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Synopsis

zugbruecke is an EXPERIMENTAL Python module (currently in development status 3/alpha). It allows to call routines in Windows DLLs from Python code running on Unices / Unix-like systems such as Linux, MacOS or BSD. zugbruecke is designed as a drop-in replacement for Python's standard library's ctypes module. zugbruecke is built on top of Wine. A stand-alone Windows Python interpreter launched in the background is used to execute the called DLL routines. Communication between the Unix-side and the Windows/Wine-side is based on Python's build-in multiprocessing connection capability. zugbruecke has (limited) support for pointers, struct types and call-back functions. zugbruecke comes with extensive logging features allowing to debug problems associated with both itself and with Wine. zugbruecke is written using Python 3 syntax and primarily targets the CPython implementation of Python.

About Wine (from winehq.org_): Wine (originally an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, MacOS and BSD. Instead of simulating internal Windows logic like a virtual machine or emulator, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly, eliminating the performance and memory penalties of other methods and allowing you to cleanly integrate Windows applications into your desktop.

This project is NEITHER associated NOR affiliated in any way or form with the Wine project.

.. _winehq.org: https://www.winehq.org/

Prerequisites

+--------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | for usage + - CPython_ 3.x (tested with 3.{4,5,6,7}) - no additional Python packages required + | + - Wine_ 2.x/3.x/4.x (tested with regular & staging) - expected to be in the user's PATH + +--------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | for tests + - pytest_ + | + - mingw cross-compiler_ - for building DLLs against which examples and tests can be run + +--------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | for documentation + - Sphinx_ + +--------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

.. _CPython: https://www.python.org/ .. _Wine: https://www.winehq.org/ .. _staging: https://wine-staging.com/ .. PATH: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH(variable) .. _pytest: https://www.pytest.org/ .. _mingw cross-compiler: http://mxe.cc .. _Sphinx: http://www.sphinx-doc.org/

Installation

+--------------------+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------+ | branch + status + installation + documentation + +--------------------+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------+ | master (release) + |build_master| + pip install zugbruecke + |docs_master| + +--------------------+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------+ | develop + |build_develop| + pip install git+https://github.com/pleiszenburg/zugbruecke.git@develop + |docs_develop| + +--------------------+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------+

Examples

Start an interactive Python session on your favorite Unix(-like) operating system and try the following:

.. code:: python

import zugbruecke as ctypes
dll_pow = ctypes.cdll.msvcrt.pow
dll_pow.argtypes = (ctypes.c_double, ctypes.c_double)
dll_pow.restype = ctypes.c_double
print('You should expect "1024.0" to show up here: "%.1f".' % dll_pow(2.0, 10.0))

You have just witnessed msvcrt.dll, Microsoft's C standard library (or Wine's implementation of it), in action on Unix.

Interested in more?

• Check the examples_ in zugbruecke's documentation,
• Read ctypes' documentation_,
• Beyond ctypes syntax, learn about memory synchronization_ with the memsync routine attribute [or]
• Have a look at zugbruecke's test suite_ showcasing its entire range of capabilities.

A lot of code, which was written with ctypes' cdll, windll or oledll in mind and which runs under Windows, should run just fine with zugbruecke on Unix (assuming it does not use Windows features not supported by Wine). For more complex calls, memory synchronization_ is potentially necessary.

.. _examples: http://zugbruecke.readthedocs.io/en/stable/examples.html .. _ctypes' documentation: https://docs.python.org/3/library/ctypes.html .. _test suite: https://github.com/pleiszenburg/zugbruecke/tree/master/tests .. _memory synchronization: http://zugbruecke.readthedocs.io/en/latest/memsync.html

Speed

zugbruecke performs reasonably well given its complexity with less than 0.2 µs overhead per call in average on modern hardware. It is not (yet) optimized for speed. Check the latest benchmarks_ for more details.

.. _benchmarks: http://zugbruecke.readthedocs.io/en/stable/benchmarks.html

Security

zugbruecke is notoriously insecure. Never, ever, run it with root / super users privileges! Do not use it where security matters! For details, check the section on security_ in the documentation.

.. _security: http://zugbruecke.readthedocs.io/en/stable/security.html

Need help?

Feel free to post questions in the GitHub issue tracker_ of this project.

.. _question: https://github.com/pleiszenburg/zugbruecke/labels/question

Bugs & issues

• Report bugs in zugbruecke here: GitHub issue tracker_
• Report bugs in ctypes here: Python tracker_
• Report bugs in Wine here: WineHQ Bug Tracking System_

Make sure you have read the chapter on bugs_ in zugbruecke's documentation.

.. _GitHub issue tracker: https://github.com/pleiszenburg/zugbruecke/issues .. _Python tracker: https://bugs.python.org/ .. _WineHQ Bug Tracking System: https://bugs.winehq.org/ .. _bugs: http://zugbruecke.readthedocs.io/en/stable/bugs.html

Miscellaneous

• Full project documentation

  • at Read the Docs_
  • at zugbruecke repository_

• Authors_

• Change log (current)_ (changes in development branch since last release)

• Change log (past)_ (release history)

• Contributing_ (Contributions are highly welcomed!)

• FAQ_

• License_ (LGPL v2.1)

• Long-term ideas_

• Missing features_ (for full ctypes compatibility)

• Upstream issues_ (relevant bugs in dependencies)

.. _Read the Docs: http://zugbruecke.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ .. _zugbruecke repository: https://github.com/pleiszenburg/zugbruecke/blob/master/docs/index.rst .. _License: https://github.com/pleiszenburg/zugbruecke/blob/master/LICENSE .. _Contributing: https://github.com/pleiszenburg/zugbruecke/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.rst .. _FAQ: http://zugbruecke.readthedocs.io/en/stable/faq.html .. _Authors: https://github.com/pleiszenburg/zugbruecke/blob/master/AUTHORS.rst .. _Change log (past): https://github.com/pleiszenburg/zugbruecke/blob/master/CHANGES.rst .. _Change log (current): https://github.com/pleiszenburg/zugbruecke/blob/develop/CHANGES.rst .. _Missing features: https://github.com/pleiszenburg/zugbruecke/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22missing+ctypes+feature%22 .. _Long-term ideas: https://github.com/pleiszenburg/zugbruecke/milestone/2 .. _Upstream issues: https://github.com/pleiszenburg/zugbruecke/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Aupstream

For production environments

DO NOT run this code (as-is) in production environments unless you feel that you really know what you are doing or unless you are absolutely desperate! Being experimental in nature and of alpha quality, it is prone to fail in a number of unpredictable ways, some of which might not be obvious or might not even show any (intermediately) recognizable symptoms at all! You might end up with plain wrong, nonsensical results without noticing it!