pythonxcodemacososx-snow-leopardheader-files

Python.h header file missing on Mac OS X 10.6

I'm trying to access a shared C library in Python with ctypes on Mac OS X 10.6.8 with Python 2.7.4. To do this, I need to #include <Python.h> in my C code. If I try to compile a C script that only has that one include statement in it, call it "sample.c", I get: 

$ gcc -shared -o sample.so sample.c
sample.c:1:20: error: Python.h: No such file or directory

Since I'm running Mac 10.6, I have Xcode 3.2.6, the latest version available on this iteration of OS X without paying to upgrade to 10.7 and getting Xcode 4. Is there a way to get the Python header file without upgrading my OS?

Solution

  • Python is a framework on Mac OS X so you need to,

    #include <Python/Python.h>

    You also need to call gcc with the -framework argument to actually do anything inside C,

    gcc -shared -o sample.so sample.c -framework Python