.. _compiling: Build systems ############# Building with setuptools ======================== For projects on PyPI, building with setuptools is the way to go. Sylvain Corlay has kindly provided an example project which shows how to set up everything, including automatic generation of documentation using Sphinx. Please refer to the [python_example]_ repository. .. [python_example] https://github.com/pybind/python_example Building with cppimport ======================== [cppimport]_ is a small Python import hook that determines whether there is a C++ source file whose name matches the requested module. If there is, the file is compiled as a Python extension using pybind11 and placed in the same folder as the C++ source file. Python is then able to find the module and load it. .. [cppimport] https://github.com/tbenthompson/cppimport .. _cmake: Building with CMake =================== For C++ codebases that have an existing CMake-based build system, a Python extension module can be created with just a few lines of code: .. code-block:: cmake cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.7) project(example) add_subdirectory(pybind11) pybind11_add_module(example example.cpp) This assumes that the pybind11 repository is located in a subdirectory named :file:`pybind11` and that the code is located in a file named :file:`example.cpp`. The CMake command ``add_subdirectory`` will import the pybind11 project which provides the ``pybind11_add_module`` function. It will take care of all the details needed to build a Python extension module on any platform. A working sample project, including a way to invoke CMake from :file:`setup.py` for PyPI integration, can be found in the [cmake_example]_ repository. .. [cmake_example] https://github.com/pybind/cmake_example pybind11_add_module ------------------- To ease the creation of Python extension modules, pybind11 provides a CMake function with the following signature: .. code-block:: cmake pybind11_add_module( [MODULE | SHARED] [EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL] [NO_EXTRAS] [THIN_LTO] source1 [source2 ...]) This function behaves very much like CMake's builtin ``add_library`` (in fact, it's a wrapper function around that command). It will add a library target called ```` to be built from the listed source files. In addition, it will take care of all the Python-specific compiler and linker flags as well as the OS- and Python-version-specific file extension. The produced target ```` can be further manipulated with regular CMake commands. ``MODULE`` or ``SHARED`` may be given to specify the type of library. If no type is given, ``MODULE`` is used by default which ensures the creation of a Python-exclusive module. Specifying ``SHARED`` will create a more traditional dynamic library which can also be linked from elsewhere. ``EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL`` removes this target from the default build (see CMake docs for details). Since pybind11 is a template library, ``pybind11_add_module`` adds compiler flags to ensure high quality code generation without bloat arising from long symbol names and duplication of code in different translation units. It sets default visibility to *hidden*, which is required for some pybind11 features and functionality when attempting to load multiple pybind11 modules compiled under different pybind11 versions. It also adds additional flags enabling LTO (Link Time Optimization) and strip unneeded symbols. See the :ref:`FAQ entry ` for a more detailed explanation. These latter optimizations are never applied in ``Debug`` mode. If ``NO_EXTRAS`` is given, they will always be disabled, even in ``Release`` mode. However, this will result in code bloat and is generally not recommended. As stated above, LTO is enabled by default. Some newer compilers also support different flavors of LTO such as `ThinLTO`_. Setting ``THIN_LTO`` will cause the function to prefer this flavor if available. The function falls back to regular LTO if ``-flto=thin`` is not available. .. _ThinLTO: http://clang.llvm.org/docs/ThinLTO.html Configuration variables ----------------------- By default, pybind11 will compile modules with the compiler default or the minimum standard required by pybind11, whichever is higher. You can set the standard explicitly with `CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD `_: .. code-block:: cmake set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 14) # or 11, 14, 17, 20 set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON) # optional, ensure standard is supported set(CMAKE_CXX_EXTENSIONS OFF) # optional, keep compiler extensionsn off The variables can also be set when calling CMake from the command line using the ``-D=`` flag. You can also manually set ``CXX_STANDARD`` on a target or use ``target_compile_features`` on your targets - anything that CMake supports. The target Python version can be selected by setting ``PYBIND11_PYTHON_VERSION`` or an exact Python installation can be specified with ``PYTHON_EXECUTABLE``. For example: .. code-block:: bash cmake -DPYBIND11_PYTHON_VERSION=3.6 .. # Another method: cmake -DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE=/path/to/python .. # This often is a good way to get the current Python, works in environments: cmake -DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE=$(python3 -c "import sys; print(sys.executable)") .. find_package vs. add_subdirectory --------------------------------- For CMake-based projects that don't include the pybind11 repository internally, an external installation can be detected through ``find_package(pybind11)``. See the `Config file`_ docstring for details of relevant CMake variables. .. code-block:: cmake cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.7) project(example) find_package(pybind11 REQUIRED) pybind11_add_module(example example.cpp) Note that ``find_package(pybind11)`` will only work correctly if pybind11 has been correctly installed on the system, e. g. after downloading or cloning the pybind11 repository : .. code-block:: bash # Classic CMake cd pybind11 mkdir build cd build cmake .. make install # CMake 3.15+ cd pybind11 cmake -S . -B build cmake --build build -j 2 # Build on 2 cores cmake --install build Once