Purpose of fork - to support indentation and maybe other Python-specific things for creating PWCP (Python With C Preprocessor). If there's a problem with pypp, please open an issue there.
(C) 2018-2021 Niall Douglas http://www.nedproductions.biz/ and (C) 2007-2020 David Beazley http://www.dabeaz.com/
PyPI: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pcpp Github: https://github.com/ned14/pcpp API reference docs: https://ned14.github.io/pcpp/
Travis master branch all tests passing for Python v2, v3 and PyPy v2, v3:
A pure universal Python C (pre-)preprocessor implementation very useful for pre-preprocessing header only
C++ libraries into single file includes and other such build or packaging stage malarky.
The implementation can be used as a Python module (see API reference)
or as a command line tool pcpp
which
can stand in for a conventional C preprocessor (i.e. it'll accept similar arguments).
Works great under PyPy, and you can expect performance gains of between 0.84x and 2.62x
(average = 2.2x, median = 2.31x).
Your includes can be benchmarked for heft in order to improve your build times! See
the --times
and --filetimes
options, and you can see graphs from pcpp for the
C++ STLs at https://github.com/ned14/stl-header-heft.
A very unique facility of this C preprocessor is partial preprocessing so you can
programmatically control how much preprocessing is done by pcpp
and how much is
done by the C or C++ compiler's preprocessor. The ultimate control is by subclassing
the Preprocessor
class in Python from which you can do anything you like, however
for your convenience the pcpp
command line tool comes with the following canned
partial preprocessing algorithms:
- passthru-defines
- Pass through but still execute #defines and #undefs if not always removed by preprocessor logic. This ensures that including the output sets exactly the same macros as if you included the original, plus include guards work.
- passthru-unfound-includes
- If an
#include
is not found, pass it through unmodified. This is very useful for passing through includes of system headers. - passthru-undefined-exprs
- This is one of the most powerful pass through algorithms. If an expression passed to
#if
(or its brethern) contains an unknown macro, expand the expression with known macros and pass through unexecuted, and then pass through the remaining block. Each#elif
is evaluated in turn and if it does not contain unknown macros, it will be executed immediately. Finally, any#else
clause is always passed through unexecuted. Note that include guards normally defeat this algorithm, so those are specially detected and ignored. - passthru-comments
- A major use case for
pcpp
is as a preprocessor for the doxygen reference documentation tool whose preprocessor is unable to handle any preprocessing of any complexity.pcpp
can partially execute the preprocessing which doxygen is incapable of, thus generating output which produces good results with doxygen. Hence the ability to pass through comments containing doxygen markup is very useful. - passthru-magic-macros
- Don't expand
__DATE__
,__TIME__
,__FILE__
,__LINE__
nor__COUNTER__
. - passthru-includes
- Don't expand those
#include
whose arguments match the supplied regular expression into the output, however still execute those includes. This lets you generate output with macros from nested includes expanded, however those#include
matching the regular expression are passed through into the output.
pcpp
passes a very slightly modified edition of the mcpp
unit test suite. The only modifications done were to disable the digraph and trigraphs tests.
It also passes the list of "preprocessor torture" expansion fragments
in the C11 standard, correctly expanding some very complex recursive macro expansions
where expansions cause new macro expansions to be formed. In this, it handily beats
the MSVC preprocessor and ought to handle most C99 preprocessor metaprogramming.
If you compare its output side-by-side to that of GCC or clang's preprocessor, results
are extremely close indeed with blank line collapsing being the only difference.
As of v1.30 (Oct 2020), a proper yacc based expression evaluator for #if
expressions is used which is standards conforming, and fixes a large number of
problems found in the previous Python eval()
based expression evaluator.
A full, detailed list of known non-conformance with the C99 standard is below. Pull requests with bug fixes and new unit tests for the fix are welcome.
If you are on Python 2, files are parsed as strings, and unicode is not supported.
On Python 3, input and output files can have your choice of encoding, and you can
hook file open to inspect the encoding using chardet
.
Note that most of this preprocessor was written originally by David Beazley to show off his excellent Python Lex-Yacc library PLY (http://www.dabeaz.com/ply/) and is hidden in there without being at all obvious given the number of Stack Overflow questions which have asked for a pure Python C preprocessor implementation. This implementation fixes a lot of conformance bugs (the original was never intended to rigidly adhere to the C standard) and adds in a test suite based on the C11 preprocessor torture samples plus the mcpp preprocessor test suite. Still, this project would not be possible without David's work, so please take off your hat and give a bow towards him.
