Windows installation doesn't work if 64-bit Python is installed

[tyleri]

When installing PyMuPDF using setup.py, the installation will only work if the 32-bit version of Python is installed. If the 64-bit version is installed, there is an error running link.exe from Microsoft's Visual C++ for Python. This issue occurs on Windows 8.

[JorjMcKie]

Did you successfully generate MuPDF for x64 using your VS C++ ? Do you have the MuPDF *.lib files generated under x64? What exactly is the link error saying? We so far have tested PyMuPDF only under Python 32-bit versions (both Linux and WIndows) as far as I know - @rk700 ?

[JorjMcKie]

I have just been trying to build MuPDF for x64 from source using Visual Studio 2013. It did not work, at least on first try and based on the source download of MuPDF: several of the thridparty components for example refuse to get built for anything but x86 an architecture. So if you successfully built a MuPDF x64 version on your Windows system, I would certainly be interested in how you did that ...

[rk700]

@JorjMcKie it works fine on my x86-64 Linux machine, and I agree that we should first figure out whether MuPDF can be built on a x86-64 Windows machine. So @tyleri could you please give us more information on that? Thanks.

[tyleri]

I was unable to build MuPDF using an x64 version of Python. I ended up installing the x86 version of Python to compile it. If needed, I can reinstall the x64 version and provide you with the error output.

[JorjMcKie]

Thank you for the information indeed! If I understood everything correctly, the situation is:

• we (you and I) have a problem installing x64-MuPDF (on 64bit-Windows)
• whether we have a PyMuPDF problem on 64bit-Python on Windows is unknown as yet

So we need to solve the issue with generating a x64 version of MuPDF on Windows first. Only afterwards we can investigate any potential issue with PyMuPDF.

@tyleri: Did I get you right?

I am certainly interested in generating MuPDF on x64-Windows. It must be possible in principle, because you find x64-binaries (mupdf.exe, mutool.exe etc.) for download on their website. If all fails, we can file a request for help or a bug to the MuPDF guys.

[tyleri]

I think that's correct. Installing works fine on 64bit-Windows if a 32bit-Python is installed, but not when 64bit-Python is installed.

[tyleri]

This may be obvious already, but if PyMuPDF is installed using 32bit-Python and then 64bit-Python is installed, the 64bit-Python cannot import the module.

[tyleri]

I logged the error messages I get when installing PyMuPDF with 64bit-Python installed. I noticed that the vcvarsall.bat script referenced by python++.cmd can be provided with three different flags.

Because of this, I tried changing the flag in python++.cmd to all three (none of the three worked), and logged each error message separately. Here's the gist with the logged error messages:

https://gist.github.com/tyleri/f7178cca1cf551e629a5

I also provided my python++.cmd file for reference (the only thing I changed in it is the directory, because Visual C++ For Python did not install in the directory originally referenced by python++.cmd).

Please let me know if you'd like any other information, and thank you for looking into this issue.

[JorjMcKie]

@tyleri everything depends on whether we can get x64 versions of libmupdf.lib and libthirdparty.lib. Once this is achieved, the remaining issues can be resolved by configuring one or the other script or bat file. So, x64 MuPDF must be generated first. I did not have the time yet to follow on on this. As I wrote earlier: when I naively tried to do this with my Visual Studio and the MuPDF source, it wouldn't work, because several third party components refused to get compiled under the Win x64 architecture.

[JorjMcKie]

@tyleri - I have managed to create a 64bit version - so far for Python 3.5 only. But Python 2.7 should not be a problem any longer. I have published a number of pre-generated PyMuPDF installation sets on the optional material repo. Using one of these requires no compile / no MuPDF download whatsoever, because they already contain the correct DLL _fitz.pyd for the respective Python version. Just yesterday I have created and successfully tested a 64bit version for Python 3.5. I will now do they same for 2.7. Please let me know whether you still are interested.

[JorjMcKie]

@tyleri - A minute ago I included a binary setup for PyMuPDF for Python 2.7 64bit version in the optional material repo. Please check whether you can install and use it. Thank you.

[tyleri]

I just installed PyMuPDF for Python 2.7 64-bit, and it worked perfectly! Thank you so much for your hard work on this.

[JorjMcKie]

Very pleased to hear this. Thank you for your prompt feedback. Have fun with it!