How to tell distutils to use gcc?

I want to wrap a test project containing C++ and OpenMP code with Cython, and build it with distutils via a setup.py file. The content of my file looks like this:

from distutils.core import setup
from distutils.extension import Extension
from Cython.Build import cythonize
from Cython.Distutils import build_ext


modules = [Extension("Interface",
                     ["Interface.pyx", "Parallel.cpp"],
                     language = "c++",
                     extra_compile_args=["-fopenmp"],
                     extra_link_args=["-fopenmp"])]

for e in modules:
    e.cython_directives = {"embedsignature" : True}

setup(name="Interface",
     cmdclass={"build_ext": build_ext},
     ext_modules=modules)

The -fopenmp flag is used with gcc to compile and link against OpenMP. However, if I just invoke

cls ~/workspace/CythonOpenMP/src $ python3 setup.py build

this flag is not recognized, because the compiler is clang:

running build
running build_ext
skipping 'Interface.cpp' Cython extension (up-to-date)
building 'Interface' extension
cc -Wno-unused-result -fno-common -dynamic -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/opt/sqlite/include -I/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.3.0/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.3/include/python3.3m -c Interface.cpp -o build/temp.macosx-10.8-x86_64-3.3/Interface.o -fopenmp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-fopenmp'
cc -Wno-unused-result -fno-common -dynamic -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/opt/sqlite/include -I/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.3.0/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.3/include/python3.3m -c Parallel.cpp -o build/temp.macosx-10.8-x86_64-3.3/Parallel.o -fopenmp
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-fopenmp'
Parallel.cpp:24:10: warning: unknown pragma ignored [-Wunknown-pragmas]
        #pragma omp parallel for
                ^
1 warning generated.
c++ -bundle -undefined dynamic_lookup -L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/opt/sqlite/lib build/temp.macosx-10.8-x86_64-3.3/Interface.o build/temp.macosx-10.8-x86_64-3.3/Parallel.o -o build/lib.macosx-10.8-x86_64-3.3/Interface.so -fopenmp
ld: library not found for -lgomp
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
error: command 'c++' failed with exit status 1

I've unsucessfully tried to specify gcc:

cls ~/workspace/CythonOpenMP/src $ python3 setup.py build --compiler=g++-4.7
running build
running build_ext
error: don't know how to compile C/C++ code on platform 'posix' with 'g++-4.7' compiler

How can I tell distutils to use gcc?

Try setting the "CC" environment variable from inside the setup.py with os.environ.

Just in case some others are facing the same problem under Windows (where CC environment variable wouldn't have any effect) :

Create file "C:\Python27\Lib\distutils\distutils.cfg" and write this inside :

Code :

[build]
compiler = mingw32

Remove all instances of "-mno-cygwin" gcc option from file "C:\Python27\Lib\distutils\cygwinccompiler.py" :

This :

    self.set_executables(compiler='gcc -mno-cygwin -O -Wall',
                         compiler_so='gcc -mno-cygwin -mdll -O -Wall',
                         compiler_cxx='g++ -mno-cygwin -O -Wall',
                         linker_exe='gcc -mno-cygwin',
                         linker_so='%s -mno-cygwin %s %s'
                                    % (self.linker_dll, shared_option,
                                       entry_point))

Becomes this :

self.set_executables(compiler='gcc -O -Wall',
                     compiler_so='gcc -mdll -O -Wall',
                     compiler_cxx='g++ -O -Wall',
                     linker_exe='gcc',
                     linker_so='%s %s %s'
                                % (self.linker_dll, shared_option,
                                   entry_point))

The second point can be necessary in case you are using a recent version of gcc, where the deprecated option -mno-cygwin has been removed.

Hope this will help even if it is not directly related to the OP real needs (but still related to the question's title...)

I just took a look at the distutils source, and the --compiler option expects "unix", "msvc", "cygwin", "mingw32", "bcpp", or "emx". It checks the compiler name you want by checking the CC environment variable. Try calling build like this: