Install lxml on Cygwin

To install lxml on Cygwin you need jump through a few hoops, to save who wants to get it done smoothly, I write down the necessary steps:

• Make sure install the following package for cygwin by using Cygwin setup libxml2, libxml2-devel, libxslt, libxslt-devel, python-libxml2, python-libxslt
• If you got lots of errors about debug format:
• try to add -gdwarf-2 to CFLAGS
• export CFLAGS="-gdwarf-2"

Using pip, virtualenv, and virtualenvwrapper in Cygwin

I have been using pip, virtualenv, and virtualenvwrapper in Cygwin for long time, it is pretty handy to isolate my development environment for each python projects I am working on. But I still need to think about what need to be done to setup all the pip, virtualenv, and virtualenvwrapper on Cygwin. To save my time and help anybody would like to setup the stuff on Cygwin, I recorded the process as following:

• Use Cygwin setup to install Python for Cygwin.
• Install easy_install in your Cygwin: download and run ez_setup.py in Cygwin.
• Install pip by using easy_install: eazy_install pip.
• pip install virtualenv
• pip install virtualenvwrapper
• add the following lines into your ~/.bashrc
• export WORKON_HOME=/cygdrive/c/labs/virtualenvs
  source /usr/bin/virtualenvwrapper_bashrc

That is all, now you can create a new virtualenv in your Cygwin: mkvirtualenv my-first-env. You can use pip to install the specific packages you need for your virtualenv. To activate your virtualenv: workon my-first-env. To deactivate your virtualenv: deactivate. To remove the virtualenv: rmvirtualenv my-first-env.

Unable to access jarfile on Cygwin

Today I ran into a strange problem on Cygwin: I give the full path to the jar file for the java command, but strangely, the java runtime shows me the error message: Unable to access jarfile /cygdrive/c/pathtojar/.yuicompressor.jar. What is going on? did I have a typo? No. Then Why? After scratch my head enough, I figure out that the java in Cygwin does not like Unix format path to specify the jar file. You can use cygpath to do the trick to convert the Unix format path to mixed(-m) or windows format(-w) path, the java command will happily take it and use the jar file. Here are the two commands that works for me:

• java -jar `cygpath -m /cygdrive/c/pathtojar/.yuicompressor.jar`
• java -jar `cygpath -w /cygdrive/c/pathtojar/.yuicompressor.jar`
  

Install MySQL-python on Cygwin

After pulling my hairs and scavenging the Google, finally I succeeded installed the MySQL-python on Cygwin.

• Build MySQL on Cygwin

• Download MySQL source package from here. I was using mysql-5.0.76.tar.gz
• configure && make && make install

• Install MySQL-python on Cygwin
• Download MySQL-python . I was using 1.2.2. Unzip it.
• ./setup.py install, if you run into any problem, please have look on the readme file of the MySQL-python package. You may need to update threadSafe=False in the site.cfg file.
  

PIL error: IOError: decoder jpeg not available

After installing PIL on Cygwin, I ran into the following error while I am trying to load data from a JPEG file.
IOError: decoder jpeg not available
To solve this problem I did the following steps:
Remove the installed PIL from Cygwin:
rm -rf /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/PIL
rm /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/PIL.pth

Install libjpeg by using Cygwin setup.exe

Rerun PIL setup.py install.

unable to remap C:\cygwin\bin\tk84.dll

While installing PIL(Python Imaging Libary) on Cygwin, I ran into the following error:
5 [main] python 4388 C:\cygwin\bin\python.exe: *** fatal error - unable to remap C:\cygwin\bin\tk84.dll to same address as parent(0x410000) != 0
x700000
22 [main] python 4636 fork: child 4388 - died waiting for dll loading, errno 11
error: Resource temporarily unavailable

Fortunately, with the help of Google, it is easy to find an existing solution from Datahammer's blog:
c:\cygwin\bin\ash
cd /bin
./rebase -b 0x100000000 tk84.dll

Rerun the PIL setup.py install in Cygwin shell.

Update: If you run into remap error on Cygwin, you could try rebaseall
c:\cygwin\bin\ash
cd /bin
./rebaseall

How to turn on QuickEdit Mode for cygwin

Want to get right button copy and left button drag select works in cywin?
Here are the steps:

Right click on the icon in the upper left of the title bar
and select properties Under Options, select 'QuickEdit Mode',
hit ok Select 'Modify shortcut that started this window'