The help from the command line tool pcpp
:
usage: pcpp [-h] [-o [path]] [-D macro[=val]] [-U macro] [-N macro] [-I path] [--passthru-defines] [--passthru-unfound-includes] [--passthru-unknown-exprs] [--passthru-comments] [--passthru-magic-macros] [--passthru-includes <regex>] [--disable-auto-pragma-once] [--line-directive [form]] [--debug] [--time] [--filetimes [path]] [--compress] [--assume-input-encoding <encoding>] [--output-encoding <encoding>] [--write-bom] [--version] [input [input ...]] A pure universal Python C (pre-)preprocessor implementation very useful for pre-preprocessing header only C++ libraries into single file includes and other such build or packaging stage malarky. positional arguments: input Files to preprocess (use '-' for stdin) optional arguments: -h, --help show this help message and exit -o [path] Output to a file instead of stdout -D macro[=val] Predefine name as a macro [with value] -U macro Pre-undefine name as a macro -N macro Never define name as a macro, even if defined during the preprocessing. -I path Path to search for unfound #include's --passthru-defines Pass through but still execute #defines and #undefs if not always removed by preprocessor logic --passthru-unfound-includes Pass through #includes not found without execution --passthru-unknown-exprs Unknown macros in expressions cause preprocessor logic to be passed through instead of executed by treating unknown macros as 0L --passthru-comments Pass through comments unmodified --passthru-magic-macros Pass through double underscore magic macros unmodified --passthru-includes <regex> Regular expression for which #includes to not expand. #includes, if found, are always executed --disable-auto-pragma-once Disable the heuristics which auto apply #pragma once to #include files wholly wrapped in an obvious include guard macro --line-directive [form] Form of line directive to use, defaults to #line, specify nothing to disable output of line directives --debug Generate a pcpp_debug.log file logging execution --time Print the time it took to #include each file --filetimes [path] Write CSV file with time spent inside each included file, inclusive and exclusive --compress Make output as small as possible --assume-input-encoding <encoding> The text encoding to assume inputs are in --output-encoding <encoding> The text encoding to use when writing files --write-bom Prefix any output with a Unicode BOM --version show program's version number and exit Note that so pcpp can stand in for other preprocessor tooling, it ignores any arguments it does not understand.
Let us look at an example for pass through mode. Here is the original:
#if !defined(__cpp_constexpr)
#if __cplusplus >= 201402L
#define __cpp_constexpr 201304 // relaxed constexpr
#else
#define __cpp_constexpr 190000
#endif
#endif
#ifndef BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#if __cpp_constexpr >= 201304
#define BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR constexpr
#endif
#endif
#ifndef BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#define BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#endif
pcpp test.h --passthru-defines --passthru-unknown-exprs
will output:
#if !defined(__cpp_constexpr)
#if __cplusplus >= 201402
#define __cpp_constexpr 201304
#else
#define __cpp_constexpr 190000
#endif
#endif
#ifndef BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#if __cpp_constexpr >= 201304
#define BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR constexpr
#endif
#endif
#ifndef BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#define BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#endif
This is because __cpp_constexpr
was not defined, so because of the --passthru-unknown-exprs
flag
we pass through everything inside that if block unexecuted i.e. defines and undefs are NOT executed by
pcpp
. Let's define __cpp_constexpr
:
pcpp test.h --passthru-defines --passthru-unknown-exprs -D __cpp_constexpr
#line 8 "test.h"
#ifndef BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#endif
#ifndef BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#define BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#endif
So, big difference now. We execute the entire first if block as __cpp_constexpr
is now defined, thus
leaving whitespace. Let's try setting __cpp_constexpr
a bit higher:
pcpp test.h --passthru-defines --passthru-unknown-exprs -D __cpp_constexpr=201304
#line 8 "test.h"
#ifndef BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#define BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR constexpr
#endif
As you can see, the lines related to the known __cpp_constexpr
are executed and removed, passing through
any if blocks with unknown macros in the expression.
What if you want a macro to be known but undefined? The -U (to undefine) flag has an obvious meaning in pass through mode in that it makes a macro no longer unknown, but known to be undefined.
pcpp test.h --passthru-defines --passthru-unknown-exprs -U __cpp_constexpr
#if __cplusplus >= 201402
#define __cpp_constexpr 201304
#else
#define __cpp_constexpr 190000
#endif
#ifndef BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#endif
#ifndef BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#define BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#endif
Here __cpp_constexpr
is known to be undefined so the first clause executes, but __cplusplus
is
unknown so that entire block is passed through unexecuted. In the next test comparing __cpp_constexpr
to 201304 it is still known to be undefined, and so 0 >= 201304 is the expressions tested which is false,
hence the following stanza is removed entirely.
