Source build failure for UHD 4.5.0.0 on Windows when enabling Python API

[icyveins7]

Issue Description

When enabling Python API during the source build, the post-build event trigger fails to properly build/copy the Python API files & libraries.

2>Including packages in pyuhd: []
2>E:\Python\Python311\envs\main\Lib\site-packages\setuptools\_distutils\cmd.py:66: SetuptoolsDeprecationWarning: setup.py install is deprecated.
2>!!
2>
2>        ********************************************************************************
2>        Please avoid running ``setup.py`` directly.
2>        Instead, use pypa/build, pypa/installer or other
2>        standards-based tools.
2>
2>        See https://blog.ganssle.io/articles/2021/10/setup-py-deprecated.html for details.
2>        ********************************************************************************
2>
2>!!
2>  self.initialize_options()
2>E:\Python\Python311\envs\main\Lib\site-packages\setuptools\_distutils\cmd.py:66: EasyInstallDeprecationWarning: easy_install command is deprecated.
2>!!
2>
2>        ********************************************************************************
2>        Please avoid running ``setup.py`` and ``easy_install``.
2>        Instead, use pypa/build, pypa/installer or other
2>        standards-based tools.
2>
2>        See https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/issues/917 for details.
2>        ********************************************************************************
2>
2>!!
2>  self.initialize_options()
2>EXEC : warning : install_lib: 'build\lib' does not exist -- no Python modules to install
2>Done building project "INSTALL.vcxproj".
========== Build: 2 succeeded, 0 failed, 139 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========
========== Build started at 5:51 pm and took 01.433 seconds ==========

Note that the build is considered to have succeeded, but no UHD related .py files / libraries will actually be installed.

Setup Details

Source for 4.5.0.0 downloaded directly from 'Releases' page. CMake 3.27.7 Python 3.11 (Virtual environment) Visual Studio 2022 Windows 10

Expected Behavior

UHD python libraries are installed properly into the virtual environment (or somewhere at least).

Actual Behaviour

Error manifests as only a warning as above. See Additional Information for my hotfix.

Steps to reproduce the problem

Source for 4.5.0.0 downloaded directly from 'Releases' page. Build with Python API enabled.

Additional Information

The fix in this case was to simply run the post-build event myself. As seen in host\build\python\cmake_install.cmake, which is run as part of the post-build event, it tries to do

E:/Python/Python311/envs/main/Scripts/python.exe E:/uhd-4.5.0.0/host/build/python/setup.py -q install --force

The outermost INSTALL.vcxproj attempts to do this from the outermost host\build folder. I stepped into the host\build\python folder (where there is a build\lib folder containing the .py files & libs), and then ran the above command again. This worked and successfully wrote a uhd folder into my E:\Python\Python311\envs\main\Lib\site-packages\uhd-4.5.0-py3.11.egg folder.

I suspect the outermost INSTALL.vcxproj is not correctly stepping down into the subfolder before running the command. However, this doesn't fix everything. Attempts to import uhd are met with

ImportError: cannot import name 'libpyuhd' from partially initialized module 'uhd' (most likely due to a circular import) (E:\Python\Python311\envs\main\Lib\site-packages\uhd-4.5.0-py3.11.egg\uhd\__init__.py)

The fix for this was to manually copy host\build\python\uhd\libpyuhd.pyd into my E:\Python\Python311\envs\main\Lib\site-packages\uhd-4.5.0-py3.11.egg folder. I am not sure what went wrong along the builds for this to not have been copied into the host\build\python\build\lib\uhd folder like the rest of the .py files.

Then the consequent error from import uhd became

ImportError: DLL load failed while importing libpyuhd: The specified module could not be found.

which is solved on Windows by doing the standard

os.add_dll_directory("path\to\install\bin")

where my uhd.dll file is.

1. Need a fix to properly move the .pyd file.
2. Need a fix to properly run the setup.py file in the python subfolder so that it actually installs to site-packages. I suggest also reworking the build to no longer use setup.py install as it is already deprecated.

[lokkelvin2]

I am facing a similar issue in UHD 4.6.0.0-166-g041eef34, Windows 10, Python 3.10.

The libpyuhd.pyd isn't copied into site-packages because setup.py expects a Unix *.so file and not a windows *.pyd file.

https://github.com/EttusResearch/uhd/blob/041eef3472e0440730708053d47b1fb7b793c682/host/python/setup.py.in#L31-L35

My workaround is to change line 32 from 'uhd': ['*.so'], to 'uhd': ['*.so', '../path/to/Release/libpyuhd.pyd'], so that libpyuhd.pyd is installed into site-packages.