2 # __FILE__ __REVISION__ __DATE__ __DEVELOPER__
5 SCons - a software construction tool
10 This is a beta release of SCons, a tool for building software (and other
11 files). SCons is implemented in Python, and its "configuration files"
12 are actually Python scripts, allowing you to use the full power of a
13 real scripting language to solve build problems. You do not, however,
14 need to know Python to use SCons effectively.
16 See the RELEASE.txt file for notes about this specific release,
17 including known problems. See the CHANGES.txt file for a list of
18 changes since the previous release.
24 Before going further, you can check that this package you have is
25 the latest version by checking the SCons download page at:
27 http://www.scons.org/download.html
30 EXECUTION REQUIREMENTS
31 ======================
33 Running SCons requires Python version 1.5.2 or later. There should be
34 no other dependencies or requirements to run SCons. (There is, however,
35 an additional requirement to *install* SCons from this particular
36 package; see the next section.)
38 By default, SCons knows how to search for available programming tools
39 on various systems--see the SCons man page for details. You may,
40 of course, override the default SCons choices made by appropriate
41 configuration of Environment construction variables.
44 INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS
45 =========================
47 Installing SCons from this package requires the Python distutils
48 package. The distutils package was not shipped as a standard part of
49 Python until Python version 1.6, so if your system is running Python
50 1.5.2, you may not have distutils installed. If you are running
51 Python version 1.6 or later, you should be fine.
53 NOTE TO RED HAT USERS: Red Hat shipped Python 1.5.2 as the default all
54 the way up to Red Hat Linux 7.3, so you probably do *not* have distutils
55 installed, unless you have already done so manually or are running Red
58 In this case, your options are:
60 -- (Recommended.) Install from a pre-packaged SCons package that
61 does not require distutils:
63 Red Hat Linux scons-__VERSION__-1.noarch.rpm
65 Debian GNU/Linux scons___VERSION__-1_all.deb
68 Windows scons-__VERSION__.win32.exe
70 -- (Optional.) Download the latest distutils package from the
73 http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/download.html
75 Install the distutils according to the instructions on the page.
76 You can then proceed to the next section to install SCons from
83 Assuming your system satisfies the installation requirements in the
84 previous section, install SCons from this package simply by running the
85 provided Python-standard setup script as follows:
87 # python setup.py install
89 By default, the above command will do the following:
91 -- Install the version-numbered "scons-__VERSION__" and "sconsign-__VERSION__"
92 scripts in the default system script directory (/usr/bin or
93 C:\Python*\Scripts, for example). This can be disabled by
94 specifying the "--no-version-script" option on the command
97 -- Install scripts named "scons" and "sconsign" scripts in the
98 default system script directory (/usr/bin or C:\Python*\Scripts,
99 for example). This can be disabled by specifying the
100 "--no-scons-script" option on the command line, which is useful
101 if you want to install and experiment with a new version before
102 making it the default on your system. On UNIX or Linux systems,
103 you can have the "scons" and "sconsign" scripts be hard links or
104 symbolic links to the "scons-__VERSION__" and "sconsign-__VERSION__" scripts
105 by specifying the "--hardlink-scons" or "--symlink-scons"
106 options on the command line.
108 -- Install "scons-__VERSION__.bat" and "scons.bat" wrapper scripts in the
109 Python prefix directory on Windows (C:\Python*, for example).
110 This can be disabled by specifying the "--no-install-bat" option
111 on the command line. On UNIX or Linux systems, the
112 "--install-bat" option may be specified to have "scons-__VERSION__.bat"
113 and "scons.bat" files installed in the default system script
114 directory, which is useful if you want to install SCons in a
115 shared file system directory that can be used to execute SCons
116 from both UNIX/Linux and Windows systems.
118 -- Install the SCons build engine (a Python module) in an
119 appropriate version-numbered SCons library directory
120 (/usr/lib/scons-__VERSION__ or C:\Python*\scons-__VERSION__, for example).
121 See below for more options related to installing the build
124 -- Install the troff-format man pages in an appropriate directory
125 on UNIX or Linux systems (/usr/share/man/man1 or /usr/man/man1,
126 for example). This can be disabled by specifying the
127 "--no-install-man" option on the command line. The man pages
128 can be installed on Windows systems by specifying the
129 "--install-man" option on the command line.
131 Note that, by default, SCons does not install its build engine library
132 in the standard Python library directories. If you want to be able to
133 use the SCons library modules (the build engine) in other Python
134 scripts, specify the "--standard-lib" option on the command line, as
137 # python setup.py install --standard-lib
139 This will install the build engine in the standard Python library
140 directory (/usr/lib/python*/site-packages or
141 C:\Python*\Lib\site-packages).
143 Alternatively, you can have SCons install its build engine library in a
144 hard-coded standalone library directory, instead of the default
145 version-numbered directory, by specifying the "--standalone-lib" option
146 on the command line, as follows:
148 # python setup.py install --standalone-lib
150 This is usually not recommended, however.
152 Note that, to install SCons in any of the above system directories,
153 you should have system installation privileges (that is, "root" or
154 "Administrator") when running the setup.py script. If you don't have
155 system installation privileges, you can use the --prefix option to
156 specify an alternate installation location, such as your home directory:
158 $ python setup.py install --prefix=$HOME
160 This will install SCons in the appropriate locations relative to
161 $HOME--that is, the scons script itself $HOME/bin and the associated
162 library in $HOME/lib/scons, for example.
168 See the RELEASE.txt file for notes about this specific release,
169 including known problems. See the CHANGES.txt file for a list of
170 changes since the previous release.
172 The scons.1 man page is included in this package, and contains a section
173 of small examples for getting started using SCons.
175 Additional documentation for SCons is available at:
177 http://www.scons.org/doc.html
183 SCons is distributed under the MIT license, a full copy of which is
184 available in the LICENSE.txt file. The MIT license is an approved Open
185 Source license, which means:
187 This software is OSI Certified Open Source Software. OSI
188 Certified is a certification mark of the Open Source Initiative.
190 More information about OSI certifications and Open Source software is
193 http://www.opensource.org/
199 Please report bugs by following the "Tracker - Bugs" link on the SCons
200 project page and filling out the form:
202 http://sourceforge.net/projects/scons/
204 You can also send mail to the SCons developers mailing list:
206 scons-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
208 But please make sure that you also submit a bug report to the project
209 page bug tracker, because bug reports in email can sometimes get lost
210 in the general flood of messages.
216 An active mailing list for users of SCons is available. You may send
217 questions or comments to the list at:
219 users@scons.tigris.org
221 You may subscribe to the mailing list by sending email to:
223 users-subscribe@scons.tigris.org
225 There is also a low-volume mailing list available for announcements
226 about SCons. Subscribe by sending email to:
228 announce-subscribe@scons.tigris.org
230 There are other mailing lists available for SCons developers, for
231 notification of SCons code changes, and for notification of updated
232 bug reports and project documents. Please see our mailing lists page
239 If you find SCons helpful, please consider making a donation (of cash,
240 software, or hardware) to support continued work on the project.
241 Information is available at:
243 http://www.scons.org/donate.html
249 Check the SCons web site at:
251 http://www.scons.org/
258 knight at baldmt dot com
259 http://www.baldmt.com/~knight/
261 With plenty of help from the SCons Development team: