Python in a Nutshell

Name

Extension

Synopsis

class Extension(name, sources, **kwds)

name is the module name string for the C-coded extension. name may include dots to indicate that the extension module resides within a package. sources is the list of source files that the distutils must compile and link in order to build the extension. Each item of sources is a string giving a source file’s path relative to the distribution root directory, complete with file extension .c. kwds lets you pass other, optional arguments to Extension, as covered later in this section.

The Extension class also supports other file extensions besides .c, indicating other languages you may use to code Python extensions. On platforms having a C++ compiler, file extension .cpp indicates C++ source files. Other file extensions that may be supported, depending on the platform and on add-ons to the distutils that are still in experimental stages at the time of this writing, include .f for Fortran, .i for SWIG, and .pyx for Pyrex files. See Chapter 24 for information about using different languages to extend Python.

In some cases, your extension needs no further information besides mandatory arguments name and sources. The distutils implicitly perform all that is necessary to make the Python headers directory and the Python library available for your extension’s compilation and linking, and also provide whatever compiler or linker flags or options are needed to build extensions on a given platform.

When it takes additional information ...