Python.h: No such file or directory

Question

I recently installed KDevelop 4 for C++ development on my Macbook Pro running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

I want to embed Python application in my C++ code. To do that, one needs to include the Python.h header file. So, I did that.

#include <iostream>
#include <Python.h>

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    Py_Initialize();
    return 0;
}

However, on running, I received the following response from the IDE:

fatal error: Python.h: No such file or directory

However, I found the problem soon enough. I hadn't downloaded the python-dev package. So, I did that. I ran again but the same error was there again. So, I thought it must be an issue with the header file not being included by KDevelop. Thus, I added the relevant folder to the include path and KDevelop immediately recognized that by removing the red underline beneath the second include statement in the code above.

But still, the problem remains. I get the same error. Would appreciate any help or inputs you guys can provide :-)

Thanks a lot.

EDIT: Some details that I missed mentioning earlier are that KDevelop is using cmake for my project. I guess the reason my problem is occurring is because cmake doesn't know the appropriate compiler and linker paths. I would appreciate any help in setting the correct paths for cmake.

Answer 1

In your CMakeLists.txt, try adding the following:

find_package(PythonLibs REQUIRED)
include_directories(${PYTHON_INCLUDE_DIRS})
target_link_libraries(<your exe or lib> ${PYTHON_LIBRARIES})

For details of the commands, run:

cmake --help-module FindPythonLibs
cmake --help-command find_package
cmake --help-command include_directories
cmake --help-command target_link_libraries