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 If this is the first time you are installing SCons on your system,
90 the above command will install the scons script in the default system
91 script directory (/usr/bin or C:\Python*\Scripts, for example) and the
92 build engine in an appropriate stand-alone SCons library directory
93 (/usr/lib/scons or C:\Python*\scons, for example).
95 Note that, by default, SCons does not install its library in the
96 standard Python library directories. If you want to be able to use the
97 SCons library modules (the build engine) in other Python scripts, you
98 can run the setup script as follows:
100 # python setup.py install --standard-lib
102 This will install the build engine in the standard Python
103 library directory (/usr/lib/python*/site-packages or
104 C:\Python*\Lib\site-packages).
106 Alternatively, you may want to install multiple versions of SCons
107 side-by-side, which you can do as follows:
109 # python setup.py install --version-lib
111 This will install the build engine in a version-specific library
112 directory (/usr/lib/scons-__VERSION__ or C:\Python*\scons-__VERSION__).
114 If this is not the first time you are installing SCons on your system,
115 the setup script will, by default, search for where you have previously
116 installed the SCons library, and install this version's library the
117 same way--that is, if you previously installed the SCons library in
118 the standard Python library, the setup script will install this one
119 in the same location. You may, of course, specify one of the --*-lib
120 options described above to select a specific library location, or use
121 the following option to explicitly select installation into the default
122 standalone library directory (/usr/lib/scons or C:\Python*\scons):
124 # python setup.py install --standalone-lib
126 Note that, to install SCons in any of the above system directories,
127 you should have system installation privileges (that is, "root" or
128 "Administrator") when running the setup.py script. If you don't have
129 system installation privileges, you can use the --prefix option to
130 specify an alternate installation location, such as your home directory:
132 $ python setup.py install --prefix=$HOME
134 This will install SCons in the appropriate locations relative to
135 $HOME--that is, the scons script itself $HOME/bin and the associated
136 library in $HOME/lib/scons, for example.
142 See the RELEASE.txt file for notes about this specific release,
143 including known problems. See the CHANGES.txt file for a list of
144 changes since the previous release.
146 The scons.1 man page is included in this package, and contains a section
147 of small examples for getting started using SCons.
149 Additional documentation for SCons is available at:
151 http://www.scons.org/doc.html
157 SCons is distributed under the MIT license, a full copy of which is
158 available in the LICENSE.txt file. The MIT license is an approved Open
159 Source license, which means:
161 This software is OSI Certified Open Source Software. OSI
162 Certified is a certification mark of the Open Source Initiative.
164 More information about OSI certifications and Open Source software is
167 http://www.opensource.org/
173 Please report bugs by following the "Tracker - Bugs" link on the SCons
174 project page and filling out the form:
176 http://sourceforge.net/projects/scons/
178 You can also send mail to the SCons developers mailing list:
180 scons-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
182 But please make sure that you also submit a bug report to the project
183 page bug tracker, because bug reports in email can sometimes get lost
184 in the general flood of messages.
190 An active mailing list for users of SCons is available. You may send
191 questions or comments to the list at:
193 users@scons.tigris.org
195 You may subscribe to the mailing list by sending email to:
197 users-subscribe@scons.tigris.org
199 There is also a low-volume mailing list available for announcements
200 about SCons. Subscribe by sending email to:
202 announce-subscribe@scons.tigris.org
204 There are other mailing lists available for SCons developers, for
205 notification of SCons code changes, and for notification of updated
206 bug reports and project documents. Please see our mailing lists page
213 If you find SCons helpful, please consider making a donation (of cash,
214 software, or hardware) to support continued work on the project.
215 Information is available at:
217 http://www.scons.org/donate.html
223 Check the SCons web site at:
225 http://www.scons.org/
232 knight at baldmt dot com
233 http://www.baldmt.com/~knight/
235 With plenty of help from the SCons Development team: