While hunting for the source of a bug earlier, I thought that it might be the cause of a bad binary. To remedy this I thought that I would build python from source and now I’m creating this post for some documentation on the process. During this I was using Ubuntu 14.04 (trusty) running on docker.

First, install all the packages that will be needed for the build:

root:~/# apt-get install build-essential libz-dev libssl-dev
root:~/# apt-get build-dep python3

Notes:

• libz-dev is only needed if you want/need zlib support
• libssl-dev is only needed if you require ssl support.

Both of the above are needed if you want to use pip.

Next the Modules/Setup file needs to be tweaked to enable zlib and ssl support.

zlib support

uncomment the following line

zlib zlibmodule.c -I$(prefix)/include -L$(exec_prefix)/lib -lz

ssl support

uncomment the following code block (also make sure to pay attention to the comments, make sure that the other socket above this block is commented.)

SSL=/usr/local/ssl
_ssl _ssl.c \
        -DUSE_SSL -I$(SSL)/include -I$(SSL)/include/openssl \
        -L$(SSL)/lib -lssl -lcrypto

Finally follow the rest of the build instructions as included in the README:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ make test
root:~/# make install

Enjoy! If you see anything that needs to be adjusted let me know so I can get it fixed.