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<div class="section" id="building-c-and-c-extensions-with-distutils">
<span id="building"></span><h1>3. Building C and C++ Extensions with distutils<a class="headerlink" href="#building-c-and-c-extensions-with-distutils" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>Starting in Python 1.4, Python provides, on Unix, a special make file for
building make files for building dynamically-linked extensions and custom
interpreters. Starting with Python 2.0, this mechanism (known as related to
Makefile.pre.in, and Setup files) is no longer supported. Building custom
interpreters was rarely used, and extension modules can be built using
distutils.</p>
<p>Building an extension module using distutils requires that distutils is
installed on the build machine, which is included in Python 2.x and available
separately for Python 1.5. Since distutils also supports creation of binary
packages, users don’t necessarily need a compiler and distutils to install the
extension.</p>
<p>A distutils package contains a driver script, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></code>. This is a plain
Python file, which, in the most simple case, could look like this:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">distutils.core</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">Extension</span>
<span class="n">module1</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'demo'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">sources</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'demo.c'</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="n">setup</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'PackageName'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">version</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'1.0'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">description</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'This is a demo package'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">ext_modules</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="n">module1</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>With this <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></code>, and a file <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">demo.c</span></code>, running</p>
<div class="highlight-c notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">python</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">py</span> <span class="n">build</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>will compile <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">demo.c</span></code>, and produce an extension module named <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">demo</span></code> in
the <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">build</span></code> directory. Depending on the system, the module file will end
up in a subdirectory <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">build/lib.system</span></code>, and may have a name like
<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">demo.so</span></code> or <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">demo.pyd</span></code>.</p>
<p>In the <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></code>, all execution is performed by calling the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup</span></code>
function. This takes a variable number of keyword arguments, of which the
example above uses only a subset. Specifically, the example specifies
meta-information to build packages, and it specifies the contents of the
package. Normally, a package will contain of addition modules, like Python
source modules, documentation, subpackages, etc. Please refer to the distutils
documentation in <a class="reference internal" href="../distutils/index.html#distutils-index"><span class="std std-ref">Distributing Python Modules (Legacy version)</span></a> to learn more about the features of
distutils; this section explains building extension modules only.</p>
<p>It is common to pre-compute arguments to <code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup()</span></code>, to better structure the
driver script. In the example above, the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ext_modules</span></code> argument to
<code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup()</span></code> is a list of extension modules, each of which is an instance of
the <code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Extension</span></code>. In the example, the instance
defines an extension named <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">demo</span></code> which is build by compiling a single source
file, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">demo.c</span></code>.</p>
<p>In many cases, building an extension is more complex, since additional
preprocessor defines and libraries may be needed. This is demonstrated in the
example below.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">distutils.core</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">Extension</span>
<span class="n">module1</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'demo'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">define_macros</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[(</span><span class="s1">'MAJOR_VERSION'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'1'</span><span class="p">),</span>
<span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'MINOR_VERSION'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'0'</span><span class="p">)],</span>
<span class="n">include_dirs</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'/usr/local/include'</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="n">libraries</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'tcl83'</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="n">library_dirs</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'/usr/local/lib'</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="n">sources</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'demo.c'</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="n">setup</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'PackageName'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">version</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'1.0'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">description</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'This is a demo package'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">author</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'Martin v. Loewis'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">author_email</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'martin@v.loewis.de'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">url</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'https://docs.python.org/extending/building'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">long_description</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'''</span>
<span class="s1">This is really just a demo package.</span>
<span class="s1">'''</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">ext_modules</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="n">module1</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>In this example, <code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup()</span></code> is called with additional meta-information, which
is recommended when distribution packages have to be built. For the extension
itself, it specifies preprocessor defines, include directories, library
directories, and libraries. Depending on the compiler, distutils passes this
information in different ways to the compiler. For example, on Unix, this may
result in the compilation commands</p>
<div class="highlight-c notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">gcc</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">DNDEBUG</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">g</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">O3</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">Wall</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">Wstrict</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">prototypes</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">fPIC</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">DMAJOR_VERSION</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">1</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">DMINOR_VERSION</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">0</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">I</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">usr</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">local</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">include</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">I</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">usr</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">local</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">include</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">python2</span><span class="mf">.2</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">c</span> <span class="n">demo</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">c</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">o</span> <span class="n">build</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">temp</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">linux</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">i686</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="mf">2.2</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">demo</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">o</span>
<span class="n">gcc</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">shared</span> <span class="n">build</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">temp</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">linux</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">i686</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="mf">2.2</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">demo</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">o</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">L</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">usr</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">local</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">lib</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">ltcl83</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">o</span> <span class="n">build</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">lib</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">linux</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">i686</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="mf">2.2</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">demo</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">so</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>These lines are for demonstration purposes only; distutils users should trust
that distutils gets the invocations right.</p>
<div class="section" id="distributing-your-extension-modules">
<span id="distributing"></span><h2>3.1. Distributing your extension modules<a class="headerlink" href="#distributing-your-extension-modules" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>When an extension has been successfully build, there are three ways to use it.</p>
<p>End-users will typically want to install the module, they do so by running</p>
<div class="highlight-c notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">python</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">py</span> <span class="n">install</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Module maintainers should produce source packages; to do so, they run</p>
<div class="highlight-c notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">python</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">py</span> <span class="n">sdist</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>In some cases, additional files need to be included in a source distribution;
this is done through a <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANIFEST.in</span></code> file; see the distutils documentation
for details.</p>
<p>If the source distribution has been build successfully, maintainers can also
create binary distributions. Depending on the platform, one of the following
commands can be used to do so.</p>
<div class="highlight-c notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">python</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">py</span> <span class="n">bdist_wininst</span>
<span class="n">python</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">py</span> <span class="n">bdist_rpm</span>
<span class="n">python</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">py</span> <span class="n">bdist_dumb</span>
</pre></div>
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