OpenSSL installed by Python is not found by Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler for Python 2.7

[RobertValue]

As per your usage instructions I have not added Python to the PATH env var. I have 4 Python installations 32 and 64 bit 2.7.9 and 32 and 64 bit 3.4.2

Python installs OpenSSL by default for all.

How can I make the Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler for Python 2.7 (VCForPython27.msi) find the OpenSSL installed by the Python installer?

What I did. Please forgive the length of the text. :

I have the following installed:

python-2.7.9.amd64.msi into C:\Python27-x64

python-2.7.9.msi into C:\Python27

python-3.4.2.amd64.msi into C:\Python34-x64

python-3.4.2.msi into C:\Python34

pywin32-219.win32-py2.7.exe into C:\Python27

pywin32-219.win32-py3.4.exe into C:\Python34

pywin32-219.win-amd64-py2.7.exe into C:\Python27-x64

pywin32-219.win-amd64-py3.4.exe into C:\Python34-x64

Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler for Python 2.7 :

VCForPython27.msi required to compile Python plugins Cheetah and PyOpemSSL

launchwin.amd64.msi into C:\Windows

As per your usage instructions I chose not to add Python to PATH: "In practice, once the launcher is installed, you can run any Python script on your system even if Python is not on the path, simply invoking the script by name (if you have .py and .pyw in your PATHEXT environment variable, you don't even need to specify the extension):" I added .PYW to PATHEXT (.PY was already added.)

I checked that the Python installers had installed OpenSSL:

C:\home\robert\webdev\git-repos\dev-protocols-python-pyopenssl> py -2
Python 2.7.9 (default, Dec 10 2014, 12:28:03) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import ssl
>>> ssl.OPENSSL_VERSION
'OpenSSL 1.0.1j 15 Oct 2014'
>>> exit()

C:\home\robert\webdev\git-repos\dev-protocols-python-pyopenssl> py -3
Python 3.4.2 (v3.4.2:ab2c023a9432, Oct  6 2014, 22:16:31) [MSC v.1600 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import ssl
>>> ssl.OPENSSL_VERSION
'OpenSSL 1.0.1i 6 Aug 2014'
>>> exit()

Then I installed/compiled Cheetah. All OK.

Then I installed/compiled PyOpenSSL. And OpenSSL (header) file openssl/aes.h can't be found :

Installed c:\users\robert\appdata\local\temp\easy_install-ikkhhw\cryptography-0.7.1\.eggs\pycparser-2.10-py2.7.egg
no previously-included directories found matching 'docs\_build'
warning: no previously-included files matching '*' found under directory 'vectors'
_Cryptography_cffi_70441dc9x8be47966.c
src\cryptography\hazmat\bindings\__pycache__\_Cryptography_cffi_70441dc9x8be47966.c(194) : fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'openssl/aes.h': No such file or directory
error: [Error 5] Access is denied: 'c:\\users\\robert\\appdata\\local\\temp\\easy_install-ikkhhw\\cryptography-0.7.1\\.eggs\\cffi-0.8.6-py2.7-win-amd64.egg\\_cffi_backend.pyd'

C:\home\robert\webdev\git-repos\dev-protocols-python-pyopenssl>

After this error I have also looked into installing Win32OpenSSL and Win64OpenSSL from here: http://slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html But I decided against it because I could not determine if installing both 32-bit and 64-bit versions was possible or even required in my case with 4 installations. Even so, there was no guarantee that OpenSSL would be found by the compiler.

[Vinay Sajip]

This does not appear to be a bug in the Python launcher for Windows, which appears to be working as expected (py -2, py -3). Please read PEP 397 and try to understand the scope of what the launcher does.

[RobertValue]

Then apparently I do need to add Python to the PATH env var. Or maybe OpenSSL to LIB and INCLUDE. (Which is going to be tricky with 4 installations.) Nevermind. Thanks anyway.

[RobertValue]

BTW, it's not py.exe or pyw.exe which finds OpenSSL. They both find Python. The Python shell finds OpenSSL.