PyOpenGL-glut-binaries

Prebuilt Windows freeglut and GLE libraries for PyOpenGL.

OpenGL.GLUT and OpenGL.GLE wrap two C libraries that Windows does not ship. This distribution carries builds of both, so a Windows user gets them by asking:

pip install PyOpenGL[glut]

Nothing to call and nothing to configure: PyOpenGL finds the directory itself. A freeglut the system provides still wins over these, because a user who installed their own meant it.

Why it is a package of its own

The same builds shipped inside PyOpenGL itself, in every wheel on every platform, so a Linux server rendering headlessly through EGL downloaded six freeglut builds it could never load. As a separate, platform-tagged distribution they reach the machines that can use them and no others, and a scanner that objects to a decade-old vendored binary objects to a package only GLUT users install rather than to PyOpenGL.

What is here

Six builds of each library, because PyOpenGL asks for one exact name composed from the running interpreter's word size and compiler generation:

Both the win32 and the win_amd64 wheel carry all twelve, along with the upstream licence and readme files. The word sizes are not split between the two wheels: a split would halve the download and is a change to make on its own, where a regression in it is attributable.

Using it directly

PyOpenGL is the intended caller, but the path is public:

from pyopengl_glut_binaries import DLL_DIRECTORY

BUILDS lists the base names above and LIBRARIES says where each library came from.

Licensing

The packaging is BSD-licensed; see LICENSE. The libraries are third-party works under their own terms, which ship beside them in src/pyopengl_glut_binaries/DLLS/:

• freeglut — 3.0.0-1.mp for MSVC, Martin Payne's build. freeglut upstream publishes source rather than Windows binaries. X-Consortium licence, in freeglut_COPYING.txt.
• GLE — the tubing and extrusion library, built as a Windows DLL. See gle_COPYING, gle_COPYING.src and gle_AUTHORS.

Releases

A push to main runs the tests; if they are green and __version__ in src/pyopengl_glut_binaries/__init__.py is not already on PyPI, the wheels and the sdist are built and published. Bumping the version is what cuts a release.

Issues go to the PyOpenGL tracker.