can't import python lib

[skunkwerk]

Hi, I've been having problems running a simple 2-line python program. It works on Windows, but not on 2 linux machines I've tried it on. I'm aware that line endings are different on the two platforms so I typed it up in vi, but I still got the error "no filename given"

#!/usr/bin/python
import zlib

when I replace zlib with another library, like sys, it works fine and doesn't complain. I have zlib.so in my /usr/lib/python2.4/lib-dynload directory.

any suggestions?

thanks

[aquavitae]

The location of zlib.so shouldn't matter, but to import zlib you need a python interface, zlib.py. Do you have zlib.py anywhere? (possibly zlib.pyc or zlib.pyo)

[skunkwerk]

thanks,
I don't seem to have any of the 3 files you mentioned. how do i fix that - do i need to install some package?

[aquavitae]

I've just had a look at the python docs and it seems zlib should be built in. I'm not at my linux pc at the moment so I can't check it there, but it seems to work on windows, although I can't find a zlib file either, so maybe it is built in. I don't realy know how python is put together so I don't know if this is a reasonable assumption, but in any case it should work. What if you start a python command line (type python in a terminal) and 'import zlib'. Line ending etc shouldn't make a difference then.