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- <section id="building-c-and-c-extensions-on-windows">
- <span id="building-on-windows"></span><h1><span class="section-number">5. </span>Building C and C++ Extensions on Windows<a class="headerlink" href="#building-c-and-c-extensions-on-windows" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
- <p>This chapter briefly explains how to create a Windows extension module for
- Python using Microsoft Visual C++, and follows with more detailed background
- information on how it works. The explanatory material is useful for both the
- Windows programmer learning to build Python extensions and the Unix programmer
- interested in producing software which can be successfully built on both Unix
- and Windows.</p>
- <p>Module authors are encouraged to use the distutils approach for building
- extension modules, instead of the one described in this section. You will still
- need the C compiler that was used to build Python; typically Microsoft Visual
- C++.</p>
- <div class="admonition note">
- <p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
- <p>This chapter mentions a number of filenames that include an encoded Python
- version number. These filenames are represented with the version number shown
- as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">XY</span></code>; in practice, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'X'</span></code> will be the major version number and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'Y'</span></code>
- will be the minor version number of the Python release you’re working with. For
- example, if you are using Python 2.2.1, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">XY</span></code> will actually be <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">22</span></code>.</p>
- </div>
- <section id="a-cookbook-approach">
- <span id="win-cookbook"></span><h2><span class="section-number">5.1. </span>A Cookbook Approach<a class="headerlink" href="#a-cookbook-approach" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
- <p>There are two approaches to building extension modules on Windows, just as there
- are on Unix: use the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setuptools</span></code> package to control the build process, or
- do things manually. The setuptools approach works well for most extensions;
- documentation on using <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setuptools</span></code> to build and package extension modules
- is available in <a class="reference internal" href="building.html#setuptools-index"><span class="std std-ref">Building C and C++ Extensions with setuptools</span></a>. If you find you really need to do
- things manually, it may be instructive to study the project file for the
- <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/cpython/tree/3.12/PCbuild/winsound.vcxproj">winsound</a> standard library module.</p>
- </section>
- <section id="differences-between-unix-and-windows">
- <span id="dynamic-linking"></span><h2><span class="section-number">5.2. </span>Differences Between Unix and Windows<a class="headerlink" href="#differences-between-unix-and-windows" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
- <p>Unix and Windows use completely different paradigms for run-time loading of
- code. Before you try to build a module that can be dynamically loaded, be aware
- of how your system works.</p>
- <p>In Unix, a shared object (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.so</span></code>) file contains code to be used by the
- program, and also the names of functions and data that it expects to find in the
- program. When the file is joined to the program, all references to those
- functions and data in the file’s code are changed to point to the actual
- locations in the program where the functions and data are placed in memory.
- This is basically a link operation.</p>
- <p>In Windows, a dynamic-link library (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.dll</span></code>) file has no dangling
- references. Instead, an access to functions or data goes through a lookup
- table. So the DLL code does not have to be fixed up at runtime to refer to the
- program’s memory; instead, the code already uses the DLL’s lookup table, and the
- lookup table is modified at runtime to point to the functions and data.</p>
- <p>In Unix, there is only one type of library file (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.a</span></code>) which contains code
- from several object files (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.o</span></code>). During the link step to create a shared
- object file (<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.so</span></code>), the linker may find that it doesn’t know where an
- identifier is defined. The linker will look for it in the object files in the
- libraries; if it finds it, it will include all the code from that object file.</p>
- <p>In Windows, there are two types of library, a static library and an import
- library (both called <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.lib</span></code>). A static library is like a Unix <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.a</span></code>
- file; it contains code to be included as necessary. An import library is
- basically used only to reassure the linker that a certain identifier is legal,
- and will be present in the program when the DLL is loaded. So the linker uses
- the information from the import library to build the lookup table for using
- identifiers that are not included in the DLL. When an application or a DLL is
- linked, an import library may be generated, which will need to be used for all
- future DLLs that depend on the symbols in the application or DLL.</p>
- <p>Suppose you are building two dynamic-load modules, B and C, which should share
- another block of code A. On Unix, you would <em>not</em> pass <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">A.a</span></code> to the
- linker for <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">B.so</span></code> and <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">C.so</span></code>; that would cause it to be included
- twice, so that B and C would each have their own copy. In Windows, building
- <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">A.dll</span></code> will also build <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">A.lib</span></code>. You <em>do</em> pass <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">A.lib</span></code> to the
- linker for B and C. <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">A.lib</span></code> does not contain code; it just contains
- information which will be used at runtime to access A’s code.</p>
- <p>In Windows, using an import library is sort of like using <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">import</span> <span class="pre">spam</span></code>; it
- gives you access to spam’s names, but does not create a separate copy. On Unix,
- linking with a library is more like <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">from</span> <span class="pre">spam</span> <span class="pre">import</span> <span class="pre">*</span></code>; it does create a
- separate copy.</p>
- </section>
- <section id="using-dlls-in-practice">
- <span id="win-dlls"></span><h2><span class="section-number">5.3. </span>Using DLLs in Practice<a class="headerlink" href="#using-dlls-in-practice" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
- <p>Windows Python is built in Microsoft Visual C++; using other compilers may or
- may not work. The rest of this section is MSVC++ specific.</p>
- <p>When creating DLLs in Windows, you must pass <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pythonXY.lib</span></code> to the linker.
