python-libusb1: A Python repository from nanodude

Pure-python wrapper for libusb-1.0

Supports all transfer types, both in synchronous and asynchronous mode.

Home: http://github.com/vpelletier/python-libusb1

PyPI: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/libusb1

Requirements

Python 2.4+ required, 2.6+ recommended

Python 3.x somewhat tested

pypy somewhat tested, 1.9 has a bug affecting python-libusb, which is fixed in their HG
ctypes (included in Python 2.5+)
libusb-1.0

libusbx should work, too

Compatibility

python-libusb1 is expected to work on any OS supported by libusb. It can be expected to work on:

GNU/Linux
Windows

not libusb-win32 (this is libusb0.1, the old API)
Cygwin
OSX (macports, fink, homebrew)

(beware of possible lack of select.poll support in python)
FreeBSD

libusb reimplementation: http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/lib/libusb/ (including Debian GNU/kFreeBSD)
OpenBSD

Installation

python setup.py install

(you might need root access to do this)

Documentation

python-libusb1 follows libusb1.0 documentation as closely as possible, without taking decisions for you. Thanks to this, python-libusb1 does not need to duplicate the nice existing libusb1.0 documentation.

Some description is needed though on how to jump from libusb1.0 documentation to python-libusb1, and vice-versa.

libusb1 module is a ctypes translation of libusb1.h file, including all macros, constants and enums. You should not need to call any function from this module, but will probably need to import it for the constants.

usb1 module wraps libusb1 functions so caller does not need to worry about ctype. It regroup them as class methods, the first parameter (when it's a libusb_... pointer) defining the class the fonction belongs to. Examples:

int libusb_init (libusb_context **context) becomes USBContext class constructor
ssize_t libusb_get_device_list (libusb_context *ctx, libusb_device ***list) becomes an USBContext method, returning a list of USBDevice instances
uint8_t libusb_get_bus_number (libusb_device *dev) becomes an USBDevice method

Functions returning an error status instead raise libusb1.USBError instances, with the status as value.

It wraps further some functions which are otherwise not so convenient to call from Python: the event handling API needed by async API. Those classes are docstring-documented, so using pydoc is recommended.

Contents of source distribution

libusb1.py

Bare ctype wrapper, inspired from library C header file.
usb1.py

Python-ish (classes, exceptions, ...) wrapper around libusb1.py . See docstrings (pydoc recommended) for usage.
setup.py

To package as python egg.
stdeb.cfg

To package as Debian package. See https://github.com/astraw/stdeb .
testUSB1.py

Very limited regression test, only testing functions which do not require a USB device.

History

0.0.1

Initial release

0.1.1

Massive rework of usb1.py, making it more python-ish and fixing some memory leaks.

0.1.2

Deprecate "transfer" constructor parameter to allow instance reuse.

0.1.3

Some work on isochronous "in" transfers. They don't raise exceptions anymore, but data validity and python-induced latency impact weren't properly checked.

0.2.0

Fix asynchronous configuration transfers.

Stand-alone polling thread for multi-threaded apps.

More libusb methods exposed on objects, including ones not yet part of released libusb versions (up to their commit 4630fc2).

2to3 friendly.

Drop deprecated USBDevice.reprConfigurations method.

0.2.1

Add FreeBSD support.

0.2.2

Add Cygwin support.

OpenBSD support checked (no change).

0.2.3

Add fink and homebrew support on OSX.

Drop PATH_MAX definition.

Try harder when looking for libusb.

1.0.0

Fix FreeBSD ABI compatibility.

Easier to list connected devices.

Easier to terminate all async transfers for clean exit.

Fix few segfault causes.

pypy support.

1.1.0

Descriptor walk API documented.

Version and capability APIs exposed.

Some portability fixes (OSes, python versions).

Isochronous transfer refuses to round transfer size.

Better exception handling in enumeration.

Add examples.

Better documentation.

1.2.0

Wrap hotplug API.

Wrap port number API.

Wrap kernel auto-detach API.

Drop wrapper for libusb_strerror, with compatibility place-holder.

Add a few new upstream enum values.

1.3.0

Backward-incompatible change: Enum class now affects caller's local scope, not its global scope. This should not be of much importance, as:

This class is probably very little used outside libusb1.py
This class is probably mostly used at module level, where locals == globals.

It is possible to get former behaviour by providing the new scope_dict parameter to Enum constructor:
```
SOME_ENUM = libusb1.Enum({...}, scope_dict=globals())
```

Improve start-up time on CPython by not importing standard inspect module.

Fix some more USBTransfer memory leaks.

Add Transfer.iterISO for more efficient isochronous reception.

nanodude/python-libusb1