Bear's Log

Since Python on Tiger (and also Panther) is missing full readline support, we need to build readline ourselves and rebuild Python. To build readline on Tiger follow the normal configure/make/install dance, with one exception:

    curl ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/readline/readline-5.0.tar.gz

    tar xzf readline-5.0.tar.gz

    cd readline-5.0

    ./configure


On Tiger you need to do the following extra step:


     cd shlib

     mv Makefile Makefile.backup

     sed -e 's/-dynamic/-dynamiclib/' Makefile.backup > Makefile

     cd ..


Now run make then install it to the /usr/local directory - which you should

already have or will have created.

     make

     sudo make install


An optional step is to move the current libreadline out of the way and

symlink to our newly built version:

     sudo rm /usr/lib/libreadline*

     sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libreadline* /usr/lib/


On Panther you will most likely not see libreadline at all and on Tiger it

will be a symlink to /usr/lib/libedit.dylib. That's all it takes to get some GNU readline love on OS X :)