Building Python 2.5 on Slackware64
There are reasons why you might want to install Python 2.5. One of those reasons is to develop Google App Engine apps. Unfortunately, Python 2.5 was never released for the 64-bit version of Slackware. By the time Slackware64 was released, it was already shipping Python 2.6.
I could get from an old version of Bluewhite64 the sources to build a 64-bit Python 2.5, but that’s less than ideal. Instead, I looked at the patches that Slackware64 13.37 applies to its Python 2.6 package to make it it 64-bit ready. I then went through the painstaking process of porting those patches to Python 2.5.
This is one of those “I suffered so you don’t have to” posts.
Here they are:
First you download the sources/d/python directory from any Slackware mirror. Then you put all 3 of those patches into that directory. Then you patch the SlackBuild:
patch < slackbuild.diff
Any Slackware user knows the rest: run the SlackBuild script and install the package that it builds.