Problems compiling Python 3.2 and 2.7 using pythonbrew

Question

I\'m trying to build multiple versions of python using Pythonbrew, but I\'m getting some test failures. This is on a VM running: Ubuntu 8.04 32bit

Answer 1

Ryan Thompson's answer is good ... LD_RUN_PATH is the proper remedy.

However, rather than hardcoding an absolute path, one can instead use:

LD_RUN_PATH='$ORIGIN/../lib'

... where $ORIGIN is the PWD of the running binary (eg. python).

# objdump -x /home/arisinger/.pythonbrew/pythons/Python-2.7.3/bin/python|grep RPATH
  RPATH                $ORIGIN/../lib
# ldd .pythonbrew/pythons/Python-2.7.3/bin/python
    [...]
    libpython2.7.so.1.0 => /home/arisinger/.pythonbrew/pythons/Python-2.7.3/bin/../lib/libpython2.7.so.1.0 (0x00007f43994f6000)
    [...]

... the above will also properly install pip, etc. Lastly, from man ld.so:

$ORIGIN and rpath
    ld.so  understands the string $ORIGIN (or equivalently ${ORIGIN}) in an
    rpath specification (DT_RPATH or DT_RUNPATH) to mean the directory con‐
    taining  the  application  executable.  Thus, an application located in
    somedir/app could be compiled with gcc  -Wl,-rpath,'$ORIGIN/../lib'  so
    that  it  finds  an  associated shared library in somedir/lib no matter
    where somedir is located in the directory hierarchy.  This  facilitates
    the  creation  of  "turn-key"  applications  that  do  not  need  to be
    installed into special directories, but can instead  be  unpacked  into
    any directory and still find their own shared libraries.

EDIT: sadly venvs breaks because virtualenv copies the python binary (changing $ORIGIN), but does not copy (or symlink) the library, so C/builtin dynamic modules in the venv end up linking to the system python ... ungood :-( ...

... IMO this is a bug to be fixed (in virtualenv?), but an easy workaround is to manually copy/symlink libpythonX.Y.so* into the lib/ dir of the venv ... or do something a little yucky looking like (note X.Y.Z):

LD_RUN_PATH='$ORIGIN/../lib:$ORIGIN/../../../../pythons/Python-X.Y.Z/lib'

... pick whatever is less nasty to you; both verified to work.