[New-bugs-announce] [issue38957] Cannot compile with libffi from source on Windows

[Ashley Whetter]

New submission from Ashley Whetter <ashley at awhetter.co.uk>:

get_externals.bat downloads and extracts libffi to a versioned directory (much like the other external libraries). See https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/v3.8.0/PCbuild/get_externals.bat#L55
However the binary release is downloaded to an unversioned directory. See https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/v3.8.0/PCbuild/get_externals.bat#L79
The visual studio project looks for the unversioned directory (https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/v3.8.0/PCbuild/python.props#L62), and so the binaries are always used.

So it is possible to build from source, but you have to move libffi yourself after running `get_externals_bat --libffi-src`. I think the fix here is to make get_externals.bat and visual studio always use a versioned directory.

----------
components: Build, Windows
messages: 357736
nosy: AWhetter, paul.moore, steve.dower, tim.golden, zach.ware
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: Cannot compile with libffi from source on Windows
versions: Python 3.8, Python 3.9

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue38957>
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