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PyBind11: simple invoke task, standard C++ library not found

i am trying to wrap the C++ library PyrochloreAFM.hpp which itself uses the lib boost/randoom.hpp so that i can import it as a python module. The C++ part itself works fine and i can succesfully import and use all of this from my main.
#include "PyrochloreAFM.hpp"
int main (int argc, const char *argv[]) {
PyrochloreAFM pyrochloreAFM (&parameters, &statistics, &rng);
}
Now following a tutorial i set up my c++ wrapper:
// pybind11_wrapper.cpp
#include <pybind11/pybind11.h>
#include <PyrochloreAFM.hpp>
PYBIND11_MODULE(pybind11_example, m) {
m.doc() = "pybind11 example plugin"; // Optional module docstring
m.def("cpp_function", &PyrochloreAFM, "A function that multiplies two numbers");
}
and my tasks.py file
# tasks.py
import invoke
invoke.run(
"g++ -O3 -Wall -Werror -shared -std=c++11 -fPIC PyrochloreAFM.cpp "
"-o libpyro.so "
)
However now $invoke build-PyrochloreAFM or even $invoke --list seem to have lost the track of the standard C++ library.
In file included from PyrochloreAFM.cpp:1:
./Parameters.hpp:16:10: fatal error: 'boost/random.hpp' file not found
#include "boost/random.hpp" // tested with boost 1.53
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 error generated.
This might be a simple PATH problem so i would be very glad for any tips!
Thank you, Andres!

"Of course" the tasks.py file which compiles the .cpp file through the python module invoke has to instruct the compiler g++ to use the libraries we desire. In my case it is the flag -I /opt/homebrew/Cellar/boost/1.80.0/include i also use in my makefile or directly in terminal.

Problem with interface Python and Cpp with OpenCV and Cuda

I'm facing an issue while interfacing python and cpp. I need to compute an optical flow with the GPU. To do so, I'm using the tvl1 algorithm with opencv on with cpp and cuda.
My cpp code is working well with GPU and I now want to call the function in my python code because there isn't a way to compute optical flow on GPU with this algo on Python.
I'm using ctypes to make the link beetwin cpp and python. Here are my codes :
python
from ctypes import cdll
opencvfunc = cdll.LoadLibrary('opt_flow_lib/test.so')
cpp
//test.cpp
#define DLLEXPORT extern "C"
#include "opencv2/xfeatures2d.hpp"
#include "opencv2/cudaarithm.hpp"
#include "opencv2/cudaoptflow.hpp"
#include "opencv2/cudacodec.hpp"
#include "opencv2/video/tracking.hpp"
#include "opencv2/imgproc/imgproc.hpp"
#include "opencv2/highgui/highgui.hpp"
#include "opencv2/core/mat.hpp"
using namespace cv::cuda;
using namespace cv;
DLLEXPORT int tvl(int a, int b) {
int bound = 20;
Size new_size(224, 224);
Mat curr_gray, prev_gray, prev_image, curr_image;
Mat flow_x, flow_y;
GpuMat d_frame_0, d_frame_1;
GpuMat d_flow;
cv::Ptr<cuda::OpticalFlowDual_TVL1> alg_tvl1 =
cuda::OpticalFlowDual_TVL1::create();
return 3;
}
Here is how I build my cpp file :
gcc -o test.so -shared -fPIC test.cpp `pkg-config opencv --cflags --libs`
Here is what I have when I launch my python code :
OSError: opt_flow_lib/test.so: undefined symbol: _ZN2cv4cuda20OpticalFlowDual_TVL16createEdddiididdb
When I remove this line from cpp :
cv::Ptr<cuda::OpticalFlowDual_TVL1> alg_tvl1 =
cuda::OpticalFlowDual_TVL1::create();
Everything is going ok, I have my 3 int returned. But it seems that cuda doesn't want to do its job
Is someone who had ever turned opencv with cuda with ctypes and cpp/python could hepl me ?
Thanks you
EDIT :
Maybe it could be interesting to have my $ pkg-config opencv --cflags --libs :
-I/usr/local/include/opencv4/opencv2 -I/usr/local/include/opencv4 -L/usr/local/lib -lopencv_core -lopencv_imgproc -lopencv_highgui -lopencv_ml -lopencv_video -lopencv_xfeatures2d -lopencv_calib3d -lopencv_objdetect

