Install numpy 2.6 on Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) from source

Here are the problems I was facing with using NumPy with Python 2.6.1 on Mac OS X 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard). This might be a bit convoluted, but bear with me.

First, in order to call STAF from a Python script, I built PYSTAF.so from source. However, the only way to get it to work is to run Python in 32-bit mode:

export VERSIONER_PYTHON_PREFER_32_BIT=yes

This then caused problems with NumPy:

Python 2.6.1 (r261:67515, Jul  7 2009, 23:51:51)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import numpy
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "", line 1, in 
 File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/numpy-1.4.0.dev7542-py2.6-macosx-10.6-universal.egg/numpy/__init__.py", line 130, in 
   import add_newdocs
 File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/numpy-1.4.0.dev7542-py2.6-macosx-10.6-universal.egg/numpy/add_newdocs.py", line 9, in 
   from lib import add_newdoc
 File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/numpy-1.4.0.dev7542-py2.6-macosx-10.6-universal.egg/numpy/lib/__init__.py", line 4, in 
   from type_check import *
 File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/numpy-1.4.0.dev7542-py2.6-macosx-10.6-universal.egg/numpy/lib/type_check.py", line 8, in 
 File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/numpy-1.4.0.dev7542-py2.6-macosx-10.6-universal.egg/numpy/core/__init__.py", line 8, in 
   import numerictypes as nt
 File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/numpy-1.4.0.dev7542-py2.6-macosx-10.6-universal.egg/numpy/core/numerictypes.py", line 737, in 
   _typestr[key] = empty((1,),key).dtype.str[1:]
ValueError: array is too big.

According to Numpy Ticket #1221 (http://projects.scipy.org/numpy/ticket/1221) this is fixed in revision 7793. However, I was trying to use r7542 as was installed by the SciPy SuperPack installer (http://macinscience.org/?page_id=6).

Still following along? Okay, so here's how I think I resolved my issues. I built and installed NumPy using the instructions on HyperJeff's blog: http://blog.hyperjeff.net/?p=160

First we need to move old versions of Numpy. In my case:

sudo mv /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python/numpy \
/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python/numpy_APPLE_DEFAULT
sudo mv /Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/numpy-1.4.0.dev7542-py2.6-macosx-10.6-universal.egg \
/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/numpy-1.4.0.dev7542-py2.6-macosx-10.6-universal.egg-OLD

Then set the environment, build and install.

export MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.6
export CFLAGS="-arch i386 -arch x86_64"
export FFLAGS="-arch i386 -arch x86_64"
export LDFLAGS="-Wall -undefined dynamic_lookup -bundle -arch i386 -arch x86_64"
cd ~/tmp
svn co http://svn.scipy.org/svn/numpy/trunk numpy
cd numpy
python setup.py build --fcompiler=gnu95
sudo python setup.py install

If this doesn't work for you, you might want to run through all of the steps in HyperJeff's page above. I probably had much of the prerequisites from previously running the SciPy SuperPack installer.