Develop Reference

Is Cython option --embed using just Python inside, and no performance gain?

Cython has the CLI option --embed to create .c file to make executable file from just any .py file. For example:
cython3 -3 --embed hello.py
The result is hello.c and can be compiled with GCC:
gcc hello.c -o hello -I... -L... -l...
Run:
./hello
It does look interesting, however, is there any performance gain in the final executable file? Or it is just Python totally inside the executable file?
It is stated in Cython doc that Python Interpreter is embedded into the executable but not so clear.

Cythonized extension library dependency is incorrect

Checking dependencies with ldd on the *.so file produced by Cython, the dependencies contains myLib.o instead of libforcython.o
I do not grasp why it is trying to reach a myLib.o instead of libforcython as indicated in my setup.py .
During python execution of the module that produces an error similar to Cython unable to find shared object file . However contrary to the included links and answer, my problem does not seem to happen during the python initialization, but rather during the cythonization itself.
using these files:
example.pyx :
cdef extern from "myLib.h":
void testFunction ()
setup.py:
from distutils.core import setup
from distutils.extension import Extension
from Cython.Build import cythonize
pythoncallsc_extension = Extension (
name = "pythoncallsc",
sources=["./example.pyx"],
libraries=["forcython"])
setup ( name = "pythoncallsc",
ext_modules = cythonize ([pythoncallsc_extension]))
When I look at the log generated by python3 setup.py build_ext --inplace I can then clearly see in the commandline launching gcc, and it contains:
... -lforcython -lpython3.7m ...
So clearly gcc is linking against my library libforcython.
The lib contains:
header myLib.h
generated libforcython.so file for the function void testFunction(void).
This lib is built separately and elsewhere in my system. I have checked the include and lib and they are clearly in the $PATH of my cython project.
The cythonization produces the library pythoncallsc.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
But against all my expectations when I do:
ldd pythoncallsc.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffee40fb000)
myLib.o => not found <=== HERE ???
libpython3.7m.so.1.0 => /path/to/lib...
libpthread.so.0 => ...
libc.so.6 => ...
...
Why is cython producing an output that depends on a myLib.o file and not on libforcython.so ?
This myLib.o file does not exists, and consequently that produces an error when I launch my module:
`ImportError: myLib.o: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory`
Any clue ?

In case we have this error, we should check how the c library is built.
As suggested in the comments, the libforcython library was not built properly.
It was wrongly built using soname with gcc in the Makefile.
Correct:
gcc myLib.o -shared -fPIC -Wl,-soname,libforcython.so -o libforcython.so -lc
Incorrect:
gcc -shared -fPIC -Wl,-soname,myLib.o -o libforcython.so myLib.o -lc
In this case soname is not really useful because I don't use a version number for the library: a simpler use case.

How can I build a setup.py to compile C++ extension using Python, pybind11 and Mingw-w64?

I'm currently trying to write a 'setup.py' script that when the user installs the python package automatically compiles my C++ extension bound with 'pybind11'. In Windows, I haven't got any problem making it happen with the 'VS19 MSVC' compiler. But I'm trying to make it happen if the user has installed 'MinGW-w64' instead.
These are the package files:
**main.cpp**
#include <pybind11/pybind11.h>
int add(int i, int j) {
return i + j;
}
namespace py = pybind11;
PYBIND11_MODULE(pybind11_example, m) {
m.def("add", &add);
}
**setup.py**
from setuptools import setup, Extension
import pybind11
ext_modules = [
Extension(
'pybind11_example',
sources = ['main.cpp'],
include_dirs=[pybind11.get_include()],
language='c++'
),
]
setup(
name='pybind11_example',
ext_modules=ext_modules
)
Having the two files in the same folder and running from the command prompt:
python setup.py build
If the user has VS19 MSVC compiler installed it successfully generates **pybind11_example.pyd** that can be tested to work running with python:
import pybind11_example as m
print(m.add(1, 2))
But if the user has a Mingw-w64 compiler installed raises an error saying that Visual Studio 2015 is required.
Note that I can easily compile **main.cpp** in to **pybind11_example.pyd** manually with Mingw-w64 running:
g++ -static -shared -std=c++11 -DMS_WIN64 -fPIC -I C:\...\Python\Python38\Lib\site-packages\pybind11\include -I C:\ ... \Python\Python38\include -L C:\ ... \Python\Python38\libs main.cpp -o pybind11_example.pyd -lPython38
Is there a way to write **setup.py** in a way that if the user has Windows with a MinGW-w64 compiler automatically compile **main.cpp** into **pybind11_example.pyd** when installing the package without needing to make it manually?

Chek the answer to this question. They try to solve the opposite case, force msvc instead of mingw, but the approach with setup.cfg might help you.
And here the answer demonstrates how to specify command line parameters depending on the choice made by setup tools: if it is msvc then one set of parameters, and another set for mingw.
I belive the second approach should suite your needs - whichever compier is installled, you have the proper command line to build your module.

