Warning

Please be advised that the reference documentation discussing pybind11 internals is currently incomplete. Please refer to the previous sections and the pybind11 header files for the nitty gritty details.

Reference¶

Macros¶

PYBIND11_MODULE(name, variable)¶

This macro creates the entry point that will be invoked when the Python interpreter imports an extension module. The module name is given as the fist argument and it should not be in quotes. The second macro argument defines a variable of type py::module_ which can be used to initialize the module.

The entry point is marked as “maybe unused” to aid dead-code detection analysis: since the entry point is typically only looked up at runtime and not referenced during translation, it would otherwise appear as unused (“dead”) code.

PYBIND11_MODULE(example, m) {
    m.doc() = "pybind11 example module";

    // Add bindings here
    m.def("foo", []() {
        return "Hello, World!";
    });
}

Convenience classes for arbitrary Python types¶

Common member functions¶

template<typename Derived> class object_api : public pyobject_tag¶

A mixin class which adds common functions to handle, object and various accessors. The only requirement for Derived is to implement PyObject *Derived::ptr() const.

Public Functions

iterator begin() const¶

Return an iterator equivalent to calling iter() in Python. The object must be a collection which supports the iteration protocol.

iterator end() const¶: Return a sentinel which ends iteration.

item_accessor operator[](handle key) const¶

Return an internal functor to invoke the object’s sequence protocol. Casting the returned detail::item_accessor instance to a handle or object subclass causes a corresponding call to __getitem__. Assigning a handle or object subclass causes a call to __setitem__.

item_accessor operator[](const char *key) const¶: See above (the only difference is that they key is provided as a string literal)

obj_attr_accessor attr(handle key) const¶

Return an internal functor to access the object’s attributes. Casting the returned detail::obj_attr_accessor instance to a handle or object subclass causes a corresponding call to getattr. Assigning a handle or object subclass causes a call to setattr.

str_attr_accessor attr(const char *key) const¶: See above (the only difference is that they key is provided as a string literal)

args_proxy operator*() const¶

Matches * unpacking in Python, e.g. to unpack arguments out of a tuple or list for a function call. Applying another * to the result yields ** unpacking, e.g. to unpack a dict as function keyword arguments. See Calling Python functions.

template<typename T> bool contains(T &&item) const¶: Check if the given item is contained within this object, i.e. item in obj.

template<return_value_policy policy = return_value_policy::automatic_reference, typename ...Args> object operator()(Args&&... args) const¶

Assuming the Python object is a function or implements the __call__ protocol, operator() invokes the underlying function, passing an arbitrary set of parameters. The result is returned as a object and may need to be converted back into a Python object using handle::cast().

When some of the arguments cannot be converted to Python objects, the function will throw a cast_error exception. When the Python function call fails, a error_already_set exception is thrown.

bool is(object_api const &other) const¶: Equivalent to obj is other in Python.

bool is_none() const¶: Equivalent to obj is None in Python.

bool equal(object_api const &other) const¶: Equivalent to obj == other in Python.

str_attr_accessor doc() const¶: Get or set the object’s docstring, i.e. obj.__doc__.

int ref_count() const¶: Return the object’s current reference count.

Without reference counting¶

class handle : public detail::object_api<handle>¶

Holds a reference to a Python object (no reference counting)

The handle class is a thin wrapper around an arbitrary Python object (i.e. a PyObject * in Python’s C API). It does not perform any automatic reference counting and merely provides a basic C++ interface to various Python API functions.

With reference counting¶

class object : public handle ¶

Holds a reference to a Python object (with reference counting)

Like handle, the object class is a thin wrapper around an arbitrary Python object (i.e. a PyObject * in Python’s C API). In contrast to handle, it optionally increases the object’s reference count upon construction, and it always decreases the reference count when the object instance goes out of scope and is destructed. When using object instances consistently, it is much easier to get reference counting right at the first attempt.