You can achieve a great deal using -D (define), -U (undefine) and -N (never define) on the command line, but for more complex preprocessing it gets hard to pass through the correct logic without some source code annotation.
pcpp
lets you annotate which part of an if block being passed through due to use of unknown macros
to also be executed in addition to the pass through. For this use __PCPP_ALWAYS_FALSE__
or
__PCPP_ALWAYS_TRUE__
which tells pcpp
to temporarily start executing the passed through
preprocessor commands e.g.
#if !defined(__cpp_constexpr)
#if __cplusplus >= 201402L
#define __cpp_constexpr 201304
#elif !__PCPP_ALWAYS_FALSE__ // pcpp please execute this next block
#define __cpp_constexpr 190000
#endif
#endif
#ifndef BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#if __cpp_constexpr >= 201304
#define BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR constexpr
#endif
#endif
#ifndef BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#define BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#endif
Note that __PCPP_ALWAYS_FALSE__
will always be false in any other preprocessor, and it is also
false in pcpp
. However, it causes pcpp
to execute the define of __cpp_constexpr
to 190000:
pcpp test.h --passthru-defines --passthru-unknown-exprs
#if !defined(__cpp_constexpr)
#if __cplusplus >= 201402
#define __cpp_constexpr 201304
#elif 1
#define __cpp_constexpr 190000
#endif
#endif
#ifndef BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#endif
#ifndef BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#define BOOSTLITE_CONSTEXPR
#endif
This is one way of marking up #else
clauses so they always execute in a normal preprocessor
and also pass through with execution with pcpp
. You can, of course, also place || __PCPP_ALWAYS_FALSE__
in any #if
stanza to cause it to be passed through with execution, but not affect the
preprocessing logic otherwise.
- Digraphs and Trigraphs
- line continuation operator '
\
' - C99 correct elimination of comments and maintenance of whitespace in output.
__DATE__
,__TIME__
,__FILE__
,__LINE__
. Note that__STDC__
et al are NOT defined by default, you need to define those manually before starting preprocessing.__COUNTER__
, a very common extension- Object
#define
- Function
#define macro(...)
- Retokenisation and reexpansion after expansion is C99 compliant.
#undef
#include "path"
,<path>
andPATH
defined
operator- C operators:
+, -, !, ~
*, /, %
+, -
<<, >>
<, <=, >, >=
==, !=
&
^
|
&&
||
x ? y : z
(partial support, see known bugs)
#if
,#ifdef
,#ifndef
,#elif
,#else
,#endif
- Stringizing operator #
- Token pasting operator ##
#pragma once
, a very common extension
#error
(default implementation prints to stderr and increments the exit code)#warning
(default implementation prints to stderr)
#pragma
anything other thanonce
._Pragma
used to emit preprocessor calculated #pragma.#line num
,num "file"
andNUMBER FILE
.
None presently known.
See the API reference docs at https://ned14.github.io/pcpp/
You can find an example of overriding the on_*()
processing hooks at https://github.com/ned14/pcpp/blob/master/pcpp/pcmd.py
- Thanks to a 5km limit covid lockdown in my country, a public holiday where we were supposed to be away meant I was stuck at home instead. I took the full day to finish the https://github.com/ned14/pcpp/tree/yacc_expression_evaluator branch which is a proper C preprocessor expression evaluator based on http://www.dabeaz.com/ply/ 's yacc module. This was a very long outstanding piece of work which had been in progress for nearly two years. It just needed a full day of my time to get it done, and now it is indeed done at long last.
- BREAKING CHANGE: Thanks to the new expression evaluator, fix a long standing bug
where unknown function macros in expressions were parsed as
0(0)
which obviously enough does not work. Fixing this changes how theon_unknown_macro_in_expr()
hook works, and there is now an addedon_unknown_macro_function_in_expr()
hook. - Add a new passthru option
--passthru-includes
which enables selected#include
to be passed through, in addition to being executed. Thanks to schra for suggesting this, including a PR. The original implementation had some subtle corner case bugs, thanks to trelau for reporting those. - Fix a token expansion ordering bug whereby if a function macro used the same macro in more than one argument, expansion in one argument evaluation caused overly eager expansion in later argument evaluations. This fix ought to fix pcpp's ability to parse Boost (untested). Thanks to joaquintides for reporting this.
