PEP 741: Python Configuration C API

PEPs
2

I think this is a good idea and the API looks generally well thought.

I would suggest a few changes:

  • Instead of PyInitConfig_SetStr taking a locale-encoded string, I would suggest PyInitConfig_SetUtf8 taking a UTF8 string (probably the preferred choice for most people?) and PyInitConfig_SetLocaleStr taking a locale-encoded string;
  • PyInitConfig_Exception would probably be less confusingly named PyInitConfig_HasError (we aren’t talking about proper Python exceptions, are we?);
  • PyInitConfig_GetError could probably return a const char* directly, rather than have a separate int return code that only duplicates the information.

Also, I do not understand what a config exit code is.

I’m not sure the allow_custom_options special config entry is really useful. Instead, you could arrange that values starting with some well-known prefix such as X- or vendor. are freely accepted.

Finally, it seems that PyConfig_Get and PyConfig_GetInt will only work if interpreter initialization was successful, since they set an exception on error? This means it’s not possible to inspect the current configuration while building it.

2 Likes
PEP 741: Python Configuration C API (second version)