How to specify C++11 with distutils?

Question

I have a module that needs to be compiled with C++11. On GCC and Clang, that means a std=c++11 switch, or std=c++0x on older compilers.

Python is not compiled with this switch so Distutils doesn't include it when compiling modules.

What is the preferred way to compile C++11 code with distutils?

Answer 1

You can use the extra_compile_args parameter of distutils.core.Extension:

ext = Extension('foo', sources=[....],
                libraries=[....], 
                extra_compile_args=['-std=c++11'],
                ....)

Note that this is completely platform dependent. It won't even work on some older versions of gcc and clang.

Answer 2

You can override the default values for various Distutils compilation and link flags using environment variables. This may require some experimentation depending on which platform you are on and how the Python you was using was built. But generally overriding CFLAGS will affect the compilation phase and either one of LDSHARED or LDFLAGS will affect the link phase.

export CFLAGS='-std=c++11'
pip install blah

or

export CFLAGS='-std=c++11'
python setup.py install

On OS X, another option is to use the ARCHFLAGS environment variable which has the advantage of not wiping out the original CFLAGS or LDSHARED values.