I want to use the Delphi 4 Python components from here https://github.com/pyscripter/python4delphi
but I don't want to drop the components on a form, I want everything in code , my code goes like this :
var
PythonEngine_netA: TPythonEngine;
PythonInputOutput_netA: TPythonInputOutput;
begin
PythonEngine_netA := TPythonEngine.Create(Self);
PythonInputOutput_netA := TPythonInputOutput.Create(Self);
try
/// configure the components
PythonEngine_netA.DllName:='python39.dll';
PythonEngine_netA.IO := PythonInputOutput_netA;
PythonEngine_netA.UseLastKnownVersion := True;
PythonInputOutput_netA.OnSendUniData := PythonInputOutput_SendUniData;
PythonInputOutput_netA.UnicodeIO := True;
PythonInputOutput_netA.RawOutput := True;
/// execute the script
PythonEngine_netA.ExecString(UTF8Encode(mmo_pythoncode.text));
finally
PythonEngine_netA.free;
PythonInputOutput_netA.free;
end;
execution of this code fails, error msg : "Python is not properly initialized",
what did I miss to use this code ?
One quick look at PythonEngine.pas (or even better: always search all files for the error message to find out where and why an error is returned) tells me you missed calling PythonEngine_netA.Initialize().
Also note that /Demos describes:
Demo34 Dynamically creating, destroying and recreating PythonEngine. Uses PythonVersions
So please have a look at /Demos/Demo34/Unit1.pas how it is done there with (almost) no components. Or run the whole project in general, preferably in debug mode single stepping thru it be aware which method does what.
You just forgot to load the Dll:
PythonEngine_netA.UseLastKnownVersion:= True;
//PythonEngine_netA.opendll(PYDLL)
PythonEngine_netA.LoadDll;
PythonEngine_netA.IO:= PythonInputOutput_netA;
In python, you can learn memory location of variables by using id function, so:
X = "Hello world!"
print(id(X)) # Output is equal to 139806692112112 (0x7F27483876F0)
I'm tried to access to variable with pointers in C (Surely the other program still alive):
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char *x = (char *) 0x7F27483876F0;
printf("%s\n", x);
return 0;
}
I compile the code, no errors or warnings but when i tried the running program OS giving a Segmentation error. How i can solve this problem?
Or is it possible?
Doing something like this is more and more impossible these days. With features like address space layout randomization you can't really tell where a given program, let alone variable will load in actual memory.
Best bet is to use some type of message passing. Not sure why all the downvotes on your question, but it seems like a reasonably put question, even if not technically feasible these days.
I'm embedding python in a C++ plug-in. The plug-in calls a python algorithm dozens of times during each session, each time sending the algorithm different data. So far so good
But now I have a problem:
The algorithm takes sometimes minutes to solve and to return a solution, and during that time often the conditions change making that solution irrelevant. So, what I want is to stop the running of the algorithm at any moment, and run it immediately after with other set of data.
Here's the C++ code for embedding python that I have so far:
void py_embed (void*data){
counter_thread=false;
PyObject *pName, *pModule, *pDict, *pFunc;
//To inform the interpreter about paths to Python run-time libraries
Py_SetProgramName(arg->argv[0]);
if(!gil_init){
gil_init=1;
PyEval_InitThreads();
PyEval_SaveThread();
}
PyGILState_STATE gstate = PyGILState_Ensure();
// Build the name object
pName = PyString_FromString(arg->argv[1]);
if( !pName ){
textfile3<<"Can't build the object "<<endl;
}
// Load the module object
pModule = PyImport_Import(pName);
if( !pModule ){
textfile3<<"Can't import the module "<<endl;
}
// pDict is a borrowed reference
pDict = PyModule_GetDict(pModule);
if( !pDict ){
textfile3<<"Can't get the dict"<<endl;
}
// pFunc is also a borrowed reference
pFunc = PyDict_GetItemString(pDict, arg->argv[2]);
if( !pFunc || !PyCallable_Check(pFunc) ){
textfile3<<"Can't get the function"<<endl;
}
/*Call the algorithm and treat the data that is returned from it
...