detected, the aforementioned ``pybind11_add_module`` can be employed as before. The function usage and configuration variables are identical no matter if pybind11 is added as a subdirectory or found as an installed package. You can refer to the same [cmake_example]_ repository for a full sample project -- just swap out ``add_subdirectory`` for ``find_package``. .. _Config file: https://github.com/pybind/pybind11/blob/master/tools/pybind11Config.cmake.in Advanced: interface library target ---------------------------------- When using a version of CMake greater than 3.0, pybind11 can additionally be used as a special *interface library* . The target ``pybind11::module`` is available with pybind11 headers, Python headers and libraries as needed, and C++ compile features attached. This target is suitable for linking to an independently constructed (through ``add_library``, not ``pybind11_add_module``) target in the consuming project. .. code-block:: cmake cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.7) project(example) find_package(pybind11 REQUIRED) # or add_subdirectory(pybind11) add_library(example MODULE main.cpp) target_link_libraries(example PRIVATE pybind11::module) set_target_properties(example PROPERTIES PREFIX "${PYTHON_MODULE_PREFIX}" SUFFIX "${PYTHON_MODULE_EXTENSION}") .. warning:: Since pybind11 is a metatemplate library, it is crucial that certain compiler flags are provided to ensure high quality code generation. In contrast to the ``pybind11_add_module()`` command, the CMake interface library only provides the *minimal* set of parameters to ensure that the code using pybind11 compiles, but it does **not** pass these extra compiler flags (i.e. this is up to you). These include Link Time Optimization (``-flto`` on GCC/Clang/ICPC, ``/GL`` and ``/LTCG`` on Visual Studio) and .OBJ files with many sections on Visual Studio (``/bigobj``). The :ref:`FAQ ` contains an explanation on why these are needed. If you want to add these in yourself, you can use: .. code-block:: cmake set(CMAKE_CXX_VISIBILITY_PRESET hidden) set(CMAKE_VISIBILITY_INLINES_HIDDEN ON) set(CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION ON) # CMake 3.9+ required or set the corresponding property (without the ``CMAKE_``) on the targets manually. Embedding the Python interpreter -------------------------------- In addition to extension modules, pybind11 also supports embedding Python into a C++ executable or library. In CMake, simply link with the ``pybind11::embed`` target. It provides everything needed to get the interpreter running. The Python headers and libraries are attached to the target. Unlike ``pybind11::module``, there is no need to manually set any additional properties here. For more information about usage in C++, see :doc:`/advanced/embedding`. .. code-block:: cmake cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.7) project(example) find_package(pybind11 REQUIRED) # or add_subdirectory(pybind11) add_executable(example main.cpp) target_link_libraries(example PRIVATE pybind11::embed) .. _building_manually: Building manually ================= pybind11 is a header-only library, hence it is not necessary to link against any special libraries and there are no intermediate (magic) translation steps. On Linux, you can compile an example such as the one given in :ref:`simple_example` using the following command: .. code-block:: bash $ c++ -O3 -Wall -shared -std=c++11 -fPIC `python3 -m pybind11 --includes` example.cpp -o example`python3-config --extension-suffix` The flags given here assume that you're using Python 3. For Python 2, just change the executable appropriately (to ``python`` or ``python2``). The ``python3 -m pybind11 --includes`` command fetches the include paths for both pybind11 and Python headers. This assumes that pybind11 has been installed using ``pip`` or ``conda``. If it hasn't, you can also manually specify ``-I /include`` together with the Python includes path ``python3-config --includes``. Note that Python 2.7 modules don't use a special suffix, so you should simply use ``example.so`` instead of ``example`python3-config --extension-suffix```. Besides, the ``--extension-suffix`` option may or may not be available, depending on the distribution; in the latter case, the module extension can be manually set to ``.so``. On Mac OS: the build command is almost the same but it also requires passing the ``-undefined dynamic_lookup`` flag so as to ignore missing symbols when building the module: .. code-block:: bash $ c++ -O3 -Wall -shared -std=c++11 -undefined dynamic_lookup `python3 -m pybind11 --includes` example.cpp -o example`python3-config --extension-suffix` In general, it is advisable to include several additional build parameters that can considerably reduce the size of the created binary. Refer to section :ref:`cmake` for a detailed example of a suitable cross-platform CMake-based build system that works on all platforms including Windows. .. note:: On Linux and macOS, it's better to (intentionally) not link against ``libpython``. The symbols will be resolved when the extension library is loaded into a Python binary. This is preferable because you might have several different installations of a given Python version (e.g. the system-provided Python, and one that ships with a piece of commercial software). In this way, the plugin will work with both versions, instead of possibly importing a second Python library into a process that already contains one (which will lead to a segfault). Generating binding code automatically ===================================== The ``Binder`` project is a tool for automatic generation of pybind11 binding code by introspecting existing C++ codebases using LLVM/Clang. See the [binder]_ documentation for details. .. [binder] http://cppbinder.readthedocs.io/en/latest/about.html [AutoWIG]_ is a Python library that wraps automatically compiled libraries into high-level languages. It parses C++ code using LLVM/Clang technologies and generates the wrappers using the Mako templating engine. The approach is automatic, extensible, and applies to very complex C++ libraries, composed of thousands of classes or incorporating modern meta-programming constructs. .. [AutoWIG] https://github.com/StatisKit/AutoWIG