Error when trying to cross-compile SWIG Python extension for mingw32 using distutils

I am trying to cross-compile a simple SWIG Python extension on Linux for Windows (mingw32), using the distutils module.
The ultimate goal is to compile a Python wrapper for some library and being able to use it on Windows. Obviously I started with the most basic example and unfortunately it fails.
Here are the files I am using:
example.c
/* File : example.c */
/* A global variable */
double Foo = 3.0;
/* Compute the greatest common divisor of positive integers */
int gcd(int x, int y) {
int g;
g = y;
while (x > 0) {
g = x;
x = y % x;
y = g;
}
return g;
}
example.i - SWIG interface file
/* File : example.i */
%module example
%inline %{
extern int gcd(int x, int y);
extern double Foo;
%}
setup.py
# setup.py
import distutils
from distutils.core import setup, Extension
setup(name = "SWIG example",
version = "1.0",
ext_modules = [Extension("_example", ["example.i","example.c"])])
In order to compile using the native (Linux) gcc compiler, I am invoking:
python setup.py build
Everything works like a charm! Unfortunately when trying to specify the Windows target:
python setup.py build --compiler=mingw32
I get the error saying that gcc can't recognize -mdll switch:
running build
running build_ext
building '_example' extension
swigging example.i to example_wrap.c
swig -python -o example_wrap.c example.i
creating build
creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7
gcc -mdll -O -Wall -I/home/jojek/anaconda/include/python2.7 -c example_wrap.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/example_wrap.o
gcc: error: unrecognized command line option ‘-mdll’
error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1
Fair enough, it makes perfect sense, since toolchain is not valid. I made sure that mingw32 is installed on my machine. By calling dpkg -L mingw32 I know that compiler is located in /usr/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-gcc.
My next step was to override the CC environmental variable with the actual path to my compiler. When I try to compile it again, then I am getting the following error with missing sys/select.h header file:
running build
running build_ext
building '_example' extension
swigging example.i to example_wrap.c
swig -python -o example_wrap.c example.i
creating build
creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7
/usr/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-gcc -fno-strict-aliasing -g -O2 -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -I/home/jojek/anaconda/include/python2.7 -c example_wrap.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/example_wrap.o
example_wrap.c:1: warning: -fPIC ignored for target (all code is position independent)
In file included from /home/jojek/anaconda/include/python2.7/Python.h:58,
from example_wrap.c:125:
/home/jojek/anaconda/include/python2.7/pyport.h:351:24: error: sys/select.h: No such file or directory
error: command '/usr/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-gcc' failed with exit status 1
Does anyone have an idea how to manage that task?

There's quite a bit going on behind the scenes when you compile Python modules using distutils. You're getting closer with each try in your question, however the problem you've now encountered is that you're using Linux header files with a Windows (cross) compiler. (sys/select.h isn't supported with mingw32, cygwin might be a different story though). In reality it's the lack of the configuration header file that's causing your cross compile to try and use the POSIX interfaces instead of Win32 alternatives.
My answer rewinds a few steps and starts out simply building the module by hand, using mingw32 on Linux and then we'll look at using distutils once we've proven that we have all that's required.
I'm also assuming that you don't have a Windows build box (or even a VM) available to simply build your extension on Windows natively since that's far simpler than cross compiling. If you're reading this and have the option to use a Windows box to build your Windows Python extensions, do that instead and save time and effort. That said it is possible to build Windows Python modules using only a Linux box.
Starting with mingw32 already installed and working on your Linux box (e.g. using the Debian/Ubuntu packages) the first step is to get the Windows header files (or configuration to be more specific). I'm assuming you're targeting the build that most people get when they type "python windows" into a search engine so I downloaded the Windows MSI installers from python.org and extracted them from there.
There are two things we want to get from the Python distribution:
python27.dll (Usually gets placed in c:\windows\system32 or c:\windows\syswow64)
The 'include' directory (Usually gets placed in c:\python27\include)
Under Linux there are a few different ways you can extract this. You could use Wine to install the MSI file. I used both cabextract and 7z with success in my testing though, for example with cabextract:
cabextract /tmp/python-2.7.10.msi -F '*.h'
cabextract /tmp/python-2.7.10.msi -F 'python27.dll'
(Note: if you use 7z you'll find the files you really want inside a second, inner archive named 'python').
At this point you could also extract the file 'libpython27.a' which usually lives inside c:\python27\libs\ however this file isn't sufficient or even useful for linking using mingw32.
Given the header files we've now got enough to compile our extension, although as noted above to get mingw32 to link against python27.dll we need to do a bit more work first. We're going to need a tool called pexports to list all the exported symbols in the Python DLL and let dlltool generate a stub library for mingw32 to link against. I downloaded pexports directly and then extracted it with:
tar xvf ~/Downloads/pexports-0.47-mingw32-bin.tar.xz
Once that's extracted we get a single Windows executable. I used Wine in my example here to run it directly; alternatively, you could extract the source, and build it as a tool to run natively on the Linux host:
tar xvf ~/Downloads/pexports-0.47-mingw32-src.tar.xz
(cd pexports-0.47 && ./configure && make)
or you could have duplicated the functionality of the tool using the Python module pefile (which runs fine cross platform) to extract the exports that we care about if you were looking to avoid using Wine as well.
Anyway with pexports you can generate a .def file that contains the information we need for dlltool:
wine bin/pexports.exe -v python27.dll > python27.def
or, (if you've built pexports as a native tool), simply:
./pexports-0.47/pexports -v python27.dll > python27.def
where python27.dll is what we extracted from the .msi file earlier.
(This was my pexports reference)
Once you've got the .def file you can use the mingw32 dlltool to generate a .a file that we'll use later to link our Python module against:
i586-mingw32msvc-dlltool -A --dllname python27.dll --def python27.def --output-lib libpython27.a
Now we've reached a point where we can think about running SWIG itself to generate the code for us to compile. I simplified your example interface even further to be just:
%module test
%inline %{
int gcd(int x, int y) {
int g;
g = y;
while (x > 0) {
g = x;
x = y % x;
y = g;
}
return g;
}
%}
And then ran SWIG on my Linux box as:
swig -Wall -python test.i
This generated test_wrap.c which I compiled with:
i586-mingw32msvc-gcc test_wrap.c -I../include -Wall -Wextra -shared -o _test.pyd ./libpython27.a
And there we have a Windows Python module built using just Linux.
To check it really runs I copied test.py and _test.pyd to a Windows box and then did:
Python 2.7.10 (default, May 23 2015, 09:40:32) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import test
>>> test.gcd(1024, 512)
512
>>>
Now all that remains is to make sure distutils can find the right include files and libraries to link against by manipulating its paths.