Subclassed by bool_, buffer, bytes, capsule, dict, dtype, ellipsis, exception< type >, float_, function, generic_type, int_, iterable, iterator, list, memoryview, module_, none, sequence, set, slice, staticmethod, str, tuple, type, weakref

Public Functions

object(const object &o)¶: Copy constructor; always increases the reference count.

object(object &&other) noexcept¶: Move constructor; steals the object from other and preserves its reference count.

~object()¶: Destructor; automatically calls handle::dec_ref()

handle release()¶

Resets the internal pointer to nullptr without decreasing the object’s reference count. The function returns a raw handle to the original Python object.

template<typename T> T reinterpret_borrow(handle h)¶

Declare that a handle or PyObject * is a certain type and borrow the reference. The target type T must be object or one of its derived classes. The function doesn’t do any conversions or checks. It’s up to the user to make sure that the target type is correct.

PyObject *p = PyList_GetItem(obj, index);
py::object o = reinterpret_borrow<py::object>(p);
// or
py::tuple t = reinterpret_borrow<py::tuple>(p); // <-- `p` must be already be a `tuple`

template<typename T> T reinterpret_steal(handle h)¶

Like reinterpret_borrow(), but steals the reference.

PyObject *p = PyObject_Str(obj);
py::str s = reinterpret_steal<py::str>(p); // <-- `p` must be already be a `str`

Convenience classes for specific Python types¶

class module_ : public object ¶

Wrapper for Python extension modules.

Public Functions

module_(const char *name, const char *doc = nullptr)¶: Create a new top-level Python module with the given name and docstring.

template<typename Func, typename ...Extra> module_ &def(const char *name_, Func &&f, const Extra&... extra)¶

Create Python binding for a new function within the module scope. Func can be a plain C++ function, a function pointer, or a lambda function. For details on the Extra&& ... extra argument, see section Passing extra arguments to def or class_.

module_ def_submodule(const char *name, const char *doc = nullptr)¶

Create and return a new Python submodule with the given name and docstring. This also works recursively, i.e.

py::module_ m("example", "pybind11 example plugin");
py::module_ m2 = m.def_submodule("sub", "A submodule of 'example'");
py::module_ m3 = m2.def_submodule("subsub", "A submodule of 'example.sub'");

void reload()¶: Reload the module or throws error_already_set.

void add_object(const char *name, handle obj, bool overwrite = false)¶

Adds an object to the module using the given name. Throws if an object with the given name already exists.

overwrite should almost always be false: attempting to overwrite objects that pybind11 has established will, in most cases, break things.

Public Static Functions

module_ import(const char *name)¶: Import and return a module or throws error_already_set.

module_ create_extension_module(const char *name, const char *doc, module_def *def)¶

Create a new top-level module that can be used as the main module of a C extension.

For Python 3, def should point to a staticly allocated module_def. For Python 2, def can be a nullptr and is completely ignored.

group pytypes

Functions

template<typename Unsigned> Unsigned as_unsigned(PyObject *o)¶

class iterator : public object ¶

#include <pytypes.h>

Wraps a Python iterator so that it can also be used as a C++ input iterator

Caveat: copying an iterator does not (and cannot) clone the internal state of the Python iterable. This also applies to the post-increment operator. This iterator should only be used to retrieve the current value using operator*().

Public Static Functions

iterator sentinel()¶

The value which marks the end of the iteration. it == iterator::sentinel() is equivalent to catching StopIteration in Python.

void foo(py::iterator it) {
    while (it != py::iterator::sentinel()) {
       // use `*it`
       ++it;
    }
}

class type : public object ¶

Public Static Functions

handle handle_of(handle h)¶: Return a type handle from a handle or an object.

type of(handle h)¶: Return a type object from a handle or an object.

template<typename T> handle handle_of()¶: Convert C++ type to handle if previously registered. Does not convert standard types, like int, float. etc. yet. See https://github.com/pybind/pybind11/issues/2486

template<typename T> type of()¶: Convert C++ type to type if previously registered. Does not convert standard types, like int, float. etc. yet. See https://github.com/pybind/pybind11/issues/2486

class iterable : public object ¶

class str : public object ¶

Public Functions

str(handle h)¶

Return a string representation of the object. This is analogous to the str() function in Python.

