python-zig-extension-example

Example on how to build and test a Python extension written in Zig. This example uses translate-c/@cImport and zig-python build plugin to automatically link Python library and generate bindings.

Tested with Zig version 0.14.0. CI is run for Linux, Windows and macOS.

Usage

You can simply install Python extension as a regular shared library:

$ zig build

However, you won't be able to run test.py straight after that. CPython expects certain filename format which is not the same as Zig defaults for shared libraries:

• module.so on Linux systems (instead of libmodule.so)
• same on MacOS (instead of .dylib)
• module.pyd on Windows (instead of .dll)

You can copy them to your current dir or PYTHONPATH in a similar maner (adjust for your OS) and then run python test.py:

$ cp zig-out/lib/libmodule_name.so ./module_name.so
$ python test.py
// Or:
$ cp zig-out/lib/libmodule_name.so zig-out/lib/module_name.so
$ PYTHONPATH="zig-out/lib/" python test.py

To simplify this, build.zig has test step defined for you:

$ zig build test

Licenses

This project is REUSE-compliant, text of licenses can be found in LICENSES directory. Short overview:

• Code is licensed under 0BSD.
• This README and CI files are licensed under CC0-1.0.

Comparison of used licenses.