Importing 32 bit swig library from python2.4 on 64 bit machine
 

Hi,
I am using swig framework to invoke certain C APIs in a C Library from a python program. Unfortunately the python software needs to run on a 64 bit virtualization platform, whereas the C library is 32 bit (its a 3rd party library whose 64 bit version is not available). Lets say the name of the swig generated shared library is _my_swig.so. When the python wrapper makes "import _my_swig" call, i see the following error
ImportError: -snipsnip-/_my_swig.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32

which probably means I am trying to import a 32 bit library from 64 bit python. Can anybody suggest any workaround?

thanks
veerals123

Have you tried installing the 64 bit package for python or any other package which is giving such error.

Try downloading the specified RPM from below sites
http://rpm.pbone.net
http://www.rpmlinux.org

On the other hand, if your machine is connected to internet you can use yum to install it.
Which distro are you using ?

Hi Vikas, Thanks for your kind response. I think I didnt understand your comment. I already have a 64 bit python 2.4 running on my OS. My OS is centOS-5(x86_64) based and runs a hypervisor. Problem occurs because the 64 bit python is trying to import a 32 bit .so library - needed by swig framework. This results in "wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32" error. If my library was 64 bit, this problem would not occur. But this 3rd party library doesnt have a 64 bit equivalent. Hence I am looking for suggestions on possible workarounds. Hope this makes sense.

Regards
veerals123

Hi Veerals,

Please locate that ".so" file, run below commands on it and paste output here.