maximum recursion installing readline package

[mathieu37]

BPO	16346
Nosy	@tarekziade, @merwok, @iritkatriel

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/merwok'
closed_at = <Date 2020-11-24.22:56:39.668>
created_at = <Date 2012-10-28.08:48:55.805>
labels = ['type-bug', 'library', 'build']
title = 'maximum recursion installing readline package'
updated_at = <Date 2020-11-24.22:56:39.665>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/mathieu37'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2020-11-24.22:56:39.665>
actor = 'iritkatriel'
assignee = 'eric.araujo'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2020-11-24.22:56:39.668>
closer = 'iritkatriel'
components = ['Build', 'Distutils', 'Distutils2']
creation = <Date 2012-10-28.08:48:55.805>
creator = 'mathieu37'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 16346
keywords = []
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['174012', '177186', '177202', '381779']
nosy_count = 5.0
nosy_names = ['tarek', 'eric.araujo', 'alexis', 'mathieu37', 'iritkatriel']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'out of date'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue16346'
versions = ['Python 2.7']

[mathieu37]

Dear all,

I tried to install Python 2.7.3 in a home directory for simplicity. On the Ubuntu platform that I had, the readline-dev was not installed.
So, I I tried to install the readline package either by "pip install readline" or "python setup.py install" and what I got was following behavior:
------------------------------------------------------------------
.
.
.
File "/home/dutour/opt/Python-2.7.3/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py", line 1118, in write_pkg_file

    self._write_field(file, 'Metadata-Version', version)

File "/home/dutour/opt/Python-2.7.3/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py", line 1145, in _write_field

    file.write('%s: %s\n' % (name, self._encode_field(value)))

File "/home/dutour/opt/Python-2.7.3/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py", line 1154, in _encode_field

    if isinstance(value, unicode):

RuntimeError: maximum recursion depth exceeded while calling a Python object
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So, the install went into an infinite loop and crashed.
Instead the correct error message that should have been shown at some point is missing .h file.

I am a beginner on Python, I asked on help@python.org and Matthew Dixon Cowles indicated me that I should report the problem here.

[merwok]

On a Ubuntu system you don’t need to install readline from PyPI: CPython has a readline module, which gets compiled if the headers are available.

That said, the error you report is still strange. Can you attach the full console output as a text file?

[mathieu37]

Well, that was the points, the headers were not available.

Mathieu

On Sunday, December 9, 2012, Éric Araujo wrote:

Éric Araujo added the comment:

On a Ubuntu system you don’t need to install readline from PyPI: CPython
has a readline module, which gets compiled if the headers are available.

That said, the error you report is still strange. Can you attach the full
console output as a text file?

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[iritkatriel]

write_pkg_file looks very different now.