This page describes how to build and install Ice for Python from source code on Linux and OS X. If you prefer, you can also download binary distributions for the supported platforms.
Ice for Python is expected to build and run properly on OS X and any recent Linux distribution for x86 and x86_64, and was extensively tested using the operating systems and compiler versions listed for our supported platforms.
Ice for Python supports Python versions 2.6, 2.7, 3.3 or 3.4. Note however that your Python installation must have been built with a C++ compiler that is compatible with the one used to build Ice for C++.
You will need the Ice development kit for C++, which you can install as a binary distribution or compile from source yourself.
Change to the Ice for Python source subdirectory:
$ cd python
If you have not built Ice for C++ in the cpp subdirectory, set ICE_HOME to
the directory of your Ice for C++ installation. For example:
$ export ICE_HOME=/opt/Ice
Edit config/Make.rules, modify the installation prefix (if necessary), and
review the comments describing the PYTHON_VERSION variable.
Execute python -V to verify that the correct Python interpreter is in your
executable search path.
Run make to build the extension.
Upon successful completion, run make install. You may need additional user
privileges to install in the directory specified by config/Make.rules.
Modify your PYTHONPATH environment variable to include the Ice extension
for Python. For example, assuming you installed the extension in the directory
/opt/Ice, you would modify your environment as shown below:
$ export PYTHONPATH=/opt/Ice/python:$PYTHONPATH
After a successful build, you can run the tests as follows:
$ python allTests.py
If everything worked out, you should see lots of ok messages. In case of a
failure, the tests abort with failed.