Hi all, I'm embedding python into a c app (exim, the MTA). I've gotten code in to initialize python, read in the embedded script, call various functions within that script, and appropriately return data from those functions back to the exim call.

One thing that does not make sense yet though, is how to assemble the data to be passed to the python functions. Imagine the following simple function:

def simple_math(a,b): return a+b

In this case, a and b are integers or long integers. How can I format that incoming data without knowing in advance that there are two arguments to this function and that are both are integers? If the reason for this question is not clear, imagine that the sysadmin goes and edits the python script so that it now is:

def simple_math(name,a,b): // do something to log "name" to a logfile return a+b

Now argument index 0 is a string, and indexes 1 and 2 are the integers. How does a calling c application deal with the fact that the variables to function can be, well, of variable types, and not known beforehand? It seems like there should be a python api function available which says "for $FUNC, are $ARGS valid arguments" or "for $FUNC, convert $ARGS to what $FUNC expects".

Am I missing something simple here?

...Todd

The total budget at all receivers for solving senders' problems is $0. If you want them to accept your mail and manage it the way you want, send it the way the spec says to. --John Levine