Python distutils not using correct version of gcc

Question

I am trying to compile a package on Mac OSX 10.6.5. The package\'s install script relies on distutils. The problem is that the computer\'s default gcc is version 4.2 (I de

Answer 1

You don't say which versions of Python you are using but chances are that the default Python on the machine you are using is not the Apple-supplied Python 2.6.1, more likely one installed from python.org. Try running the build script with /usr/bin/python2.6 which should be the Apple-supplied Python 2.6; that does use gcc-4.2.

When you use Python's Distutils (typically by running a setup.py script or using easy_install), Distutils tries to make sure that any C extension modules in the package you are installing will be compiled with the same compiler version and with compatible compilation options (CPU archs, ABI, etc) as was used to build Python itself. Traditionally, most python.org installers for OS X provide a universal Python that works on multiple versions of OS X and multiple CPU archs. That's why they are built with gcc-4.0. If you need to use gcc-4.2 for some other library, then the safest thing is to use a Python that was built with gcc-4.2. The Apple-supplied system Pythons on OS X 10.6 are so built. Also, for the most recent releases of Python (2.7.1 and 3.2), python.org provides a second OS X installer variant for OS X 10.6 that is also built with gcc-4.2. But if you do not have admin access to your machine, that's not an option anyway.

You can see which python is being used by default by:

which python