On OS X, I wanted to build my own copy of Python that used my own copy
of Tkinter (built for X11). 

To do this, I passed "LDFLAGS=-rpath,/path/to/lib" to configure so that
Python could find my specific lib files, but I also had to edit Python's
setup.py so that detect_tkinter() would not do anything special for Darwin:

$ diff setup.py original_setup.py 
1199c1199
<         if 0 and (platform == 'darwin' and
---
>         if (platform == 'darwin' and


I did this based on a post by Ronald Oussoren to the Python-SIG Mac
mailing list [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.apple/14008].
He also suggested that I file a bug report, asking for an argument to be
added to python's configure script to avoid having to edit setup.py.

Thanks

The problem is already fixed in svn. Can you download a svn checkout and
verify it that the code is working?

41848 skip.montanaro         if (platform == 'darwin' and

Crys: look closely at the diff, the "0 and " is in the modified file.

I apologize for the confusion: I put the modified file first and the
original second.

Sorry about that!

An option to do nothing special to find Tk and Tcl on darwin is what
would be useful.

Reopening since additional feedback was provided clarifying the request.

How does this request interact with the business about building the Mac
installer with a local tk installed?  Does the fact that that does
something useful mean that this request is in fact out of date?  Looking
at the setup.py comments, I suspect not.

Adding support for building an X11 version of Tkinter would require an 
explicit flag to configure, defaulting to a build that uses AquaTk (which 
most people would like to use).

I'm not interested in creating a patch for this, but am willing to review 
patches for this.

This will go nowhere unless someone supplies a patch.

Sorry, I don't have a Mac, and I don't have access to one that I could use to make a patch. 

At the time, I was trying to support OS X users of a piece of Python/Tkinter software. Please do not keep this issue open on my account.

Thanks,
Chris

Is there actual?

It certainly is still possible to patch current Pythons to build with the X11 Tk 8.5 on OS X.  For example, the current MacPorts Python ports use an X11 Tk 8.5.  Considering all the issues that have arisen with the other Tcl/Tk implementations on OS X (i.e. Cocoa Tk and Carbon Tk), I think it would be useful to provide better support for choosing which to build with.  I'll take a look at this as a possible feature.

Thank you, Ned.

Hello from Homebrew (Mac)!

Indeed we also patch setup.py (but right now only for python2.7) and uncommented the "detect_tkinter_darwin" related lines to support linking against a Tkinter build with homebrew (optionally with X11 support).

(Our patch: https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/pull/16626/files#L0R270)

I agree that an option to tell setup.py to use another Tk would be much appreciated.

Here's a patch. It is simple-minded but I think it should be powerful enough for advanced users to build with non-default Tcl and Tk libraries without having to modify the source.  It adds two new options to configure; if used, both must be specified:

  ./configure \
      --with-tcltk-includes="-I/opt/local/include" \
      --with-tcltk-libs="-L/opt/local/lib -ltcl8.5 -ltk8.5"

The values are passed into the top-level setup.py and override the default searches and values for include_dirs and libraries when building _tkinter.so.

In addition, the options can be overridden with make.  This can be useful when testing tkinter with different versions of Tcl/Tk:

   ./configure
   make
   make test  # test with platform default Tcl/Tk
   ( cd ./build/lib.xx && mv _tkinter.so _tkinter.so.default )
   make \
       TCLTK_INCLUDES="-I/opt/local/include" \
       TCLTK_LIBS="-L/opt/local/lib -ltcl8.6 -ltk8.6"
   make test  # test with another version of Tcl/Tk

I have some more testing to do on other platforms but, unless there are major objections, I intend to commit this soon for use with Issue15663.

New changeset 0986e4f5750d by Ned Deily in branch 'default':
Issue #1584: Provide options to override default search paths for Tcl and Tk
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/0986e4f5750d

New changeset e7474d4d85ca by Ned Deily in branch '2.7':
Issue #1584: Provide options to override default search paths for Tcl and Tk
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/e7474d4d85ca

New changeset d7662958b27a by Ned Deily in branch '3.3':
Issue #1584: Provide options to override default search paths for Tcl and Tk
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/d7662958b27a

Committed to default for release in 3.4.0.  With the consent of the release managers, this change has been backported to 2.7 (for release in 2.7.6) and 3.3 (for 3.3.3) in support of Issue15663.