cppy3

Embed Python 3 into your C++ app in 10 minutes

Minimalistic library for embedding CPython 3.x scripting language into C++ application

Lightweight simple and clean alternative to heavy boost.python. No additional dependencies. Crossplatform -- Linux, Windows platforms are supported.

cppy3 is sutable for embedding Python in C++ application while boost.python is evolved around extending Python with C++ module and it's embedding capabilities are somehow limited for now.

Features

Inject variables from C++ code into Python
Extract variables from Python to C++ layer
Reference-counted smart pointer wrapper for PyObject*
Manage Python init/shutdown with 1 line of code
Manage GIL with scoped lock/unlock guards
Forward exceptions (throw in Python, catch in C++ layer)
Nice C++ abstractions for Python native types list, dict and numpy.ndarray
Support Numpy ndarray via tiny C++ wrappers
Example interactive python console in 10 lines of code

Features examples code snippets from tests.cpp

Inject/extract variables C++ -> Python -> C++

// create interpreter
cppy3::PythonVM instance;

// inject
cppy3::Main().injectVar<int>("a", 2);
cppy3::Main().injectVar<int>("b", 2);
cppy3::exec("assert a + b == 4");
cppy3::exec("print('sum is', a + b)");

// extract
const cppy3::Var sum = cppy3::eval("a + b");
assert(sum.type() == cppy3::Var::LONG);
assert(sum.toLong() == 4);
assert(sum.toString() == L"4");

Forward exceptions Python -> C++

// create interpreter
cppy3::PythonVM instance;

try {

  // throw excepton in python
  cppy3::exec("raise Exception('test-exception')");
  assert(false && "not supposed to be here");

} catch (const cppy3::PythonException& e) {

  // catch in c++
  assert(e.info.type == L"<class 'Exception'>");
  assert(e.info.reason == L"test-exception");
  assert(e.info.trace.size() > 0);
  assert(std::string(e.what()).size() > 0);

}

Support numpy ndarray

// create interpreter
cppy3::PythonVM instance;
cppy3::importNumpy();

// create numpy ndarray in C
double cData[2] = {3.14, 42};

// create copy
cppy3::NDArray<double> a(cData, 2, 1);

// wrap cData without copying
cppy3::NDArray<double> b;
b.wrap(data, 2, 1);

REQUIRE(a(1, 0) == cData[1]);
REQUIRE(b(1, 0) == cData[1]);

// inject into python __main__ namespace
cppy3::Main().inject("a", a);
cppy3::Main().inject("b", b);
cppy3::exec("import numpy");
cppy3::exec("assert numpy.all(a == b), 'expect cData'");

// modify b from python (b is a shared ndarray over cData)
cppy3::exec("b[0] = 100500");
assert(b(0, 0) == 100500);
assert(cData[0] == 100500);

Dependencies

C++11 compatible compiler (GCC 5+, MSVC, Intel C++, Clang)
CMake (3+, build only)
python3-dev package (build only)
python3-numpy package (optional, build only)

Build dependencies

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install cmake g++ python3-dev

Numpy is very much desired but optional

sudo apt-get install python3-numpy

Windows

TODO

Build

Testdrive

cd cppy3 && mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. && make && ./tests

Release build

cd cppy3 && mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
cmake --build .

Build example interactive python console

cd cppy3 && mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. && make && ./console

License

MIT License. Feel free to use

dgerod / cppy3