class bytes : public object ¶

class none : public object ¶

class ellipsis : public object ¶

class bool_ : public object ¶

class int_ : public object ¶

class float_ : public object ¶

class weakref : public object ¶

class slice : public object ¶

class capsule : public object ¶

class tuple : public object ¶: Subclassed by args

class dict : public object ¶: Subclassed by kwargs

class sequence : public object ¶

class list : public object ¶

class args : public tuple ¶

class kwargs : public dict ¶

class set : public object ¶

class function : public object ¶: Subclassed by cpp_function

class staticmethod : public object ¶

class buffer : public object ¶: Subclassed by array

class memoryview : public object ¶

Public Functions

memoryview(const buffer_info &info)¶

Creates memoryview from buffer_info.

buffer_info must be created from buffer::request(). Otherwise throws an exception.

For creating a memoryview from objects that support buffer protocol, use memoryview(const object& obj) instead of this constructor.

Public Static Functions

memoryview from_buffer(void *ptr, ssize_t itemsize, const char *format, detail::any_container<ssize_t> shape, detail::any_container<ssize_t> strides, bool readonly = false)¶

Creates memoryview from static buffer.

This method is meant for providing a memoryview for C/C++ buffer not managed by Python. The caller is responsible for managing the lifetime of ptr and format, which MUST outlive the memoryview constructed here.

See also: Python C API documentation for PyMemoryView_FromBuffer.

param ptr: Pointer to the buffer.
param itemsize: Byte size of an element.
param format: Pointer to the null-terminated format string. For homogeneous Buffers, this should be set to format_descriptor<T>::value.
param shape: Shape of the tensor (1 entry per dimension).
param strides: Number of bytes between adjacent entries (for each per dimension).
param readonly: Flag to indicate if the underlying storage may be written to.

memoryview from_memory(void *mem, ssize_t size, bool readonly = false)¶

Creates memoryview from static memory.

This method is meant for providing a memoryview for C/C++ buffer not managed by Python. The caller is responsible for managing the lifetime of mem, which MUST outlive the memoryview constructed here.

This method is not available in Python 2.

See also: Python C API documentation for PyMemoryView_FromBuffer.

Passing extra arguments to `def` or `class_`¶

group annotations

struct is_method¶: #include <attr.h>
Annotation for methods.

struct is_operator¶: #include <attr.h>
Annotation for operators.

struct is_final¶: #include <attr.h>
Annotation for classes that cannot be subclassed.

struct scope¶: #include <attr.h>
Annotation for parent scope.

struct doc¶: #include <attr.h>
Annotation for documentation.

struct name¶: #include <attr.h>
Annotation for function names.

struct sibling¶: #include <attr.h>
Annotation indicating that a function is an overload associated with a given “sibling”.

template<typename T> struct base¶: #include <attr.h>
Annotation indicating that a class derives from another given type.

template<size_t Nurse, size_t Patient> struct keep_alive¶: #include <attr.h>
Keep patient alive while nurse lives.

struct multiple_inheritance¶: #include <attr.h>
Annotation indicating that a class is involved in a multiple inheritance relationship.

struct dynamic_attr¶: #include <attr.h>
Annotation which enables dynamic attributes, i.e. adds __dict__ to a class.

struct buffer_protocol¶: #include <attr.h>
Annotation which enables the buffer protocol for a type.

struct metaclass¶

#include <attr.h>

Annotation which requests that a special metaclass is created for a type.

Public Functions

metaclass(handle value)¶: Override pybind11’s default metaclass.

struct module_local¶: #include <attr.h>
Annotation that marks a class as local to the module:

struct arithmetic¶: #include <attr.h>
Annotation to mark enums as an arithmetic type.

struct prepend¶: #include <attr.h>
Mark a function for addition at the beginning of the existing overload chain instead of the end.

template<typename ...Ts> struct call_guard¶

#include <attr.h>

A call policy which places one or more guard variables (Ts...) around the function call.

