Installation

Downloading

You can get the latest release of the SIP source code from http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/sip/download.

SIP is also included with all of the major Linux distributions. However, it may be a version or two out of date.

Configuring

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.

Next you need to configure SIP by executing the configure.py script. For example:

python configure.py

This assumes that the Python interpreter is on your path. Something like the following may be appropriate on Windows:

c:\python35\python configure.py

If you have multiple versions of Python installed then make sure you use the interpreter for which you wish SIP to generate bindings for.

The full set of command line options is:

--version

Display the SIP version number.

-h, --help

Display a help message.

--arch <ARCH>

Binaries for the MacOS/X architecture <ARCH> will be built. This option should be given once for each architecture to be built. Specifying more than one architecture will cause a universal binary to be created.

-b <DIR>, --bindir <DIR>

The SIP code generator will be installed in the directory <DIR>.

--configuration <FILE>

New in version 4.16.

<FILE> contains the configuration of the SIP build to be used instead of dynamically introspecting the system and is typically used when cross-compiling. See Configuring with Configuration Files.

-d <DIR>, --destdir <DIR>

The sip module will be installed in the directory <DIR>.

--deployment-target <VERSION>

New in version 4.12.1.

Each generated Makefile will set the MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET environment variable to <VERSION>. In order to work around bugs in some versions of Python, this should be used instead of setting the environment variable in the shell.

-e <DIR>, --incdir <DIR>

The SIP header file will be installed in the directory <DIR>.

-k, --static

The sip module will be built as a static library. This is useful when building the sip module as a Python builtin.

-n, --universal

The SIP code generator and module will be built as universal binaries under MacOS/X. If the --arch option has not been specified then the universal binary will include the i386 and ppc architectures.

--no-stubs

New in version 4.19.

This disables the installation of the sip.pyi type hints stub file.

--no-tools

New in version 4.16.

The SIP code generator and sipconfig module will not be installed.

-p <PLATFORM>, --platform <PLATFORM>

Explicitly specify the platform/compiler to be used by the build system, otherwise a platform specific default will be used. The --show-platforms option will display all the supported platform/compilers.

-s <SDK>, --sdk <SDK>

If the --universal option was given then this specifies the name of the SDK directory. If a path is not given then it is assumed to be a sub-directory of /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs or /Developer/SDKs.

--stubsdir <DIR>

New in version 4.19.

<DIR> is the name of the directory where the sip.pyi type hints stub file is installed. By default this is the directory where the sip module is installed.

-u, --debug

The sip module will be built with debugging symbols.

-v <DIR>, --sipdir <DIR>

By default .sip files will be installed in the directory <DIR>.

--show-platforms

The list of all supported platform/compilers will be displayed.

--show-build-macros

The list of all available build macros will be displayed.

--sip-module <NAME>

The sip module will be created with the name <NAME> rather than the default sip. <NAME> may be of the form package.sub-package.module. See Building a Private Copy of the sip Module for how to use this to create a private copy of the sip module.

--sysroot <DIR>

New in version 4.16.

<DIR> is the name of an optional directory that replaces sys.prefix in the names of other directories (specifically those specifying where the various SIP components will be installed and where the Python include directories can be found). It is typically used when cross-compiling or when building a static version of SIP. See Configuring with Configuration Files.

--target-py-version <VERSION>

New in version 4.16.

<VERSION> is the major and minor version (e.g. 3.4) of the version of Python being targetted. By default the version of Python being used to run the configure.py script is used. It is typically used when cross-compiling. See Configuring with Configuration Files.

--use-qmake

New in version 4.16.

Normally the configure.py script uses SIP’s own build system to create the Makefiles for the code generator and module. This option causes project files (.pro files) used by Qt’s qmake program to be generated instead. qmake should then be run to generate the Makefiles. This is particularly useful when cross-compiling.

The configure.py script takes many other options that allows the build system to be finely tuned. These are of the form name=value or name+=value. The --show-build-macros option will display each supported name, although not all are applicable to all platforms.

The name=value form means that value will replace the existing value of name.

The name+=value form means that value will be appended to the existing value of name.

For example, the following will disable support for C++ exceptions (and so reduce the size of module binaries) when used with GCC:

python configure.py CXXFLAGS+=-fno-exceptions

A pure Python module called sipconfig.py is generated by configure.py. This defines each name and its corresponding value. Looking at it will give you a good idea of how the build system uses the different options. It is covered in detail in The Build System.

Configuring for MinGW

SIP, and the modules it generates, can be built with MinGW, the Windows port of GCC. You must use the --platform command line option to specify the correct platform. For example:

c:\python35\python configure.py --platform win32-g++

Configuring for the Borland C++ Compiler

SIP, and the modules it generates, can be built with the free Borland C++ compiler. You must use the --platform command line option to specify the correct platform. For example:

c:\python35\python configure.py --platform win32-borland

You must also make sure you have a Borland-compatible version of the Python library. If you are using the standard Python distribution (built using the Microsoft compiler) then you must convert the format of the Python library. For example:

coff2omf python35.lib python35_bcpp.lib

Building

The next step is to build SIP by running your platform’s make command. For example:

make

The final step is to install SIP by running the following command:

make install

(Depending on your system you may require root or administrator privileges.)

This will install the various SIP components.

Configuring with Configuration Files

The configure.py script normally introspects the Python installation of the interpreter running it in order to determine the names of the various files and directories it needs. This is fine for a native build of SIP but isn’t appropriate when cross-compiling. In this case it is possible to supply a configuration file, specified using the --configuration option, which contains definitions of all the required values.

The format of a configuration file is as follows:

  • a configuration item is a single line containing a name/value pair separated by =
  • a value may include another value by embedding the name of that value surrounded by %( and )
  • comments begin with # and continue to the end of the line
  • blank lines are ignored.

configure.py provides the following preset values for a configuration:

py_major
is the major version number of the target Python installation.
py_minor
is the minor version number of the target Python installation.
sysroot
is the name of the system root directory. This is specified with the --sysroot option.

The following is an example configuration file:

# The target Python installation.
py_platform = linux
py_inc_dir = %(sysroot)/usr/include/python%(py_major)%(py_minor)

# Where SIP will be installed.
sip_bin_dir = %(sysroot)/usr/bin
sip_module_dir = %(sysroot)/usr/lib/python%(py_major)/dist-packages

The following values can be specified in the configuration file:

py_platform
is the target Python platform.
py_inc_dir
is the target Python include directory containing the Python.h file.
py_conf_inc_dir
is the target Python include directory containing the pyconfig.h file. If this isn’t specified then it defaults to the value of py_inc_dir.
py_pylib_dir
is the target Python library directory.
sip_bin_dir
is the name of the target directory where the SIP code generator will be installed. It can be overridden by the --bindir option.
sip_inc_dir
is the name of the target directory where the sip.h file will be installed. If this isn’t specified then it defaults to the value of py_inc_dir. It can be overridden by the --incdir option.
sip_module_dir
is the target directory where the sip module will be installed. It can be overridden by the --destdir option.
sip_sip_dir
is the name of the target directory where generated .sip files will be installed by default. It is only used when creating the sipconfig module. It can be overridden by the --sipdir option.