C/C++ extensions

The previous chapter and earlier sections in this chapter have already covered the compilation of C/C++ components lightly, but this topic is complicated enough to warrant its own section with more in-depth explanations.

For convenience, we will start with a basic setup.py file that compiles a C extension:

import setuptools

sum_of_squares = setuptools.Extension('sum_of_squares', sources=[
    # Get the relative path to sum_of_squares.c
    str(PROJECT_PATH / 'sum_of_squares.c'),
])

setuptools.setup(
    name='T_04_C_extensions',
    version='0.1.0',
    ext_modules=[sum_of_squares],
)

Before you start with these extensions, you should learn the following setup.py commands:

• build_ext: This command builds the C/C++ extension so it can be used when the package is installed in development/editable mode.
• clean: This cleans the results from the build command. This is generally not...