This patch enables the building of Cygwin Python with a static core

which still supports shared extensions. It takes advantage the latest
Cygwin binutils (i.e., 20030901-1) which can export symbols from
executables:

http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-announce/2003-09/msg00002.html

Additionally, it finally lays to rest the following mailing list
subthread:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2002-May/102500.html

I tested the patch under Red Hat Linux 8.0 too

Include/pyport.h

@@ -421,7 +421,8 @@ extern double hypot(double, double);
 #	define HAVE_DECLSPEC_DLL
 #endif
 
-#if defined(Py_ENABLE_SHARED) /* only get special linkage if built as shared */
+/* only get special linkage if built as shared or platform is Cygwin */
+#if defined(Py_ENABLE_SHARED) || defined(__CYGWIN__)
 #	if defined(HAVE_DECLSPEC_DLL)
 #		ifdef Py_BUILD_CORE
 #			define PyAPI_FUNC(RTYPE) __declspec(dllexport) RTYPE

Makefile.pre.in

@@ -379,10 +379,14 @@ $(PYTHONFRAMEWORKDIR)/Versions/$(VERSION)/$(PYTHONFRAMEWORK): \
 	$(LN) -fsn Versions/Current/Headers $(PYTHONFRAMEWORKDIR)/Headers
 	$(LN) -fsn Versions/Current/Resources $(PYTHONFRAMEWORKDIR)/Resources
 
-# This rule builds the Cygwin Python DLL
-libpython$(VERSION).dll.a: $(LIBRARY_OBJS)
-	$(LDSHARED) -Wl,--out-implib=$@ -o $(DLLLIBRARY) $^ \
-		$(LIBS) $(MODLIBS) $(SYSLIBS)
+# This rule builds the Cygwin Python DLL and import library if configured
+# for a shared core library; otherwise, this rule is a noop.
+$(DLLLIBRARY) libpython$(VERSION).dll.a: $(LIBRARY_OBJS)
+	if test -n "$(DLLLIBRARY)"; then \
+		$(LDSHARED) -Wl,--out-implib=$@ -o $(DLLLIBRARY) $^ \
+			$(LIBS) $(MODLIBS) $(SYSLIBS); \
+	else true; \
+	fi
 
 
 oldsharedmods: $(SHAREDMODS)

configure

 #! /bin/sh
-# From configure.in Revision: 1.428 .
+# From configure.in Revision: 1.429 .
 # Guess values for system-dependent variables and create Makefiles.
 # Generated by GNU Autoconf 2.57 for python 2.4.
 #
@@ -3619,6 +3619,13 @@ _ACEOF
         BASECFLAGS="$BASECFLAGS -pic"
         ;;
   esac
+else # shared is disabled
+  case $ac_sys_system in
+    CYGWIN*)
+          BLDLIBRARY='$(LIBRARY)'
+          LDLIBRARY='libpython$(VERSION).dll.a'
+          ;;
+  esac
 fi
 
 echo "$as_me:$LINENO: result: $LDLIBRARY" >&5
@@ -10192,6 +10199,11 @@ then
 			LINKFORSHARED="-Xlinker --export-dynamic"
 		    fi;;
 		  esac;;
+	CYGWIN*)
+		if test $enable_shared = "no"
+		then
+			LINKFORSHARED='-Wl,--out-implib=$(LDLIBRARY)'
+		fi;;
 	esac
 fi
 echo "$as_me:$LINENO: result: $LINKFORSHARED" >&5

configure.in

@@ -539,6 +539,13 @@ if test $enable_shared = "yes"; then
         BASECFLAGS="$BASECFLAGS -pic"
         ;;
   esac
+else # shared is disabled
+  case $ac_sys_system in
+    CYGWIN*)
+          BLDLIBRARY='$(LIBRARY)'
+          LDLIBRARY='libpython$(VERSION).dll.a'
+          ;;
+  esac
 fi
 
 AC_MSG_RESULT($LDLIBRARY)
@@ -1371,6 +1378,11 @@ then
 			LINKFORSHARED="-Xlinker --export-dynamic"
 		    fi;;
 		  esac;;
+	CYGWIN*)
+		if test $enable_shared = "no"
+		then
+			LINKFORSHARED='-Wl,--out-implib=$(LDLIBRARY)'
+		fi;;
 	esac
 fi
 AC_MSG_RESULT($LINKFORSHARED)