How to compile C extension for Python 3.7 in Windows - c

Question

I am trying to compile a C file to use in Python. The file is a solver for differential algebric equations (DAE). My problem is that when I compile the setup.py file I receive the erro Cannot open source file: 'daesolver.c': No such file or directory. As the C file is quite complex I tried to do the same thing with a simpler example. I used the HelloWorld example provide by Elliot Forbes in (https://tutorialedge.net/python/python-c-extensions-tutorial/). Even in with this very simple function I receive the same error.
Here is the full output I receive from the build command.
C:\Users\Administrator>python c:\temp\teste_C2py\setup.py build
running build
running build_ext
building 'myModule' extension
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual
Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.16.27023\bin\HostX86\x64\cl.exe /c
/nolog
o /Ox /W3 /GL /DNDEBUG /MD -IC:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\include -
IC:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\include "-IC:\Program Files (x8
6)\Microsoft Visual
Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.16.27023\ATLMFC\include" "-
IC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft
Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.16.27023\include" "-
IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\include\10.0.1
7763.0\ucrt" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
Kits\10\include\10.0.17763.0\shared" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Ki
ts\10\include\10.0.17763.0\um" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
Kits\10\include\10.0.17763.0\winrt" "-IC:\Program Files
(x86)\Windows Kits\10\include\10.0.17763.0\cppwinrt" /Tctest.c
/Fobuild\temp.win-amd64-3.7\Release\test.obj
test.c
c1: fatal error C1083: Cannot open source file: 'test.c': No such file or
directory
error: command 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual
Studio\\2017\\Community\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\14.16.27023\\bin\\Ho
stX86\\x64\\cl.exe' failed with exit status 2
Here is the test.c file
#include <Python.h>
// Function 1: A simple 'hello world' function
static PyObject* helloworld(PyObject* self, PyObject* args)
{
printf("Hello World\n");
return Py_None;
}
// Our Module's Function Definition struct
// We require this `NULL` to signal the end of our method
// definition
static PyMethodDef myMethods[] = {
{ "helloworld", helloworld, METH_NOARGS, "Prints Hello World" },
{ NULL, NULL, 0, NULL }
};
// Our Module Definition struct
static struct PyModuleDef myModule = {
PyModuleDef_HEAD_INIT,
"myModule",
"Test Module",
-1,
myMethods
};
// Initializes our module using our above struct
PyMODINIT_FUNC PyInit_myModule(void)
{
return PyModule_Create(&myModule);
}
and here is the setup.py
from distutils.core import setup, Extension
setup(name = 'myModule', version = '1.0', \
ext_modules = [Extension('myModule', ['test.c'])])
both files are located in the same folder c:\temp\teste_C2py.
I am using Python 3.7 in the Anaconda distribution 64 bits (I also want to do the same for x86).
I have installed in the same environment Visual Studio 2017 (community) with all the compiler for necessary (at least I think so).
The thing that is really strange is that I was made to do that when I installed just vs build tools 2017 in a VM but when I try to replicate the same in another machine it give me this error.
I also mess up the environment where I first made this work and now I am not able to do that again.
I also set up the environment variables VS150COMNTOOLS = C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\Tools
It seems that I am missing somenthing in the Visual Studio configuration because it does not make sense to no find a file that is the same folder.

Answer 1

I found the problem. As it used to be it was a very silly thing. I was trying do run the the setup script from the folder where the python.exe is located (because I have different versions of Python in my machine). But if instead of this I move to the folder where the setup.py file is located and run the coomand without any path befere the setup.py the build works! I don't have any idea why a relative path doesn't work here.
I hope this can help!