 32bit vs 64bit).
As for the scenario in question (two different deployments where both are based on 32bit Python 2.7), pylauncher will attempt to guess which installation you wanted. If it is picking the wrong installation, there is some debugging information you can review to tune pylauncher's selection.
If an environment variable PYLAUNCH_DEBUG is set (to any value), the
launcher will print diagnostic information
It does not seem like there is a portable way to configure this, and will have to be done per-system (once you have your installations configured, YOU CAN set an alias that will be recognized on the shebang line)
Virtualenv and friends
I have also found (after struggling with pylauncher focused solutions), virtualenv addresses many of the deployment isolation hurdles. At the time of posting, working with virtualenv was not nearly as intuitive (on Windows) as compared to a linux shell environment. But I have discovered support packages like virtualenvwrapper which handle a lot of the ugly batch file interfaces very nicely.
Final Notes
Originally, I was also handling python globally with admin accounts. Forcing myself to stay within my user home directory (C:/Users/username), utilizing python user-site configurations, and making optimum use of ipython: have all given me a much better interactive command-line experience.

Running PyObjC application (built in Xcode) on previous version of Mac OS?

I am using Xcode to build a PyObjC application. The app runs fine on the build machine (running 10.8) but crashes on startup on a machine running 10.6, because it fails to find the Python 2.7 installation. Fair enough -- the preinstalled Python on 10.6 is Python 2.5. But I don't really care which Python version my app uses, I just want it to use the latest version of Python it can find.
How can I either:
A) Tell my app to use the latest version of Python available on the host system, OR
B) Bundle the entire Python source into my app?
I have been very frustrated by this issue and any help would be greatly appreciated!
Good question. I wrestled with this for an embedding problem a few years ago and ended up dynamically linking against a specific version that I knew was available on every platform.
I had assumed originally that the Python.framework's Current would be adequate, but it seems to get resolved at link time by Xcode, therefore making the link specific to a particular version. For my purposes, I was able to link directly to
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Python
Which works for OS X 10.7 and 10.8. If you need to go back to 10.6, you'll want to try linking to
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/Python
Obviously, if you're compiling against the 10.6 SDK, you'll want to use that, but the key is to make sure that you link to a version-specific version of the libraries and not the framework version itself. You should be able to manually navigate to the specific version through the + button in the Link Binary with Libraries, but if you have problems, you can open the Python.framework from the SDK directly in the Finder and drag the version-specific library into the Link Binary with Libraries group.
If you find a way around this, then please post another answer here, but this was effective for me to link for embedding into my app.
Use py2app to create the application bundle, and do that using a separate install of Python (that is don't use /System/Library/Framework/Python.framework). The python install you use should be compiled with the MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET set to the minimum OSX release you want to support.
When you do this, it should be possible to deploy to older OSX releases. I regularly do this for building apps on a 10.8 machine that get deployed to a 10.5 machine.
You do need to take some care when including other libraries, especially when those include a configure script: sometimes the configure script detects functionality that is available on the build machine, but not on the deployment machine.
BTW. You need to link against the same version of Python as you use at runtime. CPython's ABI is not compatible between feature releases (that is, the 2.6 ABI is not necessarily compatible with the 2.7 ABI). For python 3.x there is a stable ABI that is compatible between feature releases, but AFAIK that's primarily targeting Python extensions and I don't know how useful that is for embedding Python in your application.

How to install a multipart python program on Mac?

Finally making a legitimate mac installer for my product. I've made a successful Windows installer with Inno installer. I'm not sure how to do this in Mac.
This must happen:
-Python is installed
-Wx is Installed
-Py Serial is installed
-Program is copied
-Shortcut is made.
I was doing this with Bash scripts before, but my customers having been complaining about those. Perhaps X-code package maker is the solution? I know the recommended method is "just copy files" but these libraries must be installed somehow.
Thanks in advance!
Unless I am using Fink for installing packages, I usually just download the .tar.gz file from the source and install it from terminal inside the unzipped folder containing the install.py file. Terminal command:
sudo python ./setup.py install
If you would like, I can show you how to set up and use Fink, which is another easy way to install packages / libraries.
tl;dr: py2app will make a self-contained application bundle out of your Python scripts, making it real easy to employ the 'just copy files' installation process. The libraries you need are bundled into the app bundle itself, so they don't need to be installed systemwide.
Also check out Optimizing for Mac OS X from the wxPython wiki; it gives good tips on using py2app and other useful information on building a Mac-friendly Python application.
On OS X, programs are generally installed through one of three ways: the Mac App Store, a package installer (.pkg/.mpkg), or a copyable application bundle on a disk image (.app in a .dmg). Each has its strengths and weaknesses.
The Mac App Store requires that you subscribe to Apple's restrictions and requirements, and may be a good choice for apps expecting wider distribution (though, nowadays, it can be a good way to reach that wider audience easily). Copyable application bundles are by far the simplest installation method pre-App Store, and still remain one of the more popular ways to install programs. Finally, an Installer package is a user-friendly way to install more complex programs requiring more than a simple application bundle (e.g. system services, files in particular directories, system-dependent components, advanced installation logic, etc.). I should note, though, that do exist complex applications which ship as application bundles and perform the bulk of their 'installation' at first run.
My experience with the Mac App Store is limited, so I won't talk about it. You can find more details at the official website.
Python is quite amenable to being shipped as an application bundle. You can use py2app to automatically create an application bundle for the program, and then drop that bundle into a Mac disk image (.dmg) using Disk Utility to create a complete installation package. This doesn't support making shortcuts, but on OS X it is much more usual for users to just drop the app into /Applications and make the necessary dock shortcut themselves if they want.
The next way is to make a metapackage (.mpkg) which will be installed using the OS X standard Installer utility. This is in line with what users will expect from a Mac application. IIRC, both Mac Python and wxPython ship as .pkg already, which should make it easier to integrate them into a metapackage. bdist_mpkg can help with making packages for pyserial and your own program, which can be added to the metapackage. Finally, using the third-party dockutil script, you can automatically add a dock shortcut. Note, however, that installers generally do not add shortcuts to the dock; it is more usual to have a program installed to the /Applications directory.`

How to create a Mac .pkg from python which supports multiple versions of OSX

I am trying to create a .pkg installer for a python application (specifically Spyderlib). This is not an app but a python package and a command line executable that have to be copied to specific locations.
However, the location depends on the version of OSX. I'm only targeting 10.6 and 10.7 but they come with different versions of python (2.6 and 2.7) so the install path is different.
Using bdist_mpkg I was able to create a Mac mpkg in 10.7 which installs correctly and can be edited with PackageMaker. Now I want to know how I can edit this package so that it detects the version of OSX and sets the install target path correctly.
I understand that I can use shell scripts to do pre and post-installation jobs, however I haven't been able to find examples of how to do this and how a script could but used to set the install target for the files in the mpkg.
Alternatively, it may be that this is possible to do directly from PackageMaker, but i was not able to see anything to this effect (and the documentation seems quite superficial).
So I would like to know how this could be done. It would also be really helpful to see some examples for other software packages.
You don't need any scripts - you can do that with Package Manager alone - the Package Manager GUI allows you to tag packages as installable (enabled) and selected based on conditions such as OS version (in Choices under Requirements)

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