Building

Linux

The host system must be 64-bit. A Python 3.9+ interpreter must be available. The execution environment must have access to a Docker daemon (all build operations are performed in Docker containers for isolation from the host system).

To build a Python distribution for Linux x64:

$ ./build-linux.py
# With profile-guided optimizations (generated code should be faster):
$ ./build-linux.py --options pgo
# Produce a debug build.
$ ./build-linux.py --options debug
# Produce a free-threaded build without extra optimizations
$ ./build-linux.py --options freethreaded+noopt

You can also build another version of Python. e.g.:

$ ./build-linux.py --python cpython-3.13

To build a Python distribution for Linux x64 using musl libc:

$ ./build-linux.py --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl

Building a 32-bit x86 Python distribution is also possible:

$ ./build-linux.py --target i686-unknown-linux-gnu

As are various other targets:

$ ./build-linux.py --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
$ ./build-linux.py --target armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabi
$ ./build-linux.py --target armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf
$ ./build-linux.py --target mips-unknown-linux-gnu
$ ./build-linux.py --target mipsel-unknown-linux-gnu
$ ./build-linux.py --target ppc64le-unknown-linux-gnu
$ ./build-linux.py --target riscv64-unknown-linux-gnu
$ ./build-linux.py --target s390x-unknown-linux-gnu

macOS

The XCode command line tools must be installed. A Python 3 interpreter is required to execute the build. /usr/bin/clang must exist.

macOS SDK headers must be installed. Try running xcode-select --install to install them if you see errors about e.g. stdio.h not being found. Verify they are installed by running xcrun --show-sdk-path. It should print something like /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk on modern versions of macOS.

To build a Python distribution for macOS:

$ ./build-macos.py

macOS uses the same build code as Linux, just without Docker. So similar build configuration options are available.

build-macos.py accepts a --target-triple argument to support building for non-native targets (i.e. cross-compiling). By default, macOS builds target the currently running architecture. e.g. an Intel Mac will target x86_64-apple-darwin and an M1 (ARM) Mac will target aarch64-apple-darwin. It should be possible to build an ARM distribution on an Intel Mac and an Intel distribution on an ARM Mac.

The APPLE_SDK_PATH environment variable is recognized as the path to the Apple SDK to use. If not defined, the build will attempt to find an SDK by running xcrun --show-sdk-path.

aarch64-apple-darwin builds require a macOS 11.0+ SDK. It should be possible to build for aarch64-apple-darwin from an Intel 10.15 machine (as long as the 11.0+ SDK is used).

Windows

Visual Studio 2017 (or later) is required. A compatible Windows SDK is required (10.0.17763.0 as per CPython 3.7.2).

• A git.exe on PATH (to clone libffi from source).

• An installation of Cywgin with the autoconf, automake, libtool, and make packages installed. (libffi build dependency.)

To build a dynamically linked Python distribution for Windows x64:

$ py.exe build-windows.py --options noopt

It’s also possible to build with optional PGO optimizations:

$ py.exe build-windows.py --options pgo

You will need to specify the path to a sh.exe installed from cygwin. e.g.

$ py.exe build-windows.py –python cpython-3.13 –sh c:cygwinbinsh.exe –options noopt

To build a 32-bit x86 binary, simply use an x86 Native Tools Command Prompt instead of x64.