...
*/
// Clean up
Py_XDECREF(pArgs2);
Py_XDECREF(pValue2);
Py_DECREF(pModule);
Py_DECREF(pName);
PyGILState_Release(gstate);
counter_thread=true;
_endthread();
};
Edit: The python's algorithm is not my work and I shouldn't change it
This is based off of a cursory knowledge of python, and reading the python docs quickly.
PyThreadState_SetAsyncExc lets you inject an exception into a running python thread.
Run your python interpreter in some thread. In another thread, PyGILState_STATE then PyThreadState_SetAsyncExc into the main thread. (This may require some precursor work to teach the python interpreter about the 2nd thread).
Unless the python code you are running is full of "catch alls", this should cause it to terminate execution.
You can also look into the code to create python sub-interpreters, which would let you start up a new script while the old one shuts down.
Py_AddPendingCall is also tempting to use, but there are enough warnings around it maybe not.
Sorry, but your choices are short. You can either change the python code (ok, plugin - not an option) or run it on another PROCESS (with some nice ipc between). Then you can use the system api to wipe it out.
So, I finally thought of a solution (more of a workaround really).
Instead of terminating the thread that is running the algorithm - let's call it T1 -, I create another one -T2 - with the set of data that is relevant at that time.
In every thread i do this:
thread_counter+=1; //global variable
int thisthread=thread_counter;
and after the solution from python is given I just verify which is the most "recent", the one from T1 or from T2:
if(thisthread==thread_counter){
/*save the solution and treat it */
}
Is terms of computer effort this is not the best solution obviously, but it serves my purposes.
Thank you for the help guys
I've been thinking about this problem, and I agree that sub interpreters may provide you one possible solution https://docs.python.org/2/c-api/init.html#sub-interpreter-support. It supports calls for creating new interpreters and ending existing ones. The bugs & caveats sections describes some issues that depending on your architecture may or may not present a problem.
Another possible solution is to use the python multiprocessing module, and within your worker thread test a global variable (something like time_to_die). Then from the parent, you grab the GIL, set the variable, release the GIL and wait for the child to finish.
But then another idea ocurred to me. Why not just use fork(), init your python interpreter in the child and when the parent decides it's time for the python thread to end, just kill it. Something like this:
void process() {
int pid = fork();
if (pid) {
// in parent
sleep(60);
kill(pid, 9);
}
else{
// in child
Py_Initialize();
PyRun_SimpleString("# insert long running python calculation");
}
}
(This example assumes *nix, if you're on windows, substitute CreateProcess()/TerminateProcess())
I am developing automated test cases for my app using selenium RC in python 2.7. When I am using wait_for_time_to_load(time) is throwing error as the timeout is variable in my app. Can anyone suggest me any other alternative for the function "wait_for_page_to_load" which does not take time as a parameter.
Thanks
Just to add to #rs79's code
int iteration = 0;
//checks the presence of element till a given no of iterations(say 20) to avoid infinite loop
while(!(selenium.isElementPresent("yourelement")) && iteration < 20){
Thread.sleep(1000);
iteration++;
}
again this is in java, hopefully you can apply same logic in python.
You could check for the absence of an expected element and keep waiting till it appears.
while (!(selenium.isElementPresent("your_element_identifier")==true)) {
selenium.setSpeed("10");
Thread.sleep(10);
}
Evidently, the code above is in Java, but applying the same login in Python should be trivial.
I want to extend a large C project with some new functionality, but I really want to write it in Python. Basically, I want to call Python code from C code. However, Python->C wrappers like SWIG allow for the OPPOSITE, that is writing C modules and calling C from Python.
I'm considering an approach involving IPC or RPC (I don't mind having multiple processes); that is, having my pure-Python component run in a separate process (on the same machine) and having my C project communicate with it by writing/reading from a socket (or unix pipe). my python component can read/write to socket to communicate. Is that a reasonable approach? Is there something better? Like some special RPC mechanism?
Thanks for the answer so far - however, i'd like to focus on IPC-based approaches since I want to have my Python program in a separate process as my C program. I don't want to embed a Python interpreter. Thanks!
