[Python-Dev] Linux Python linking with G++? (original) (raw)

Skip Montanaro skip at pobox.com
Thu Jul 7 22:35:39 CEST 2005 

>> I believe it's so that people can link in libraries written in C++
>> and have them initialized properly.

Dave> Can you give specifics?  What do you mean by "link in?"  Do you
Dave> mean "statically link into the Python interpreter," or something
Dave> else?

Probably not. I'm not a C++ guy. My understanding is that global (maybe static?) C++ objects need the help of C++'s version of crt0 to get properly initialized at program start. If there is some library with such objects that happens to get wrapped and dynamically linked into a Python interpreter that was linked with a regular C linker (and thus had a C crt0), that initialization wouldn't happen.

Dave> Boost.Python is a library written in C++ and I've never had
Dave> trouble using it with a Python executable... until I ran into a
Dave> Python that was linked with libstdc++!

Sorry, I can't help. I'm just recounting my remembering of the reasons for C++ linkage. Personally, I avoid C++ as much as I can...

Skip

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