Installing or building vim with +python3 support for Python 3.7.x on linux

Question

I've got Vim installed on MacOS using Brew and it installs with +python3 support for Python 3.7.2 by default.

I'm writing a Vim plugin which utilises some Python 3.7 and would like this to be able to work on parity with Linux with how it works on MacOS.

In a Docker container with Ubuntu Bionic I've tried installing Python 3.7.2 and Vim; and it installs Python 3.6 and links to this version.

I've tried installing Vim from source in the container and it will build for 3.6 but not for 3.7.

On Linux, running the following to configure the build:

./configure --with-features=huge --enable-cscope --enable-multibyte \
  --enable-rubyinterp --enable-pythoninterp --enable-python3interp \
  --with-python3-config-dir=/usr/lib/python3.7/config-3.7m-x86_64-linux-gnu \
  --enable-fail-if-missing

fails with the message:

checking if compile and link flags for Python 3 are sane... no

I've thought of downgrading the MacOS Vim version to 3.6 and coding the plugin to that version but thought I would explore options to get it working on Linux with Python 3.7 first.

Also, if this is not the appropriate forum for this question, please let me know and I will move it to a stack-exchange site more appropriate.

Have you checked the faq https://vimhelp.org/vim_faq.txt.html#faq-35.10? — Christian Brabandt, Jan 07 '19 at 14:55
Thanks for that - I have now, still doesn't help - it's in a docker container and vim isn't preloaded. — Willem van Ketwich, Jan 07 '19 at 21:33
thanks, but that's for the x11 dependencies - without installing anything else and running for build-dep it didn't even include +python letalone +python3 — Willem van Ketwich, Jan 08 '19 at 13:09
No, the vim-gtk contains python3 bindings, so apt-get build-dep vim-gtk should install the necessary packages needed to build and link a vim with python3 support. — Christian Brabandt, Jan 08 '19 at 13:19
I believe you need to install either python3-dev on Debian or python3-devel on Centos. — randomness2077, Sep 06 '19 at 04:28

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 10 '19 at 00:31

12

Probably your default python3 is 3.6. You need, then, tell the build process to use python3.7. You can do that with the parameters --with-python3-command:

./configure --with-python3-command=python3.7 \
            --with-python3-config-dir=/usr/lib/python3.7/config-3.7m-x86_64-linux-gnu \
            ... (other config params) ...

HTH

answered Jan 10 '19 at 00:31

João A. Toledo

773
5
11

this looks promising but I'm getting: configure: WARNING: unrecognized options: --with-python3-command running that command. – Willem van Ketwich Jan 10 '19 at 08:06
i am going to try a variation of this when I have some time: https://stackoverflow.com/a/30449124/512965 – Willem van Ketwich Jan 10 '19 at 12:19
1

Strange... It worked for me. Stupid question: did you passed also the parameter --enable-python3interp=yes ? – João A. Toledo Jan 10 '19 at 22:00
Not a stupid question. No i didn't. I'll try that. Thanks. – Willem van Ketwich Jan 10 '19 at 22:17
looks like it doesn't work with --enable-python3interp=yes either, sorry. do you have a dockerfile of it working? – Willem van Ketwich Jan 13 '19 at 10:26
2

I've managed to create a Docker image to test it. You can find it here: https://github.com/jalexandretoledo/DockerUbuntuPython37 – João A. Toledo Jan 19 '19 at 14:09
NOTE: that a good chance config dir in /usr/lib64/python3.x – LRDPRDX Mar 17 '20 at 07:16

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 25 '19 at 13:07

12

make clean distclean before running the configure command for vim. This worked for me. There was lots of cached items hanging around from before that were interfering with vim configure.

answered Oct 25 '19 at 13:07

CyclicUniverse

121
1
2

1

Welcome to [vi.se]! Have you been able to try this with the OPs case? This answer could benefit from more detail specific to the question – D. Ben Knoble Oct 25 '19 at 14:06
This worked for me, it looks like after trying several commands around the repo is dirty, this will fix it. – calbertts Jun 24 '22 at 09:44

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 07 '19 at 22:48

I had the same error message

checking if compile and link flags for Python 3 are sane... no

and was running essentially the same command. The issue was with the line:

--with-python3-config-dir=/usr/lib/python3.7/config-3.7m-x86_64-linux-gnu

which was incorrect.

I checked the actual location of the config using the output of:

python3.7-config

and that fixed the issue.

Installing or building vim with +python3 support for Python 3.7.x on linux

3 Answers3

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