I recommend the approaches detailed here. It starts by explaining how to execute strings of Python code, then from there details how to set up a Python environment to interact with your C program, call Python functions from your C code, manipulate Python objects from your C code, etc.
EDIT: If you really want to go the route of IPC, then you'll want to use the struct module or better yet, protlib. Most communication between a Python and C process revolves around passing structs back and forth, either over a socket or through shared memory.
I recommend creating a Command struct with fields and codes to represent commands and their arguments. I can't give much more specific advice without knowing more about what you want to accomplish, but in general I recommend the protlib library, since it's what I use to communicate between C and Python programs (disclaimer: I am the author of protlib).
Have you considered just wrapping your python application in a shell script and invoking it from within your C application?
Not the most elegant solution, but it is very simple.
See the relevant chapter in the manual: http://docs.python.org/extending/
Essentially you'll have to embed the python interpreter into your program.
I haven't used an IPC approach for Python<->C communication but it should work pretty well. I would have the C program do a standard fork-exec and use redirected stdin and stdout in the child process for the communication. A nice text-based communication will make it very easy to develop and test the Python program.
If I had decided to go with IPC, I'd probably splurge with XML-RPC -- cross-platform, lets you easily put the Python server project on a different node later if you want, has many excellent implementations (see here for many, including C and Python ones, and here for the simple XML-RPC server that's part the Python standard library -- not as highly scalable as other approaches but probably fine and convenient for your use case).
It may not be a perfect IPC approach for all cases (or even a perfect RPC one, by all means!), but the convenience, flexibility, robustness, and broad range of implementations outweigh a lot of minor defects, in my opinion.
This seems quite nice http://thrift.apache.org/, there is even a book about it.
Details:
The Apache Thrift software framework, for scalable cross-language
services development, combines a software stack with a code generation
engine to build services that work efficiently and seamlessly between
C++, Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, Erlang, Perl, Haskell, C#, Cocoa,
JavaScript, Node.js, Smalltalk, OCaml and Delphi and other languages.
I've used the "standard" approach of Embedding Python in Another Application. But it's complicated/tedious. Each new function in Python is painful to implement.
I saw an example of Calling PyPy from C. It uses CFFI to simplify the interface but it requires PyPy, not Python. Read and understand this example first, at least at a high level.
I modified the C/PyPy example to work with Python. Here's how to call Python from C using CFFI.
My example is more complicated because I implemented three functions in Python instead of one. I wanted to cover additional aspects of passing data back and forth.
The complicated part is now isolated to passing the address of api to Python. That only has to be implemented once. After that it's easy to add new functions in Python.
interface.h
// These are the three functions that I implemented in Python.
// Any additional function would be added here.
struct API {
double (*add_numbers)(double x, double y);
char* (*dump_buffer)(char *buffer, int buffer_size);
int (*release_object)(char *obj);
};
test_cffi.c
//
// Calling Python from C.
// Based on Calling PyPy from C:
// http://doc.pypy.org/en/latest/embedding.html#more-complete-example
//
#include <stdio.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include "Python.h"
#include "interface.h"
struct API api; /* global var */
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int rc;
// Start Python interpreter and initialize "api" in interface.py using
// old style "Embedding Python in Another Application":
// https://docs.python.org/2/extending/embedding.html#embedding-python-in-another-application
PyObject *pName, *pModule, *py_results;
PyObject *fill_api;
#define PYVERIFY(exp) if ((exp) == 0) { fprintf(stderr, "%s[%d]: ", __FILE__, __LINE__); PyErr_Print(); exit(1); }
Py_SetProgramName(argv[0]); /* optional but recommended */
Py_Initialize();
PyRun_SimpleString(
"import sys;"
"sys.path.insert(0, '.')" );
PYVERIFY( pName = PyString_FromString("interface") )
PYVERIFY( pModule = PyImport_Import(pName) )
Py_DECREF(pName);
PYVERIFY( fill_api = PyObject_GetAttrString(pModule, "fill_api") )
// "k" = [unsigned long],
// see https://docs.python.org/2/c-api/arg.html#c.Py_BuildValue
PYVERIFY( py_results = PyObject_CallFunction(fill_api, "k", &api) )
assert(py_results == Py_None);
// Call Python function from C using cffi.
printf("sum: %f\n", api.add_numbers(12.3, 45.6));
// More complex example.
char buffer[20];
char * result = api.dump_buffer(buffer, sizeof buffer);
assert(result != 0);
printf("buffer: %s\n", result);
// Let Python perform garbage collection on result now.
rc = api.release_object(result);
assert(rc == 0);
// Close Python interpreter.
