fatal: Not a valid object name HEAD about mod_python

[grisha]

Thanks @notdavis, very useful info! How did you get your Python 3.3 - compile manually, install the package from python.org? I'd like to be able to recreate this locally. Also, which specific git revision of mod_python do you have?

[jonathanjdavis]

I downloaded python-3.3.2-macosx10.6.dmg from http://www.python.org/download/ and ran the Python.mpkg, then added "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.3/bin" to my PATH in my .profile

For mod_python I downloaded the 3.5.x branch as a zip

I've also installed the python 3 PIP which I used to install SQLalchemy with Python 3 support

[grisha]

I've had no luck getting it to work on 10.9 (Mavericks) with Python .dmg downloaded from python.org, nor did homebrew version work for me. I did get it to work by downloading Python-3.3.3rc1 source tgz and configuring it with (you may need to adjust paths to your set up):

./configure --prefix=/Users/grisha/src/mod_python/install_p3 --enable-ipv6 \
  --datarootdir=/Users/grisha/src/mod_python/install_p3/share \
  --datadir=/Users/grisha/src/mod_python/install_p3/share \
  --enable-framework=/Users/grisha/src/mod_python/install_p3/Frameworks \
  --without-gcc \
   MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.9

The configure options were borrowed from the way homebrew did it, the key difference here I think is that it's 3.3.3rc1, not 3.3.2. I'd try the homebrew install first, especially if you're still on 10.8 (mountain lion).

Then of course mod_python itself will need a --with-python=/Users/grisha/src/mod_python/install_p3/bin/python3 argument to configure.

[grisha]

Closing this as it seems like the problem is not with mod_python itself, but Python 3.3 on OSX and its intricacies, and we do have a working solution in the comments.