Choosing a new build system for Samba

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Sun, 2010-03-21 at 12:54 +1100, Andrew Bartlett wrote:
> On Sat, 2010-03-20 at 15:33 +0000, Dan Shearer wrote:
> > On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 02:04:56PM -0400, yaberger at ca.ibm.com wrote:
> > > Volker Lendecke wrote:
> > > < For the non-merged Samba 3 server I would like to maintain
> > > < the ability to build it without python for as long as
> > > < possible. Even if it means to maintain a separate
> > > < configure.in/Makefile.in I think it is worth it. It does not
> > > < happen on a weekly basis, but I frequently go to customers
> > > < with weird platforms where it is extremely hard to even
> > > < download the samba tarfile. Being forced to download and
> > > < build python to compile Samba will make my job a lot more
> > > < difficult in many situations.
> > > I would *really* appreciate to be able to build samba without having to 
> > > maintain a python package on my AIX systems.
> > I once used jython 2.2 to run some fairly substantial Python. If jython
> > 2.5.1 is as good as claimed you may well be able to do an S4 build.
> I wouldn't want to start suggesting using different python versions - if
> only because it would be completely untested territory.  In any case
> Samba4 requires that C python API, something that I wouldn't expect from
> a Java implementation :-)

Correct.  Jython [the only currently maintained Python-on-the-JVM]
explicitly states that it does not, and will not, support the use of
Python extensions that use 'native code' (shared libraries).  Iron
Python (Python on CLR [.NET]) does contain some support for using
extensions that contain 'unmanaged code' (shared libraries) [which is
what provoked Jython's explicit policy].  

But I'd wager someone who isn't comfortable with CPython isn't going to
want IPython. :)

If AIX is the platform in question it should be noted that pWare
provides very good Python packages for AIX.  We use their Python in
production on AIX 5.3.x boxes.