Py_Finalize();
return 0;
}
interface.py
import cffi
import sys
import traceback
ffi = cffi.FFI()
ffi.cdef(file('interface.h').read())
# Hold references to objects to prevent garbage collection.
noGCDict = {}
# Add two numbers.
# This function was copied from the PyPy example.
#ffi.callback("double (double, double)")
def add_numbers(x, y):
return x + y
# Convert input buffer to repr(buffer).
#ffi.callback("char *(char*, int)")
def dump_buffer(buffer, buffer_len):
try:
# First attempt to access data in buffer.
# Using the ffi/lib objects:
# http://cffi.readthedocs.org/en/latest/using.html#using-the-ffi-lib-objects
# One char at time, Looks inefficient.
#data = ''.join([buffer[i] for i in xrange(buffer_len)])
# Second attempt.
# FFI Interface:
# http://cffi.readthedocs.org/en/latest/using.html#ffi-interface
# Works but doc says "str() gives inconsistent results".
#data = str( ffi.buffer(buffer, buffer_len) )
# Convert C buffer to Python str.
# Doc says [:] is recommended instead of str().
data = ffi.buffer(buffer, buffer_len)[:]
# The goal is to return repr(data)
# but it has to be converted to a C buffer.
result = ffi.new('char []', repr(data))
# Save reference to data so it's not freed until released by C program.
noGCDict[ffi.addressof(result)] = result
return result
except:
print >>sys.stderr, traceback.format_exc()
return ffi.NULL
# Release object so that Python can reclaim the memory.
#ffi.callback("int (char*)")
def release_object(ptr):
try:
del noGCDict[ptr]
return 0
except:
print >>sys.stderr, traceback.format_exc()
return 1
def fill_api(ptr):
global api
api = ffi.cast("struct API*", ptr)
api.add_numbers = add_numbers
api.dump_buffer = dump_buffer
api.release_object = release_object
Compile:
gcc -o test_cffi test_cffi.c -I/home/jmudd/pgsql-native/Python-2.7.10.install/include/python2.7 -L/home/jmudd/pgsql-native/Python-2.7.10.install/lib -lpython2.7
Execute:
$ test_cffi
sum: 57.900000
buffer: 'T\x9e\x04\x08\xa8\x93\xff\xbf]\x86\x04\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
$
Few tips for binding it with Python 3
file() not supported, use open()
ffi.cdef(open('interface.h').read())
PyObject* PyStr_FromString(const char *u)
Create a PyStr from a UTF-8 encoded null-terminated character buffer.
Python 2: PyString_FromString
Python 3: PyUnicode_FromString
Change to: PYVERIFY( pName = PyUnicode_FromString("interface") )
Program name
wchar_t *name = Py_DecodeLocale(argv[0], NULL);
Py_SetProgramName(name);
for compiling
gcc cc.c -o cc -I/usr/include/python3.6m -I/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu/python3.6m -lpython3.6m
I butchered dump def .. maybe it will give some ideas
def get_prediction(buffer, buffer_len):
try:
data = ffi.buffer(buffer, buffer_len)[:]
result = ffi.new('char []', data)
print('\n I am doing something here here........',data )
resultA = ffi.new('char []', b"Failed") ### New message
##noGCDict[ffi.addressof(resultA)] = resultA
return resultA
except:
print >>sys.stderr, traceback.format_exc()
return ffi.NULL
}
Hopefully it will help and save you some time
apparently Python need to be able to compile to win32 dll, it will solve the problem
In such a way that converting c# code to win32 dlls will make it usable by any development tool