- To build two DLLs, spam and ni (which uses C functions found in spam), you could
- use these commands:</p>
- <div class="highlight-c notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">cl</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">LD</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">I</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">python</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">include</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">spam</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">c</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">..</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">libs</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">pythonXY</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">lib</span>
- <span class="n">cl</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">LD</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">I</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">python</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">include</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">ni</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">c</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">spam</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">lib</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">..</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">libs</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">pythonXY</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">lib</span>
- </pre></div>
- </div>
- <p>The first command created three files: <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">spam.obj</span></code>, <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">spam.dll</span></code> and
- <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">spam.lib</span></code>. <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Spam.dll</span></code> does not contain any Python functions (such
- as <a class="reference internal" href="../c-api/arg.html#c.PyArg_ParseTuple" title="PyArg_ParseTuple"><code class="xref c c-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">PyArg_ParseTuple()</span></code></a>), but it does know how to find the Python code
- thanks to <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pythonXY.lib</span></code>.</p>
- <p>The second command created <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ni.dll</span></code> (and <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.obj</span></code> and <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.lib</span></code>),
- which knows how to find the necessary functions from spam, and also from the
- Python executable.</p>
- <p>Not every identifier is exported to the lookup table. If you want any other
- modules (including Python) to be able to see your identifiers, you have to say
- <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">_declspec(dllexport)</span></code>, as in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">void</span> <span class="pre">_declspec(dllexport)</span> <span class="pre">initspam(void)</span></code> or
- <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">PyObject</span> <span class="pre">_declspec(dllexport)</span> <span class="pre">*NiGetSpamData(void)</span></code>.</p>
- <p>Developer Studio will throw in a lot of import libraries that you do not really
- need, adding about 100K to your executable. To get rid of them, use the Project
- Settings dialog, Link tab, to specify <em>ignore default libraries</em>. Add the
- correct <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">msvcrt</span><em><span class="pre">xx</span></em><span class="pre">.lib</span></code> to the list of libraries.</p>
- </section>
- </section>
- <div class="clearer"></div>
- </div>
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="sphinxsidebar" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation">
- <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper">
- <div>
- <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table of Contents</a></h3>
- <ul>
- <li><a class="reference internal" href="#">5. Building C and C++ Extensions on Windows</a><ul>
- <li><a class="reference internal" href="#a-cookbook-approach">5.1. A Cookbook Approach</a></li>
- <li><a class="reference internal" href="#differences-between-unix-and-windows">5.2. Differences Between Unix and Windows</a></li>
- <li><a class="reference internal" href="#using-dlls-in-practice">5.3. Using DLLs in Practice</a></li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </div>
- <div>
- <h4>Previous topic</h4>
- <p class="topless"><a href="building.html"
- title="previous chapter"><span class="section-number">4. </span>Building C and C++ Extensions</a></p>
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- <h4>Next topic</h4>
- <p class="topless"><a href="embedding.html"
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