- Now that pcpp no longer ever calls
eval()
, pcpp is PyPy compatible and is probably also compatible with Pyston (untested). Typical speedup is about 2.2x-2.3x, though it can also be slower occasionally for some inputs. PyPy compatibility is now being tested by CI to ensure it remains working going forth. - Fix internal preprocessor error and failure to insert newlines before
#include
caused by certain sequence of line continuations in a macro. Thanks to dslijepcevic for reporting this.
- Fix bug where outputting to stdout did not combine with anything which printed to stdout. Thanks to Fondesa for reporting this.
- Fix extra newlines being inserted after a multiline comment. Thanks to virtuald for sending a PR fixing this.
- Fix not being able to actually specify an empty line directive. Thanks to kuri65536 for sending a PR fixing this.
- Update ply submodule to latest from trunk.
- Emit line continuations as tokens, rather than collapsing lines during parsing. Thanks to MathieuDuponchelle for the pull request implementing this.
- Enable parsing and emission of files in arbitrary text encodings. This is supported in Python 3 or later only. Thanks to MathieuDuponchelle for the suggestion.
- Fix bad regex for parsing floats, so now floats are correctly tokenised. Thanks to LynnKirby for reporting this.
- BREAKING CHANGE: Passthrough for
#include MACRO
was not supported. This was not intentional, and to fix it required modifying theon_include_not_found()
customisation point which is a source breaking change. Thanks to schra for reporting this.
Fix bug where token pasting two numeric tokens did not yield a numeric token. Thanks to Sei-Lisa for reporting this.
BREAKING CHANGE: Paths emitted by pcpp into
#line
directives now are relative to the working directory of the process whenPreprocessor
is initialised. This includes added search paths - files included from those locations will be emitted with a sequence of../
to relativise the path emitted. If no path exists between the working directory and the path of the file being emitted, an absolute path is emitted instead.If you wish to disable this new behaviour, or use different behaviour, you can customise the new rewrite_paths member variable of
Preprocessor
.Fix bug where
__LINE__
was expanding into the line number of its definition instead of its use. Thanks to Sei-Lisa for reporting this.Add
--passthru-magic-macros
command line option.BREAKING CHANGE: The
PreprocessorHooks
andOutputDirective
interface has changed. One now must specify the kind ofOutputDirective
abort one wants, and one can now both ignore AND remove directives.on_directive_handle()
andon_directive_unknown()
now take an extra parameterprecedingtoks
, these are the tokens from the#
up to the directive.Fix a corner case where
FUNC(void)foo()
expanded tovoidfoo()
and notvoid foo()
which is a very common non-conforming extension of the C preprocessor. Thanks to OmegaDoom for reporting this.Add tokens for all the C operators, to help implementation of an expression evaluator.
Updated embedded ply to HEAD (2019-04-25)
Fix
#include
not working if no-I
parameters were supplied. Thanks to csm10495 for reporting this.
- Now supports character literals in expressions. Thanks to untaugh for the pull request adding this.
- Stopped the default collapsing of whitespace in output, and made it optional via a
new command line option
--compress
. - Fixed extraneous whitespace in
--passthru-comments
caused by multiline comments. Thanks to p2k for reporting this. - Fixed bug where defining a macro via string did not set the source attribute in the token. Thanks to ZedThree for reporting this.
- Stop triggering an exception when no arguments are supplied to pcpp. Thanks to virtuald for reporting this.
- Rebase onto PLY latest from Dec 28th 2018 (https://github.com/dabeaz/ply/commit/a37e0839583d683d95e70ce1445c0063c7d4bd21). Latest PLY no longer works using pypi packaging, David wants people to include the source of PLY directly. pcpp does this via a git submodule, and has setuptools bundle the submodule.
- Add a formal LICENSE.txt file, as requested by Sei-Lisa.
- Fix failure to issue
#line
directive for first include file in a file. Thanks to Sei-Lisa for reporting this.
- Added the
--times
and--filetimes
features. - Fix bug where macros containing operator defined were not being expanded properly.
- Added the ability to accept multiple inputs, they are concatenated into the output.
- Fix bug where lines beginning with # and no contents caused an internal preprocessor error.
- Fix bug where the macro expansion
par par##ext
was expanding intoparext parext
.
- Fix bug where in pass through mode, an #elif in an #if block inside an #if block in ifpassthru was failing to be passed through.
- Downgraded failure to evaluate an expression to a warning.
- Fix missing Readme.rst in pypi package.
First release