Can Cython Interface with C DLLs?

[Jonathan Buck]

Does Cython provide an interface to external C DLLs? Examples abound for linking Cython to C via C *.h header files, but I can't find much in the way of C DLLs. In a nutshell, I want to make use of a dll someone has create to leverage a large amount of numerical calculations. 

Suppose I do this:

# hello.c

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
  printf ("Hello World!\n");
}  

gcc-c hello.c

1. Gcc –shared –o hello.dll hello.o

Now I've got a dll...but it's not clear to me how to utilize in Python via Cython. I've seen a couple examples to do this leveraging ctypes, but my understanding is that's more dangerous and requires more manual intervention. 

[Robert Bradshaw]

Yes, see http://docs.cython.org/src/tutorial/clibraries.html . You'll
have to list your 'hello' library in the libraries section of your
setup.py.

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[Chris Barker]

On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 5:08 PM, Robert Bradshaw <robe...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes, see http://docs.cython.org/src/tutorial/clibraries.html . You'll
have to list your 'hello' library in the libraries section of your
setup.py.

It's on that page, but to be clear here -- you will also need to put Cython declarations in for anything you want to call from the dll. This is exactly the same as if you are calling code you compile in yourself (i.e. you need the C *.h for the dll)-- the only difference is how it is linked.

-CHB

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