Can't install GNU readline on CentOS 5 (Amazon EC2)

Question

I'm attempting to install GNU readline on a CentOS 5 so that I can use it with some Python 2.7 modules, specifically the Cmd module.

I've installed Python2.7 as a standalone library per these instructions to no avail. As I understand it, upgrading the Python that comes shipped with the AWS CentOS image breaks several shared libraries including yum, so it's being compiled and installed separately, however even after going through this process I'm still receiving:

ImportError: No module named readline

Answer 1

The dependencies that you want to use with python need to be installed before you build python, otherwise the modules don't get built and installed (if you need another program to test readline, I think fbreader needs it - the non-java version) The output of configure should give you some indication.

once you have that, this is what the Setup file says

GNU readline. Unlike previous Python incarnations, GNU readline is now incorporated in an optional module, configured in the Setup file instead of by a configure script switch. You may have to insert a -L option pointing to the directory where libreadline.* lives, and you may have to change -ltermcap to -ltermlib or perhaps remove it, depending on your system -- see the GNU readline instructions. It's okay for this to be a shared library, too.

readline readline.c -lreadline -ltermcap

Answer 2

Keeping in mind the instructions you were following, here are some addition steps that I had to take to install readline so that python2.7 can use it:

cd /usr/lib
ln -s libncurses.so.5 libncurses.so
easy_install readline

The installation of readline requires ld to use -lncurses, which means that "libncurses.so" (not just libncurses.so.5) needs to be found in your library path. You may need a similar symbolic link in /usr/lib64 if you have a 64-bit OS installed.