ctypeslib (1)

h2xml includefile ... [options] -o outputxmlfile

xml2py xmlfile ... [options] -o outputpyfile

ctypeslib is a Python code generator capable of converting C header files into xml files (using gccxml), and then converting the xmlfiles into Python modules which define a ctypes interface to the corresponding C library.

Ctypeslib is not ctypes. Ctypes is included in Python 2.5+ and as an add-on for lower versions, while ctypeslib is a lesser known add-on written by the ctypes author. If you use ctypes a lot and are tired of setting argtypes and restype of the called functions, you should look into ctypeslib. Ctypeslib can also set up data types and structures from C header files automatically.

h2xml and xml2py are the user interface scripts to ctypeslib. h2xml converts C header files into xml intermediates (using gccxml) and xml2py converts these intermediates to Python files. At the minimum, you can get automatic construction of the C types (structures, etc) in ctypes definitions. With extra options, macro definitions can be expanded and the output Python file can be automatically linked (using ctypes) to the corresponding C library.

The briefest example is:

h2xml header.h -o out_c.xml

xml2py out_c.xml -o out_c.py

To obtain preprocessor symbols, you must use the -c flag to h2xml. To automatically link to C libraries via ctypes, you muss pass the relevant libraries to xml2py with -l library.so.

h2xml options:

-h, --help

show brief help message -q, --quiet

-D NAME[=VALUE]

macros to define

-U NAME

macros to undefine

-I DIRECTORY

additional include directories

-o XMLFILE

XML output filename

-c, --cpp-symbols

try to find #define symbols - this may give compiler errors, so it's off by default.

-k

don't delete the temporary files created (useful for finding problems)

xml2py options:

-h, --help

show this help message and exit

-c

include source file location in comments

-d

include docstrings containing C prototype and source file location

-k TYPEKIND

kind of type descriptions to include: d = #defines, e = enumerations, f = functions, s = structures, t = typedefs

-l DLLS

libraries to search for exported functions

-o OUTPUT

output filename (if not specified, standard output will be used)

-r EXPRESSION

regular expression for symbols to include (if neither symbols nor expressions are specified,everything will be included)

-s SYMBOL

symbol to include (if neither symbols nor expressions are specified,everything will be included)

-v

verbose output

-w

add all standard windows dlls to the searched dlls list

-m module

Python module(s) containing symbols which will be imported instead of generated

--preload=DLL

dlls to be loaded before all others (to resolve symbols)

Please see /usr/share/doc/python-ctypeslib/examples.Debian for examples and explanation.

/usr/share/doc/python-ctypeslib/examples.Debian contains a brief tutorial on some key features

Python docstrings (pydoc ctypeslib)

Ctypeslib upstream is http://python.net/crew/theller/ctypes/ (see "Related Projects").

For ctypes information, see http://docs.python.org/library/ctypes.html

ctypeslib was written by Thomas Heller <[email protected]>.

This manual page was written by Richard Darst <[email protected]>, for the Debian project (and may be used by others).