Description

geofft

opened on Jul 18, 2025

Issue body actions

Bug report

Bug description:

Starting with CPython 3.13, there is now a file lock.h in the Python include directory (not in a further subdirectory). This causes problems when building with other projects or third-party libraries that already have a file named lock.h. See, for instance, mit-athena/python-afs#6 which is building Cython bindings to OpenAFS, which also has an include file of that same name. The compilation environment seems to search CPython's headers before OpenAFS's, meaning that #include <lock.h> now incorrectly picks up CPython's.

To be fair, there are a number of other generic header names too (object.h, import.h, warnings.h, etc.), and also to be fair, <lock.h> is too generic a name for OpenAFS to use, too, especially since it installs to /usr/include/lock.h. But many of the other Python includes have been around since the 1990s, and so people have already dealt with avoiding conflicts with those names, and conversely AFS's lock.h dates from the 1990s (or earlier) too.

It looks like something similar was done for buffer.h -> pybuffer.h in #31201.

Would a PR to rename the top-level include to e.g. pylock.h (either leaving cpython/lock.h alone, or renaming it too) be accepted? As far as I can tell, the file name of lock.h is an implementation detail of the public interface Python.h, and not itself a public interface.

On a more general note, is it worth trying to change things to make the installed header directory contain only Python.h and no other files?

cc @colesbury and @vstinner who might be interested

CPython versions tested on:

3.13

Operating systems tested on:

Linux

Linked PRs

• gh-136759: Rename lock.h to pylock.h #137041
• [3.14] gh-136759: rename lock.h to pylock.h (GH-137041) #137072
• [3.13] gh-136759: rename lock.h to pylock.h (GH-137041) #137075
• [3.13] gh-136759: revert rename lock.h to pylock.h (GH-137041) (#137075) #137166

Activity

1. geofft

   added

   type-bugAn unexpected behavior, bug, or errorAn unexpected behavior, bug, or error

   on Jul 18, 2025
2. StanFromIreland

   added

   type-featureA feature request or enhancementA feature request or enhancement

   interpreter-core(Objects, Python, Grammar, and Parser dirs)(Objects, Python, Grammar, and Parser dirs)

   and removed

   type-bugAn unexpected behavior, bug, or errorAn unexpected behavior, bug, or error

   on Jul 18, 2025
3. geofft commented on Jul 18, 2025

   

   geofft

   on Jul 18, 2025

   ContributorAuthor

   More actions

   I would very mildly argue this is a bug in that it's a regression: a third-party extension that built fine on Python 3.12 doesn't build on 3.13+ and there's no obvious way to make it build. But I don't feel super strongly about it. :)

   Reacted by Itamar Oren
4. colesbury commented on Jul 18, 2025

   

   colesbury

   on Jul 18, 2025

   Contributor

   More actions

   Yes, let's rename lock.h to pylock.h. Let's also rename cpython/lock.h to cpython/pylock.h for consistency.

   Reacted by Antonio Spadaro
5. kumaraditya303

   added a commit that references this issue on Jul 24, 2025

   gh-136759: rename `lock.h` to `pylock.h` (#137041)

   ec02db5
6. miss-islington

   added a commit that references this issue on Jul 24, 2025

   pythongh-136759: rename `lock.h` to `pylock.h` (pythonGH-137041)

   4183f54
7. kumaraditya303

   added a commit that references this issue on Jul 24, 2025

   [3.13] gh-136759: rename `lock.h` to `pylock.h` (GH-137041) (#137075)

   74503ac
8. kumaraditya303

   closed this as completedon Jul 25, 2025
9. kumaraditya303

   added a commit that references this issue on Jul 28, 2025

   Revert "[3.13] pythongh-136759: rename `lock.h` to `pylock.h` (python…

   b3f790f
10. kumaraditya303

    reopened this on Jul 28, 2025
11. kumaraditya303 commented on Jul 28, 2025

    

    kumaraditya303

    on Jul 28, 2025

    Contributor

    More actions

    Unfortunately the PR would have to reverted back for 3.13 and likely won't make it into 3.14 as @zooba explained at #137075 (comment)
12. kumaraditya303

    added a commit that references this issue on Jul 28, 2025

    [3.13] gh-136759: revert rename `lock.h` to `pylock.h` (GH-137041) (#…

    3f57d9b
13. dehnert

    added a commit that references this issue on Aug 3, 2025

    python-afs: Compatibility with Python 3.13

    6ea4835
14. taegyunkim

    added a commit that references this issue on Aug 4, 2025

    pythongh-136759: rename `lock.h` to `pylock.h` (python#137041)

    b88f3d9
15. Agent-Hellboy

    added a commit that references this issue on Aug 19, 2025

    pythongh-136759: rename `lock.h` to `pylock.h` (python#137041)

    f9b4e6b
16. StanFromIreland commented on Sep 17, 2025

    

    StanFromIreland

    on Sep 17, 2025

    Member

    More actions

    Closing as revert was completed and 3.14 backport was closed.
17. StanFromIreland

    closed this as completedon Sep 17, 2025

Issue actions