Python 2.4.3 does not produce a shared python library on AIX even with the --enable-shared flag. The addition of the LDLIBRARY and RUNSHARED variables in the patch should fix this. If I create my own version of the Python engine in a shared library, that version is not able to load any modules. My understanding is that this is because the import directives used when building the modules say that symbols should come from ".", which means the main program. In the patch I replace that with "..", which should look both in the main program and loaded shared libraries. Strictly speaking you could argue that these are two different problems, and could motivate two separate reports. But since they are closely related, both having to do with dynamic linking on AIX, I submit them together.
It is a bit unclear. We are currently still using Python 2.4 with my patch for the active releases of our products. It is at this time not quite clear if we will continue to support AIX in future releases. If we do, we will also have to upgrade to a newer Python version. But right now I do not know if we will. Nor, if so, when we will do this upgrade.
I suggest keeping the issue open since building on AIX with proper extension module support can be tricky, and it's good to have an idea of what a possible patch looks like. (especially if snakebite finally gets an AIX machine)
