{"library":"pcpp","title":"PCPP: A C99 Preprocessor","description":"PCPP is a pure Python implementation of a C99 preprocessor. It's designed to preprocess C and C++ source code, handling directives like `#include`, `#define`, and conditional compilation. A key use case is for processing header-only C++ libraries into single-file includes and for integration with documentation tools like Doxygen. The library is actively maintained, though with an infrequent release cadence, with the latest significant update in late 2021.","language":"python","status":"active","last_verified":"Mon May 18","install":{"commands":["pip install pcpp"],"cli":null},"imports":["from pcpp.preprocessor import Preprocessor"],"auth":{"required":false,"env_vars":[]},"quickstart":{"code":"from pcpp.preprocessor import Preprocessor\nimport io\n\n# Example C code as a string\nc_code = '''\n#define MY_MACRO \"Hello, World!\"\n#define VERSION 10\n\n#if VERSION > 5\nconst char* message = MY_MACRO;\n#else\nconst char* message = \"Old version\";\n#endif\n\nint main() {\n    printf(\"%s\\n\", message);\n    return 0;\n}\n'''\n\n# Create a Preprocessor instance\np = Preprocessor()\n\n# Define additional macros (optional)\np.define(\"DEBUG\")\n\n# Prepare input stream (from string or file)\ninput_stream = io.StringIO(c_code)\n\n# Parse and preprocess the input\np.parse(input_stream)\n\n# Get the preprocessed output\noutput = p.stream()\n\n# You can iterate through the tokens or get the full string output\nprocessed_code = ''.join(str(x) for x in output)\n\nprint(processed_code)\n\n# Expected output for VERSION=10 and DEBUG defined:\n# const char* message = \"Hello, World!\";\n#\n# int main() {\n#     printf(\"%s\\n\", message);\n#     return 0;\n# }\n","lang":"python","description":"This quickstart demonstrates how to instantiate the `Preprocessor` class, define custom macros, feed it C source code, and retrieve the preprocessed output. The `parse` method takes a file-like object, and `stream` returns an iterator of tokens which can be joined to form the final string.","tag":null,"tag_description":null,"last_tested":null,"results":[]},"compatibility":{"tag":null,"tag_description":null,"last_tested":"2026-05-18","installed_version":"1.30","pypi_latest":"1.30","is_stale":false,"summary":{"python_range":"3.10–3.9","success_rate":100,"avg_install_s":1.6,"avg_import_s":0.05,"wheel_type":"wheel"},"results":[{"runtime":"python:3.10-alpine","python_version":"3.10","os_libc":"alpine (musl)","variant":"pcpp","exit_code":0,"wheel_type":"wheel","failure_reason":null,"import_side_effects":"clean","install_time_s":null,"import_time_s":0.03,"mem_mb":1.8,"disk_size":"18.4M"},{"runtime":"python:3.10-slim","python_version":"3.10","os_libc":"slim (glibc)","variant":"pcpp","exit_code":0,"wheel_type":"wheel","failure_reason":null,"import_side_effects":"clean","install_time_s":1.6,"import_time_s":0.02,"mem_mb":1.8,"disk_size":"19M"},{"runtime":"python:3.11-alpine","python_version":"3.11","os_libc":"alpine (musl)","variant":"pcpp","exit_code":0,"wheel_type":"wheel","failure_reason":null,"import_side_effects":"clean","install_time_s":null,"import_time_s":0.07,"mem_mb":2.3,"disk_size":"20.4M"},{"runtime":"python:3.11-slim","python_version":"3.11","os_libc":"slim (glibc)","variant":"pcpp","exit_code":0,"wheel_type":"wheel","failure_reason":null,"import_side_effects":"clean","install_time_s":1.6,"import_time_s":0.05,"mem_mb":2.3,"disk_size":"21M"},{"runtime":"python:3.12-alpine","python_version":"3.12","os_libc":"alpine (musl)","variant":"pcpp","exit_code":0,"wheel_type":"wheel","failure_reason":null,"import_side_effects":"clean","install_time_s":null,"import_time_s":0.05,"mem_mb":2.3,"disk_size":"12.3M"},{"runtime":"python:3.12-slim","python_version":"3.12","os_libc":"slim (glibc)","variant":"pcpp","exit_code":0,"wheel_type":"wheel","failure_reason":null,"import_side_effects":"clean","install_time_s":1.4,"import_time_s":0.06,"mem_mb":2.3,"disk_size":"13M"},{"runtime":"python:3.13-alpine","python_version":"3.13","os_libc":"alpine (musl)","variant":"pcpp","exit_code":0,"wheel_type":"wheel","failure_reason":null,"import_side_effects":"clean","install_time_s":null,"import_time_s":0.06,"mem_mb":2.9,"disk_size":"12.0M"},{"runtime":"python:3.13-slim","python_version":"3.13","os_libc":"slim (glibc)","variant":"pcpp","exit_code":0,"wheel_type":"wheel","failure_reason":null,"import_side_effects":"clean","install_time_s":1.5,"import_time_s":0.06,"mem_mb":2.7,"disk_size":"13M"},{"runtime":"python:3.9-alpine","python_version":"3.9","os_libc":"alpine (musl)","variant":"pcpp","exit_code":0,"wheel_type":"wheel","failure_reason":null,"import_side_effects":"clean","install_time_s":null,"import_time_s":0.03,"mem_mb":1.8,"disk_size":"17.9M"},{"runtime":"python:3.9-slim","python_version":"3.9","os_libc":"slim (glibc)","variant":"pcpp","exit_code":0,"wheel_type":"wheel","failure_reason":null,"import_side_effects":"clean","install_time_s":1.8,"import_time_s":0.03,"mem_mb":1.8,"disk_size":"18M"}]}}