[Python-Dev] Use C extensions compiled in release mode on a Python compiled in debug mode

[Matthias Klose]

On 24.04.19 01:44, Victor Stinner wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Two weeks ago, I started a thread "No longer enable Py_TRACE_REFS by
> default in debug build", but I lost myself in details, I forgot the
> main purpose of my proposal...
> 
> Let me retry from scratch with a more explicit title: I would like to
> be able to run C extensions compiled in release mode on a Python
> compiled in debug mode ("pydebug"). The use case is to debug bugs in C
> extensions thanks to additional runtime checks of a Python debug
> build, and more generally get a better debugging experiences on
> Python. Even for pure Python, a debug build is useful (to get the
> Pyhon traceback in gdb using "py-bt" command).
> 
> Currently, using a Python compiled in debug mode means to have to
> recompile C extensions in debug mode. Compile a C extension requires a
> C compiler, header files, pull dependencies, etc. It can be very
> complicated in practical (and pollute your system with all these
> additional dependencies). On Linux, it's already hard, but on Windows
> it can be even harder.
> 
> Just one concrete example: no debug build of numpy is provided at
> https://pypi.org/project/numpy/ Good luck to build numpy in debug mode
> manually (install OpenBLAS, ATLAS, Fortran compiler, Cython, etc.)
> :-)

there's a simple solution: apt install python3-numpy-dbg cython3-dbg ;)  So
depending on the package maintainer, you already have that available, but it is
extra maintenance cost.  Simplifying that would be a good idea.  However I still
would like to be able to have "debug" and "non-debug" builds co-installable at
the same time.