For example, this definition:

m.def("foo", foo, py::call_guard<T>());

is equivalent to the following pseudocode:

m.def("foo", [](args...) {
    T scope_guard;
    return foo(args...); // forwarded arguments
});

template<> struct call_guard<>¶

template<typename T> struct call_guard<T>¶

template<typename T, typename ...Ts> struct call_guard<T, Ts...>¶

struct type¶

struct arg¶

#include <cast.h>

Annotation for arguments

Subclassed by arg_v

Public Functions

constexpr arg(const char *name = nullptr)¶: Constructs an argument with the name of the argument; if null or omitted, this is a positional argument.

template<typename T> arg_v operator=(T &&value) const¶: Assign a value to this argument.

arg &noconvert(bool flag = true)¶: Indicate that the type should not be converted in the type caster.

arg &none(bool flag = true)¶: Indicates that the argument should/shouldn’t allow None (e.g. for nullable pointer args)

Public Members

const char *name¶: If non-null, this is a named kwargs argument.

bool flag_noconvert¶: If set, do not allow conversion (requires a supporting type caster!)

bool flag_none¶: If set (the default), allow None to be passed to this argument.

struct arg_v : public arg ¶

#include <cast.h>

Annotation for arguments with values

Public Functions

template<typename T> arg_v(const char *name, T &&x, const char *descr = nullptr)¶: Direct construction with name, default, and description.

template<typename T> arg_v(const arg &base, T &&x, const char *descr = nullptr)¶: Called internally when invoking py::arg("a") = value

arg_v &noconvert(bool flag = true)¶: Same as arg::noconvert(), but returns *this as arg_v&, not arg&.

arg_v &none(bool flag = true)¶: Same as arg::nonone(), but returns *this as arg_v&, not arg&.

Public Members

object value¶: The default value.

const char *descr¶: The (optional) description of the default value.

std::string type¶: The C++ type name of the default value (only available when compiled in debug mode)

struct kw_only¶: #include <cast.h>
Annotation indicating that all following arguments are keyword-only; the is the equivalent of an unnamed ‘*’ argument (in Python 3)

struct pos_only¶: #include <cast.h>
Annotation indicating that all previous arguments are positional-only; the is the equivalent of an unnamed ‘/’ argument (in Python 3.8)

Embedding the interpreter¶

PYBIND11_EMBEDDED_MODULE(name, variable)¶

Add a new module to the table of builtins for the interpreter. Must be defined in global scope. The first macro parameter is the name of the module (without quotes). The second parameter is the variable which will be used as the interface to add functions and classes to the module.

PYBIND11_EMBEDDED_MODULE(example, m) {
    // ... initialize functions and classes here
    m.def("foo", []() {
        return "Hello, World!";
    });
}

void initialize_interpreter(bool init_signal_handlers = true)¶

Initialize the Python interpreter. No other pybind11 or CPython API functions can be called before this is done; with the exception of PYBIND11_EMBEDDED_MODULE. The optional parameter can be used to skip the registration of signal handlers (see the Python documentation for details). Calling this function again after the interpreter has already been initialized is a fatal error.

If initializing the Python interpreter fails, then the program is terminated. (This is controlled by the CPython runtime and is an exception to pybind11’s normal behavior of throwing exceptions on errors.)

void finalize_interpreter()¶

Shut down the Python interpreter. No pybind11 or CPython API functions can be called after this. In addition, pybind11 objects must not outlive the interpreter:

{ // BAD
    py::initialize_interpreter();
    auto hello = py::str("Hello, World!");
    py::finalize_interpreter();
} // <-- BOOM, hello's destructor is called after interpreter shutdown

{ // GOOD
    py::initialize_interpreter();
    { // scoped
        auto hello = py::str("Hello, World!");
    } // <-- OK, hello is cleaned up properly
    py::finalize_interpreter();
}

