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

David Abrahams dave at boost-consulting.com
Fri Jul 8 07:49:23 CEST 2005

"Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> writes:

David Abrahams wrote:

configure thinks that using CXX for linking is necessary if compiling a program using CXX and linking it using CC fails.

That might be the right thing to do for some programs, but AFAICT that's the wrong logic to use for Python. Why do you say that? Python compiles Modules/ccpython.cc as the main function, using the C++ compiler, and then tries to link it somehow. On some systems (including some Linux installations), linking will fail if linking is done using gcc (instead of g++). So we must link using g++, or else it won't link at all.

This is starting to feel tautological, or self-referential, or something. If by ccpython.cc you mean http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/checkout/python/python/dist/src/Modules/ccpython.cc well of course linking will fail. You have to compile that file as C++ program since it uses

extern "C"

which is only legal in C++ . But AFAICT, in a normal build of the Python executable, there's no reason at all for main to be a C++ function in the first place.

Unless, of course, I'm missing something. So if I am missing something, what is it?

-- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting www.boost-consulting.com

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