BoostPython and CMake

I have successfully followed this example for how to connect C++ and python. It works fine when I use the given Makefile. When I try to use cmake instead, it does not go as well.
C++ Code:
#include <boost/python.hpp>
#include <iostream>
extern "C"
char const* greet()
{
return "hello, world";
}
BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(hello_ext)
{
using namespace boost::python;
def("greet", greet);
}
int main(){
std::cout<<greet()<<std::endl;
return 0;
}
Makefile:
# location of the Python header files
PYTHON_VERSION = 27
PYTHON_DOT_VERSION = 2.7
PYTHON_INCLUDE = /usr/include/python$(PYTHON_DOT_VERSION)
# location of the Boost Python include files and library
BOOST_INC = /usr/include
BOOST_LIB = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
# compile mesh classes
TARGET = hello_ext
$(TARGET).so: $(TARGET).o
g++ -shared -Wl,--export-dynamic $(TARGET).o -L$(BOOST_LIB) -lboost_python-py$(PYTHON_VERSION) -L/usr/lib/python$(PYTHON_DOT_VERSION)/config-x86_64-linux-gnu -lpython$(PYTHON_DOT_VERSION) -o $(TARGET).so
$(TARGET).o: $(TARGET).cpp
g++ -I$(PYTHON_INCLUDE) -I$(BOOST_INC) -fPIC -c $(TARGET).cpp
When I compile this I get a .so file that can be included in the script
import sys
sys.path.append('/home/myname/Code/Trunk/TestBoostPython/build/')
import libhello_ext_lib as hello_ext
print(hello_ext.greet())
I really want to use cmake instead of a manually written Makefile so I wrote this:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.6)
PROJECT(hello_ext)
# Find Boost
find_package(Boost REQUIRED COMPONENTS python-py27)
set(PYTHON_DOT_VERSION 2.7)
set(PYTHON_INCLUDE /usr/include/python2.7)
set(PYTHON_LIBRARY /usr/lib/python2.7/config-x86_64-linux-gnu)
include_directories(${PYTHON_INCLUDE} ${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS})
SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -Wall -lrt -O3")
SET(EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/bin)
SET(LIBNAME hello_ext_lib)
add_library(${LIBNAME} SHARED src/hello_ext.cpp)
add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} src/hello_ext.cpp)
TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(${PROJECT_NAME} ${Boost_LIBRARIES} -lpython2.7 -fPIC)
TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(${LIBNAME} ${Boost_LIBRARIES} -lpython2.7 -fPIC -shared)
Here I currently type the Python-paths by hand but I have also tried using fin_package(PythonLibs) without success.
The program compiles fine and executes when I run the executable file in ../bin/. However, when I run the python script I get always:
ImportError: dynamic module does not define init function (initlibhello_ext_lib)
I found this which says this can happen if the lib and the executable have different names. Which indeed is the case, but how can I obtain the .so with correct name?
I also tried to not compile the executable but only the library. That did also not work.

BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(hello_ext) creates an init function "inithello_ext", which should correspond to a module "hello_ext". But you are trying to import "libhello_ext_lib".
Give the module the same name as the filename. E.g. BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(libhello_ext_lib).

Swig/python : when SWIG_init() is needed?

