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ctypeslib(1) User Commands ctypeslib(1)

NAME

h2xml - convert header files to XML intermediates
 
xml2py - convert XML intermediates to Python ctypes interface
 
 

SYNOPSIS

h2xml includefile ... [options] -o outputxmlfile
 
xml2py xmlfile ... [options] -o outputpyfile
 

DESCRIPTION

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.
 
 
 

OPTIONS

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)
 
 
 
 
 

EXAMPLES

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

SEE ALSO

/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
 
 
 

AUTHOR

ctypeslib was written by Thomas Heller <theller@ctypes.org>.
This manual page was written by Richard Darst <rkd@zgib.net>, for the Debian project (and may be used by others).
March 2010 ctypeslib