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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-13T08:34:28+00:00

I have a problem with python-config –ldflags on OS X 10.6.2. Using my non-system

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I have a problem with python-config --ldflags on OS X 10.6.2.

Using my non-system python.org python install:

robin-mbp:~ robince$ which python
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/bin/python
robin-mbp:~ robince$ python-config --ldflags
-L/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/config -ldl -lpython2.5

But if I build a c program embedding Python with the above LDFLAGS, it results in the system python being embedded. It seems -lpython2.5 is picking up the system python first, before the one in the -L path.

So far the only way I’ve got it to work is with

LDFLAGS=-F/ -framework Python

but when it comes to distributing I’d really like to be able to use python-config.

What is going on with the library search path that stops it working as expected? According to the man page -L paths should be searched before the default path.

Is there any option along the lines of ‘forget the default search path and search only paths specified with -L’ that I could add to python-config output to get it to work?

Or is there any way to extract the working -framework flags from whichever Python is on the path (that would work for whatever the user is using, ie system, python.org, macports or own built)?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Sorry to answer my own question but I got an amazingly prompt reply on the pythonmac-sig mailing list where I also asked. It is a bug with current python: http://bugs.python.org/issue7541

    Suggested workaround:

    The easiest workaround is to open a
    terminal window and execute the
    following commands:

    cd
    /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/config
    ln -s libpython2.5.a
    libpython2.5.dylib

    This will ensure that the OSX linker
    knows that libpython is a shared
    library and links to this library. By
    default the OSX linker searches for a
    .dylib on the entire linker path and
    only then looks for .a files.

    EDIT: Further update:

    If you can add mac-specific flags in
    your build system you could add
    -Wl,-search_paths_first to LDFLAGS
    on OSX, this ensures that the linker
    looks for both .dylib and .a files in
    a directory on the link path before
    moving to the next directory.

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