{ // BETTER
    py::scoped_interpreter guard{};
    auto hello = py::str("Hello, World!");
}

Warning

The interpreter can be restarted by calling initialize_interpreter() again. Modules created using pybind11 can be safely re-initialized. However, Python itself cannot completely unload binary extension modules and there are several caveats with regard to interpreter restarting. All the details can be found in the CPython documentation. In short, not all interpreter memory may be freed, either due to reference cycles or user-created global data.

class scoped_interpreter¶

Scope guard version of initialize_interpreter() and finalize_interpreter(). This a move-only guard and only a single instance can exist.

#include <pybind11/embed.h>

int main() {
    py::scoped_interpreter guard{};
    py::print(Hello, World!);
} // <-- interpreter shutdown

Redirecting C++ streams¶

class scoped_ostream_redirect¶

This a move-only guard that redirects output.

#include <pybind11/iostream.h>

...

{
    py::scoped_ostream_redirect output;
    std::cout << "Hello, World!"; // Python stdout
} // <-- return std::cout to normal

You can explicitly pass the c++ stream and the python object, for example to guard stderr instead.

{
    py::scoped_ostream_redirect output{std::cerr, py::module_::import("sys").attr("stderr")};
    std::cerr << "Hello, World!";
}

Subclassed by scoped_estream_redirect

class scoped_estream_redirect : public scoped_ostream_redirect ¶

Like scoped_ostream_redirect, but redirects cerr by default. This class is provided primary to make py::call_guard easier to make.

m.def("noisy_func", &noisy_func,
      py::call_guard<scoped_ostream_redirect,
                     scoped_estream_redirect>());

class_<detail::OstreamRedirect> add_ostream_redirect(module_ m, std::string name = "ostream_redirect")¶

This is a helper function to add a C++ redirect context manager to Python instead of using a C++ guard. To use it, add the following to your binding code:

#include <pybind11/iostream.h>

...

py::add_ostream_redirect(m, "ostream_redirect");

You now have a Python context manager that redirects your output:

with m.ostream_redirect():
    m.print_to_cout_function()

This manager can optionally be told which streams to operate on:

with m.ostream_redirect(stdout=true, stderr=true):
    m.noisy_function_with_error_printing()

Python built-in functions¶

group python_builtins

Unless stated otherwise, the following C++ functions behave the same as their Python counterparts.

Functions

dict globals()¶: Return a dictionary representing the global variables in the current execution frame, or __main__.__dict__ if there is no frame (usually when the interpreter is embedded).

template<typename T, detail::enable_if_t<std::is_base_of<object, T>::value, int> = 0> bool isinstance(handle obj)¶

Return true if obj is an instance of T. Type T must be a subclass of object or a class which was exposed to Python as py::class_<T>.

bool isinstance(handle obj, handle type)¶: Return true if obj is an instance of the type.

bool hasattr(handle obj, handle name)¶

bool hasattr(handle obj, const char *name)¶

void delattr(handle obj, handle name)¶

void delattr(handle obj, const char *name)¶

object getattr(handle obj, handle name)¶

object getattr(handle obj, const char *name)¶

object getattr(handle obj, handle name, handle default_)¶

object getattr(handle obj, const char *name, handle default_)¶

void setattr(handle obj, handle name, handle value)¶

void setattr(handle obj, const char *name, handle value)¶

ssize_t hash(handle obj)¶

size_t len(handle h)¶: Get the length of a Python object.

size_t len_hint(handle h)¶: Get the length hint of a Python object. Returns 0 when this cannot be determined.

str repr(handle h)¶

iterator iter(handle obj)¶

Inheritance¶

See Object-oriented code and Classes for more detail.

