GCC not recognising standard header files when using swig and distutils

Question

I'm trying to generate a python wrapper for a C++ library that I am putting together. I have just come across SWIG and am trying to use this in conjunction with distutils. I'm modifying someone elses code, so odd errors were to be expected but this one is just confusing.

I've managed to generate a c++ wrapper file with SWIG and am now attempting to run a modified version of setup.py in order to install the wrapper (which itself may or may not work, but I'll cross that bridge when it comes to it.) When doing this compiler errors pop up about inability to include header files. Specifically - string, ostream, sstream, map and vector. All of which are standard libraries, included as "include ".

The code itself compiles, but in trying to create a wrapper this way it does not.

I'm not entirely sure what information is relevant to this but this is how the extension is made:

## Extension definition
import os
wrapsrc = './project_rewrite_wrap.c'
incdir_src = os.path.abspath('../include/project')
incdir_build = os.path.abspath('../include/project')
libdir = os.path.abspath('../lib')
ext = Extension('_project_rewrite',
                [wrapsrc],
                include_dirs=[incdir_src, incdir_build],
                library_dirs=[libdir, os.path.join(libdir,'.libs')],
                libraries=['ProjectMain'])

The gcc command that is run is:

gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -I/home/ben/Project/rewrite/include/Project -I/home/ben/Project/rewrite/include/Project -I/usr/include/python2.6 -c ./project_rewrite_wrap.c -o build/temp.linux-i686-2.6/./project_rewrite_wrap.o

Which results in errors such as:

./project_rewrite_wrap.c:2696:18: error: string: No such file or directory

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Answer 1

You are compiling C code - the headers you mention are part of C++, not C. To compile as C++ code, use the g++ driver instead of gcc, and give the source files a .cpp extension instead of .c.