Installing PyQt
Downloading PyQt
You can get the latest release of the GPL version of the PyQt source code from
http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/download.
If you are using the commercial version of PyQt then you should use the
download instructions which were sent to you when you made your purchase. You
must also download your license file.
Configuring PyQt
After unpacking the source package (either a .tar.gz or a .zip file
depending on your platform) you should then check for any README files
that relate to your platform.
If you are using the commercial version of PyQt then you must copy your
license file to the sip directory.
You need to make sure your environment variables are set properly for your
development environment. For example, if you are using a binary distribution
of Qt on Windows then make sure you have run the qtvars.bat file. For
other platforms it is normally enough to ensure that Qt’s bin directory
is on your PATH.
Next you need to configure SIP by executing the configure.py script.
For example:
This assumes that the Python interpreter is on your path. Something like the
following may be appropriate on Windows:
c:\python32\python configure.py
If you have multiple versions of Python installed then make sure you use the
interpreter for which you wish to build PyQt for.
The full set of command line options is:
-
--version
- Display the PyQt version number.
-
-h, --help
- Display a help message.
-
--confirm-license
- Using this confirms that you accept the terms of the PyQt license.
-
-k, --static
- The PyQt modules will be built as static libraries. This is useful when
building a custom interpreter with the PyQt modules built in to the
interpreter.
-
--no-docstrings
- The PyQt modules will not contain automatically generated docstrings.
-
-r, --trace
- The generated PyQt modules contain additional tracing code that is enabled
using SIP’s sip.settracemask() function.
-
-u, --debug
- The PyQt modules will be built with debugging symbols. On Windows this
requires that a debug version of Python is installed.
-
-w, --verbose
- Compiler commands and any output issued during configuration is displayed
instead of being suppressed. Use this if configure.py is having
problems to see what exactly is going wrong.
-
-c, --concatenate
- The C++ source files for a Python module will be concatenated. This
results in significantly reduced compilation times. Most, but not all,
C++ compilers can handle the large files that result. See also the
--concatenate-split option.
-
-j <N>, --concatenate-split <N>
- If the --concatenate option is used to concatenate the C++
source files then this option determines how many files are created. The
default is 1.
-
--assume-shared
- Normally Qt is checked to see if it has been built as shared libraries.
Some Linux distributions configure their Qt builds to make this check
unreliable. This option ignores the result of the check and assumes that
Qt has been built as shared libraries.
-
-g, --consolidate
- Normally each PyQt module (except for the Qt module) is
linked against the corresponding Qt library. This option creates a module
called _qt which is linked against all the required Qt
libraries and the other modules are stub modules that populate their module
dictionaries from this one. This is useful when linking against static Qt
libraries to eliminate the need to distribute the Qt libraries while
minimising the memory footprint of the PyQt modules.
-
-e <MODULE>, --enable <MODULE>
- Normally all PyQt4 modules are enabled and are built if the corresponding
Qt library can be found. Using this option only those modules specifically
enabled will be checked for and built. The option may be specified any
number of times.
-
-t <PLUGIN>, --plugin <PLUGIN>
- If Qt has been built as static libraries then the static plugin
<PLUGIN> will be linked with the appropriate PyQt module. The option
may be specified any number of times.
-
-T, --no-timestamp
- Normally the header comments of each generated C/C++ source file includes
a timestamp corresponding to when the file was generated. This option
suppresses the inclusion of the timestamp.
-
-q <FILE>, --qmake <FILE>
- Qt’s qmake program is used to determine how your Qt installation
is laid out. Normally qmake is found on your PATH.
This option can be used to specify a particular instance of
qmake to use. This option is not available on Windows.
-
-s <DIR>, --dbus <DIR>
- The dbus-python.h header file of the dbus-python package can be
found in the directory <DIR>/dbus.
-
-b <DIR>, --bindir <DIR>
- The pyuic4, pyrcc4 and pylupdate4
utilities will be installed in the directory <DIR>.
-
-d <DIR>, --destdir <DIR>
- The PyQt Python package will be installed in the directory <DIR>. The
default is the Python installation’s site-packages directory. If
you use this option then the PYTHONPATH environment variable must
include <DIR>.
-
-p <DIR>, --plugin-destdir <DIR>
- The Qt Designer plugin that manages plugins implemented in Python will be
installed in the designer subdirectory of the directory <DIR>.
-
--no-designer-plugin
- The Qt Designer plugin will not be built.
-
--no-sip-files
- The .sip files for the PyQt modules will not be installed.
-
-v <DIR>, --sipdir <DIR>
- The .sip files for the PyQt modules will be installed in the directory
<DIR>.
-
--use-arch <ARCH>
- When pyuic4 calls the Python interpreter on MacOS it will be run
using the architecture <ARCH>. See the section Configuring SIP and PyQt for MacOS.
-
--protected-is-public
- On certain platforms the size of PyQt modules can be significantly reduced
by redefining the C++ protected keyword as public during
compilation. This option enables this behaviour and is the default on
Linux and MacOS/X.
-
--protected-not-public
- The default redefinition of protected to public during compilation
on Linux and MacOS/X is disabled.
-
-i, --vendorid
- The checking of signed Python interpreters using the VendorID package is
enabled. See also the --vendorid-incdir and
--vendorid-libdir options and Deploying Commercial PyQt Applications.
-
-l <DIR>, --vendorid-incdir <DIR>
- The header file of the VendorID package can be found in the directory
<DIR>.
-
-m <DIR>, --vendorid-libdir <DIR>
- The library of the VendorID package can be found in the directory
<DIR>.
-
-a, --qsci-api
- The PyQt4.api QScintilla API file is installed even if QScintilla
does not appear to be installed. This option is implied if the
--qsci-api-destdir option is specified.
-
--no-qsci-api
- The PyQt4.api QScintilla API file is not installed even if
QScintilla does appear to be installed.
-
-n <DIR>, --qsci-api-destdir <DIR>
- The QScintilla API file will be installed in the python
subdirectory of the api subdirectory of the directory <DIR>.
Configuring SIP and PyQt for MacOS
Building applications for MacOS can be a complex process. Typically the
following need to be taken into account:
- the architectures (i.e. i386, x86_64, ppc) that you want to support
- the earliest version of MacOS you want to support (i.e. the deployment
target)
- the version of the SDK you want to use.
If you are using binary installer for Python and/or Qt then you also need to
consider how they have been built regarding the above, and what bugs they have.
SIP’s and PyQt’s configure.py scripts provide the necessary command
line options to allow the correct configurations to be specified - the trick is
to work out which options to use depending on the versions of Python and Qt you
have installed.
SIP provides the following command line options to its configure.py
script.
- --arch <ARCH> specifies the target architecture and may be specified a
number of times.
- --universal is a shortcut for --arch i386 --arch ppc.
- --deployment-target <VERSION> specifies the earliest version of MacOS you
want to support. This sets the MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET
environment variable and should be used rather than setting the environment
variable in the shell (to work around bugs in some versions of Python).
- --sdk <SDK> specifies the SDK to use.
PyQt provides the --use-arch option that
specifies which architecture certain PyQt tools (actually only
pyuic4 at the moment) will use when running Python. For example, if
your Qt installation is 32 bits, and your Python installation is 32 bits and
64 bits then you will need to specify --use-arch i386 to ensure that
pyuic4 runs the 32 bit version of Python.
Building PyQt
The next step is to build PyQt by running your platform’s make
command. For example:
The final step is to install PyQt by running the following command:
(Depending on your system you may require root or administrator privileges.)
This will install the various PyQt components.