For 64 bits, I couldnt make it work with pexports, so I used gendef to generate the python27.def file.
gendef is a tool which generate def files from DLLs. A def file is a list of symbols exported by a DLL. The primary use of this tool is to allow creation of a import library of DLLs created by non-GCC compilers. It can handle both x86 (win32) and amd64 (win64) executables.
https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw-w64/wiki2/gendef/
Hope It helps!

How to link C lib against python for embedding under Windows?

I am working on an application written in C. One part of the application should embed python and there is my current problem. I try to link my source to the Python library but it does not work.
As I use MinGW I have created the python26.a file from python26.lib with dlltool and put the *.a file in C:/Program Files (x86)/python/2.6/libs.
Therefore, I compile the file with this command:
gcc -shared -o mod_python.dll mod_python.o "-LC:\Program Files (x86)\python\2.6\libs" -lpython26 -Wl,--out-implib,libmod_python.a -Wl,--output-def,mod_python.def
and I get those errors:
Creating library file: libmod_python.a
mod_python.o: In function `module_init':
mod_python.c:34: undefined reference to `__imp__Py_Initialize'
mod_python.c:35: undefined reference to `__imp__PyEval_InitThreads'
... and so on ...
My Python "root" folder is C:\Program Files (x86)\python\2.6
The Devsystem is a Windows Server 2008
GCC Information: Reading specs from C:/Program Files (x86)/MinGW/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/3.4.5/specs
Configured with: ../gcc-3.4.5-20060117-3/configure --with-gcc --with-gnu-ld --with-gnu-as --host=mingw32 --target=mingw32 --prefix=/mingw --enable-threads --disable-nls --enable-languages=c,c++,f77,ada,objc,java --disable-win32-registry --disable-shared --enable-sjlj-exceptions --enable-libgcj --disable-java-awt --without-x --enable-java-gc=boehm --disable-libgcj-debug --enable-interpreter --enable-hash-synchronization --enable-libstdcxx-debug
Thread model: win32
gcc version 3.4.5 (mingw-vista special r3)
What I do wrong? How I get it compiled and linked :-)?
Cheers, gregor
Edit:
I forgot to write information about my Python installation: It's the official python.org installation 2.6.1
... and how I created the python.a file:
dlltool -z python.def --export-all-symbols -v c:\windows\system32\python26.dll
dlltool --dllname c:\Windows\system32\python26.dll --def python.def -v --output-lib python26.a

Well on Windows the python distribution comes already with a libpython26.a in the libs subdir so there is no need to generate .a files using dll tools.
I did try a little example with a single C file toto.c:
gcc -shared -o ./toto.dll ./toto.c -I/Python26/include/ -L/Python26/libs -lpython26
And it works like a charm. Hope it will help :-)

Python (at least my distribution) comes with a "python-config" program that automatically creates the correct compiler and linker options for various situations. However, I have never used it on Windows. Perhaps this tool can help you though?

IIRC, dlltool does not always work. Having python 2.6 + Wow makes things even more less likely to work. For numpy, here is how I did it. Basically, I use obdump.exe to build the table from the dll, which I parse to generate the .def. You should check whether your missing symbols are in the .def, or otherwise it won't work.