Hi everyone and thanks for trying to help me !
I encounter trouble when trying to import a python module generated by swig.
I have a basic library "example" containing few methods.
Next to it I have a main program dynamically linked to python.
This program imports the generated module and calls a function in it.
If my library example is a shared one, named _example.so, everything works perfectly, and I can import it in python.
But if my library is static, _example.a, and linked to the main program, then I will have the error "no module named _example was found" unless I add a call to SWIG_init() in the main function.
What exactly does SWIG_init() , and when should I use it ? It seems quite weird to me because it's never said in the documentation to do such a call.
I know that dealing with a .so shared library is better but I try to reproduce the behavior of what I have on a big project at work, so I really have to understand what happens when the module is static.
Here is my main file :
#include "Python.h"
#include <iostream>
#if PY_VERSION_HEX >= 0x03000000
# define SWIG_init PyInit__example
#else
# define SWIG_init init_example
#endif
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C"
#endif
#if PY_VERSION_HEX >= 0x03000000
PyObject*
#else
void
#endif
SWIG_init(void);
int main (int arc, char** argv)
{
Py_Initialize();
SWIG_init(); // needed only using the statically linked version of example ?
PyRun_SimpleString("print \"Hello world from Python !\"");
PyRun_SimpleString("import sys");
PyRun_SimpleString("sys.path.append(\"/path/to/my/module\")");
PyRun_SimpleString("import example");
PyRun_SimpleString("a = example.Example()");
PyRun_SimpleString("print a.fact(5)");
}
Here is how things are generated :
swig -c++ -python example.i
g++ -fpic -c example.cpp example_wrap.cxx -I/include/python2.7 -lstdc++
ar rvs libexample.a example.o example_wrap.o
// to generate dynamic instead of static : g++ -shared example.o example_wrap.o -o _example.so
g++ main.cpp -I/include/python2.7 libexample.a -lstdc++ -L/lib/python -lpython2.7 -o main

What you are calling is the init function of the native python module _example that is loaded by the SWIG generated python wrapper. For python 2 this function is named init_example, and for python 3 it is named PyInit__example.
Every python extension with C or C++ needs such a function, it basically initializes everything and registers the name of the module and all the methods available for it. In your case SWIG has generated this function for you.
The reason you have to call this function yourself when you compiled the library statically is simply that the python wrapper example imports the native module _example which is by the python convention a shared object, which you did not compile, and which is thus not found.
By calling SWIG_init, you "preload" the module, so python does not try to reimport it, so it works even though there is no shared object anywhere on the python module path.
If you have the shared object for your module, python will call this function for you after loading the shared object and you don't have to worry about this.

Building a DLL with MinGW and loading it with Python's ctypes module

I am trying to build a C DLL which can be loaded within python using ctypes.windll.loadlibrary(...)
I can create a DLL and a client program all in C which work following the MinGW tutorial at http://www.mingw.org/wiki/MSVC_and_MinGW_DLLs.
When I try to load the same DLL within python I get an error:
OSError: [WinErrror 193] %1 is not a valid Win32 application
Can someone give me some idea as to what I am doing incorrectly?
Here are the files:
noise_dll.h
#ifndef NOISE_DLL_H
#define NOISE_DLL_H
// declspec will identify which functions are to be exported when
// building the dll and imported when 'including' this header for a client
#ifdef BUILDING_NOISE_DLL
#define NOISE_DLL __declspec(dllexport)
#else
#define NOISE_DLL __declspec(dllimport)
#endif
//this is a test function to see if the dll is working
// __stdcall => use ctypes.windll ...
int __stdcall NOISE_DLL hello(const char *s);
#endif // NOISE_DLL_H
noise_dll.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include "noise_dll.h"
__stdcall int hello(const char *s)
{
printf("Hello %s\n", s);
return 0;
}
I build the DLL with:
gcc -c -D BUILDING_NOISE_DLL noise_dll.c
gcc -shared -o noise_dll.dll noise_dll.o -Wl,--out-implib,libnoise_dll.a
The python code is simply:
import ctypes
my_dll = ctypes.windll.LoadLibrary("noise_dll")
and I get the error above: '%1 is not not a valid Win32 application'
I know the DLL is not completely wrong, because if i create a client file:
noise_client.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include "noise_dll.h"
int main(void)
{
hello("DLL");
return 0;
}
and build with:
gcc -c noise_client.c
gcc -o noise_client.exe noise_client.o -L. -lnoise_dll
I get a working executable. I have some understanding of all of what goes on in the code, options and preprocessor directives above, but am still a little fuzzy on how the .dll file and the .a file are used. I know if I remove the .a file I can still build the client, so I am not even sure what its purpose is. All I know is that it is some kind of archive format for multiple object files
I can ctypes.windll.loadlibrary(...) an ordinary windows DLL found in the windows/system32 without an issue.
One final point:
I am using 64 bit python 3.3. I am using the version of minGW tat comes with the recommended installer (mingw-get-inst-20120426.exe). I am not sure if it is 32 bit, or if that matters.
Thanks!

Use 32-bit python - your DLL probably wasn't compiled as 64 bit code.