Question

I am trying to load a dll in python, and can only do so if I enter the absolute path. I would like to use a relative path, or environment variables. The only thing that works is if I specify the exact path (C:…) I even tried to get the dll to build directly in the same folder as the py file, it still didn’t work.
What I have:

MY_DLL = r'c:\full_path\output\Win32\Debug\my.dll'
#MY_DLL = r'my.dll'   #this doesn't work but it is what I want
#MY_DLL = r'$(env_var)\dir\output\$(Platform)\$(Configuration)\my.dll'   #this doesn't work either but would be good too     

Help ?

Answer 1

I don’t know about cdll on windows or really much about ctypes in general, however, you can manipulate paths quite easily using os.path:

import os.path
p1="path.dll"
print (os.path.abspath(p1))
p2="${env_var}/path.dll"  #Make sure you set env_var in the calling environment...Otherwise it won't be expanded...
print (os.path.expandvars(p2))