[GNC] Building GnuCash from src distributions

[John Ralls]

> On May 19, 2021, at 10:34 AM, mike823 <fkjasdhf878 at mailinator.com> wrote:
> 
> Since no GnuCash build with python bindings was ever provided, I have
> attempted to build one myself. I would be interested to hear why the dev
> team chose not to distribute binaries for GnuCash with python bindings.
> 
> I spent couple of days working on this:
> - 3 different linux distributions 
> - sources from git and tar files
> - last release and 2 pervious
> 
> I am an IT professional with many years of UNIX / LINUX experience and I am
> embarrassed to say that all my attempts failed.
> 
> Is there anyway you guys can help? TIA.

Mike,

We don't create the binaries on Linux, that's up to the distribution packagers. Debian has https://packages.debian.org/buster/python3-gnucash and Fedora's regular GnuCash RPM is built with the python bindings enabled. Most other distributions (notable exceptions include Slackware, OpenSuSE, and Gentoo) are derived from one or the other and very few of the derivatives build their own GnuCash package so you're most likely relying on one or the other.

We don't include the python bindings in the Mac and Windows bundles because they have to link against libpython and it has to be the same libpython that the interpreter uses. There's no way to ensure a particular version is installed on a user's computer so we'd have to include an entire python setup inside the bundle. That would add a lot of bulk that would benefit only a few users.

Have you looked at the extensive resources on the wiki, starting with, https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Building, for instructions on building it yourself?

Regards,
John Ralls