How to specify Python 3 source in Cython's setup.py?

One can pass language_level as an option to the cythonize-function in the setup.py-script:

extensions = cythonize(
               extensions, 
               compiler_directives={'language_level' : "3"})   # or "2" or "3str"
             ) 

Another possible syntax is

extensions = cythonize(extensions, language_level = "3")

The above might be more convenient than to add

#cython: language_level=3

to every pyx-file in the project, which might become necessary because since Cython 0.29 there is a warning, if the language_level isn't set explicitly:

/Main.py:367: FutureWarning: Cython directive 'language_level' not set, using 2 for now (Py2). This will change in a later release! File: XXXXXX.pyx
tree = Parsing.p_module(s, pxd, full_module_name)


Because language_level is a global setting, the decorator

cimport cython

@cython.language_level("3")
def do_something():
    pass

will not even be cythonized.


According to official documentation on compilation, the Python language level can be specified using a directive through a special header comment at the top of the file, like this:

#!python
#cython: language_level=3

There doesn't seem to be a way to specify this in setup.py. So if you have many Cython files, you'd have to add the compiler directive to each file. Although the only situation I've met so far that needs this directive is for print() as in your sample, and I've used Cython extensively.