Compiling and running 32-bit Python on 64-bit server?
Mikko Ohtamaa
Some server-side Python applications are limited by memory usage
(hint: Zope), because Python effective uses processes and not threads
for multiprocessing. This is especially true for 64-bit platforms,
since Python programs are all about references and objects and 64-bit
effectively doubles reference size.
Some benchmarks 32-bit vs. 64-bit were discussed here:
http://jstahl.org/archives/2010/01/2...ks-python-2-6/
How one could create 32-bit Python run-time enviroment, preferable
virtualenv, on 64-bit Linux (VPS), reducing memory usage? This
environment could actually beat 64-bit in performance, due to better
memory cache use.
I assume this involves having lib32 libs and compiling Python with
some magical switches.
Cheers,
Mikko
Martin v. Loewis
> virtualenv, on 64-bit Linux (VPS), reducing memory usage?
I'd install a 32-bit Linux on the hardware, and install a bigmem kernel
if it has more than 3GB of main memory.
> I assume this involves having lib32 libs and compiling Python with
> some magical switches.
The precise set of packages that you will need depends on the specific
Linux distribution. Check whether "gcc -m32" can build a hello-world
program. Then, set CC to "gcc -m32", and follow the build instructions
in Python's README file.
Regards,
Martin
Aahz
Mikko Ohtamaa <mi...@redinnovation.com> wrote:
>
>How one could create 32-bit Python run-time enviroment, preferable
>virtualenv, on 64-bit Linux (VPS), reducing memory usage? This
>environment could actually beat 64-bit in performance, due to better
>memory cache use.
>
>I assume this involves having lib32 libs and compiling Python with
>some magical switches.
The simplest approach would probably be to do the compilation on a 32-bit
system and just install it on 64-bit. There are some magic flags, yes;
you'll need to Google using e.g. "linux force 32-bit compile".
--
Aahz (aa...@pythoncraft.com) <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/
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