Python/C and PYTHONPATH

[Samuel Walters]

|Thus Spake Tero Pihlajakoski On the now historical date of Mon, 05 Jan
2004 22:39:19 +0000|
> I'll see if it's actually the C-part that's causing problems, but I worked
> it around by adding:
> 
> PyRun_SimpleString("import sys\nsys.path.insert(0,'')");
> 
> right after the Py_Initialize().
> 
> Works ok. Guess I'm "allowed" to do that(?)
IMLK (In My Limited Knowledge) that seems okay, but it also feels a bit
ham-handed.  try this snippet:

---untested code---
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
/* prototyping may not be neccessary... dunno...*/
extern char *getenv(const char *name);
extern char *setenv(const char *name, const char *value, int overwrite);
/* comment them out if gcc complains about redeclarations. */

/* append something to pythonpath */
/* returns 0 on failure, 1 on creation of the env variable and 2 on an append
   oh, and -1 in cases of catastrophic miscompilation */
int myPyPathAppend(char *extrapath)
{
    char *buffer = NULL;
    /* size to taste... You should do this dynamically to avoid future buffer overrun attacks*/
    char eventual_path[1024] = { 0 };
    /* take note: after getenv, buffer points to an external constant character buffer.
       do NOT try to modify it directly.  use strcpy(char *dest, char *src)
       (he says knowingly... is she into photography mate?)
       */
    if( (buffer = getenv("PYTHONPATH")) == NULL )
    {
        /* we're here because PYTHONPATH is not already part of the environment. */
        
        setenv("PYTHONPATH", extrapath, 1); /* the last argument makes sure that we create the env var*/
        /* did it go happen ..  you should check this more rigorously*/
        if( (buffer = getenv("PYTHONPATH")) == NULL)
        {
            /* we failed... abend. */
            return 0;
        }
        else
        {
            /* success! cheers! */
            return 1;
        }
        return -1; /* dead code... should never reach here */
    }
    else
    {
        /* PYTHONPATH already exists.  append ';', then our new path and update it. */
                
        /* find the "=" in the buffer...
           from  string.h
           extern char *strstr (__const char *__haystack, __const char *__needle)
           there's a better way to do this, but I can't recall the function off the top of my head
        */
        buffer = strstr(buffer, "=") + 1; /* +1 because buffer points to the equals.  we want the string starting after it. */
        
        /* copy the old PYTHONPATH string */
        strcpy(eventual_path, buffer);
        strcat(eventual_path, ";");
        strcat(eventual_path, extrapath);

        setenv("PYTHONPATH", extrapath, 1); /* the last argument makes sure that we create the env var*/
        /* did it go happen ..  you should check this more rigorously*/
        if( (buffer = getenv("PYTHONPATH")) == NULL)
        {
            /* we failed... abend. */
            return 0;
        }
        else
        {
            /* success! cheers! */
            return 2;
        }
        return -1; /* dead code... should never reach here */
    }
    else
    {
        /* PYTHONPATH already exists.  append ';', then our new path and update it. */
                
        /* find the "=" in the buffer...
           from  string.h
           extern char *strstr (__const char *__haystack, __const char *__needle)
           there's a better way to do this, but I can't recall the function off the top of my head
        */
        buffer = strstr(buffer, "=") + 1; /* +1 because buffer points to the equals.  we want the string starting after it. */
        
        /* copy the old PYTHONPATH string */
        strcpy(eventual_path, buffer);
        strcat(eventual_path, ";");
        strcat(eventual_path, extrapath);

        setenv("PYTHONPATH", extrapath, 1); /* the last argument makes sure that we create the env var*/
        /* did it go happen ..  you should check this more rigorously*/
        if( (buffer = getenv("PYTHONPATH")) == NULL)
        {
            /* we failed... abend. */
            return 0;
        }
        else
        {
            /* success! cheers! */
            return 2;
        }
        return -1; /* dead code... should never reach here */
    }
    return -1; /* deader code... should *really* never reach here */
}
---untested code---
I haven't tested, compiled or even read through this code.
I'm late for a party and still added comments
That means you get punctuation patrol :-P
Check the semicolons, check the braces
Hey, I hear that in some companies they call this teamwork methodology
"extreme-programming"  We're buzzword compliant!

HTH
(Danm... I'm such a code monkey)

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