In this thread: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-January/059838.html It was brought up that Python doesn't build readline properly on MacOS X. This patch adds DarwinPorts include and lib directories on the appropriate paths in the setup.py script, which just happens to have the side-effect of getting a usable readline module built.
Logged In: YES user_id=580910 I don't really like this, although this would give DP the same treatment as Fink. IMHO it would be better to search in the directories provided in LDFLAGS and/or OPT, that way users can choose if they want to use software from DP (or Fink). Most of the required functionality seems to be there already. The only thing that's missing is enhancing variables like search_for_ssl_incs_in based on the include directories in OPT, but that's not necessary to pick up readline support. E.g. '.../configure ... OPT=-I/opt/local/include LDFLAGS=-L/opt/local/include' should do the trick without patching python.
Logged In: YES user_id=34892 Barry, Brett specifically *removed* the Fink and DarwinPorts dirs from setup.py for the more generic mechanism (that Ronald described) in this change: http://svn.python.org/view?rev=37988&view=rev My personal preference is for the current state (don't automatically pick up Fink and DarwinPorts stuff) but I can see the case for wanting this stuff to "just work" for naive usage of "./configure; make".
Logged In: YES user_id=12800 I wasn't developing on the Mac at the time, so I'm sure I paid no attention to this change. ;) I can see the wisdom of Brett's change, but OTOH I do think it makes sense to allow configure; make to Just Work. I suppose the right answer is to leave Brett's changes in and not add this patch. Ultimately there should be only one way to do it. Rejecting & closing.
This issue has been migrated to GitHub: https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/42816 
