Programming in Python

Calling C inside Python

0. Create the C code, CODE.c, and the header, CODE.h, files
1. Compile C code. This can be done two ways:
   • Compile .o then compile the shared object, .so, file: bash gcc -c -fPIC CODE_FILE.c -o CODE_FILE.o && \ gcc CODE_FILE.o -shared -o SHARED_OBJECT.so
   • Compile only the shared object, .so, file: bash gcc -shared -o SHARED_OBJECT.so -fPIC CODE_FILE.c
2. Import ctypes in python: python from ctypes import *
3. Import the C function from the shared object file: python C_FUNCTIONS = CDLL('./SHARED_OBJECT.so')
4. Calling functions within python: python C_FUNCTIONS.functionName(arg1, arg2, ...)