zig-python

zig-python is a lightweight Zig build plugin to help you with linking Python library and making CPython extensions in Zig. It uses python-config, pkg-config and/or import sysconfig (+ plain path search on Windows) to automatically retrieve required include paths and library paths needed to find Python.h and shared library.

By default it skips running other methods if previous resulted in at least one directory/library found.

Tested with Zig version 0.14.0.

Important

This plugin does not (yet?) handle library install and naming as expected by CPython (f.e. module.so instead of default libmodule.so on Linux and module.pyd instead of module.dll on Windows). It is expected that you as a author will handle it by yourself.

Note

See https://github.com/BratishkaErik/python-zig-extension-example for full example of building Python extension in Zig.

Usage

Add dependency to your project:

$ zig fetch --save 'git+https://github.com/BratishkaErik/zig-python#main'

It exposes one public function, link_everything(module, python_version), which you can use to... link everything to your module. Add this to your build.zig:

const main_mod = b.createModule(.{
    .root_source_file = b.path("src/root.zig"),
    .target = target,
    .optimize = optimize,
});
// If you don't care about minor version, pass just "3" here.
@import("zig_python").link_everything(main_mod, "3.11") catch {
    // Handle error if needed
};

Example how to import library in your code:

const c = @cImport({
    @cDefine("PY_SSIZE_T_CLEAN", {});
    @cInclude("Python.h");
});

Well done!

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.