PYBIND11_OVERRIDE(ret_type, cname, fn, ...)¶

Macro to populate the virtual method in the trampoline class. This macro tries to look up the method from the Python side, deals with the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) and necessary argument conversions to call this method and return the appropriate type. This macro should be used if the method name in C and in Python are identical. See Overriding virtual functions in Python for more information.

class PyAnimal : public Animal {
public:
    // Inherit the constructors
    using Animal::Animal;

    // Trampoline (need one for each virtual function)
    std::string go(int n_times) override {
        PYBIND11_OVERRIDE_PURE(
            std::string, // Return type (ret_type)
            Animal,      // Parent class (cname)
            go,          // Name of function in C++ (must match Python name) (fn)
            n_times      // Argument(s) (...)
        );
    }
};

PYBIND11_OVERRIDE_PURE(ret_type, cname, fn, ...)¶

Macro for pure virtual functions, this function is identical to PYBIND11_OVERRIDE, except that it throws if no override can be found.

PYBIND11_OVERRIDE_NAME(ret_type, cname, name, fn, ...)¶

Macro to populate the virtual method in the trampoline class. This macro tries to look up a method named ‘fn’ from the Python side, deals with the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) and necessary argument conversions to call this method and return the appropriate type. See Overriding virtual functions in Python for more information. This macro should be used when the method name in C is not the same as the method name in Python. For example with __str__.

std::string toString() override {
  PYBIND11_OVERRIDE_NAME(
      std::string, // Return type (ret_type)
      Animal,      // Parent class (cname)
      "__str__",   // Name of method in Python (name)
      toString,    // Name of function in C++ (fn)
  );
}

PYBIND11_OVERRIDE_PURE_NAME(ret_type, cname, name, fn, ...)¶

Macro for pure virtual functions, this function is identical to PYBIND11_OVERRIDE_NAME, except that it throws if no override can be found.

template<class T> function get_override(const T *this_ptr, const char *name)¶

Try to retrieve a python method by the provided name from the instance pointed to by the this_ptr.

this_ptr: The pointer to the object the overriden method should be retrieved for. This should be the first non-trampoline class encountered in the inheritance chain.
name: The name of the overridden Python method to retrieve.
return: The Python method by this name from the object or an empty function wrapper.

Exceptions¶

class error_already_set : public runtime_error¶

Fetch and hold an error which was already set in Python. An instance of this is typically thrown to propagate python-side errors back through C++ which can either be caught manually or else falls back to the function dispatcher (which then raises the captured error back to python).

Public Functions

error_already_set()¶: Constructs a new exception from the current Python error indicator, if any. The current Python error indicator will be cleared.

void restore()¶: Give the currently-held error back to Python, if any. If there is currently a Python error already set it is cleared first. After this call, the current object no longer stores the error variables (but the .what() string is still available).

void discard_as_unraisable(object err_context)¶: If it is impossible to raise the currently-held error, such as in destructor, we can write it out using Python’s unraisable hook (sys.unraisablehook). The error context should be some object whose repr() helps identify the location of the error. Python already knows the type and value of the error, so there is no need to repeat that. For example, func could be helpful. After this call, the current object no longer stores the error variables, and neither does Python.

bool matches(handle exc) const¶: Check if the currently trapped error type matches the given Python exception class (or a subclass thereof). May also be passed a tuple to search for any exception class matches in the given tuple.

class builtin_exception : public runtime_error¶

C++ bindings of builtin Python exceptions.

Subclassed by buffer_error, cast_error, import_error, index_error, key_error, reference_cast_error, stop_iteration, type_error, value_error

Public Functions

void set_error() const = 0¶: Set the error using the Python C API.

Literals¶

namespace literals¶

Functions

constexpr arg operator""_a(const char *name, size_t)¶

String literal version of arg

str operator""_s(const char *s, size_t size)¶

String literal version of str

Reference¶

Macros¶

Convenience classes for arbitrary Python types¶

Common member functions¶

Without reference counting¶

With reference counting¶

Convenience classes for specific Python types¶

Passing extra arguments to def or class_¶

Embedding the interpreter¶

Redirecting C++ streams¶

Python built-in functions¶

Inheritance¶

Exceptions¶

Literals¶

Passing extra arguments to `def` or `class_`¶