Windows wheel doesn't have raqm support

[missionfloyd]

What did you do?

>>> from PIL import features
>>> features.check_feature("raqm")

Missing raqm support was thought to be an issue with piwheels (#6023, #7121) and maybe it's that as well, but this returns false on windows as well. Of the systems I've tried it on (Windows x64, Linux x64, Linux ARM), the only one that raqm works on when installed from a wheel is Linux x64.

Looking at the dependencies section of build_prepare.py, libraqm seems to be missing.

What did you expect to happen?

True

What actually happened?

False

What are your OS, Python and Pillow versions?

• OS: Windows 10
• Python: 3.10.11
• Pillow: 9.5.0

[radarhere]

Under the 'Windows' section of https://pillow.readthedocs.io/en/stable/installation.html#basic-installation,

Raqm support requires FriBiDi to be installed separately

Under https://pillow.readthedocs.io/en/stable/installation.html#external-libraries

Pillow wheels since version 8.2.0 include a modified version of libraqm that loads libfribidi at runtime if it is installed. On Windows this requires compiling FriBiDi and installing fribidi.dll into a directory listed in the Dynamic-link library search order (Microsoft Learn) (fribidi-0.dll or libfribidi-0.dll are also detected).

You can find the fribidi.dll under https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/actions/runs/4581728630 at https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/suites/11959728415/artifacts/627327930

[missionfloyd]

Tried that, still doesn't work.

[radarhere]

I'm guessing you once again used pip install Pillow to install Pillow?

Where did you place fribidi.dll?

[missionfloyd]

In the current working directory.

Edit: Apparently that's no good. I put it in system32 and it worked.

[nulano]

I put it in system32 and it worked.

I would not recommend that in case some other application has a conflict with it. Instead, I would recommend putting fribidi.dll next to the system Python executable, e.g. C:\\Program Files\\Python311\\fribidi.dll.

In the same folder I'm running python from.

Are you running Python from a virtual environment? The python.exe in the virtual environment is not the real Python executable, you have to put fribidi.dll next to the actual interpreter executable.

For example, my Python is installed here:

>>> import sys
>>> sys._base_executable
'C:\\Program Files\\Python311\\python.exe'

And I usually put fribidi.dll in C:\\Program Files\\Python311\\fribidi.dll.

The full list of supported directories is at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/dlls/dynamic-link-library-search-order#standard-search-order-for-unpackaged-apps, however, I think this may have been changed with Python 3.8 (I can't easily check right now) to just the directories at https://bugs.python.org/issue43173#msg386691. Edit: Testing with Python 3.11, the standard order is still in use.

4. Loaded-module list.

(I have never tested this, but you should be able to load fribidi.dll from any directory using ctypes before importing PIL.ImageFont)

7. The folder from which the application loaded.

(this is next to sys._base_executable, e.g. C:\\Program Files\\Python311\\fribidi.dll)

8. The system folder. Use the GetSystemDirectory function to retrieve the path of this folder.

(C:\Windows\System32)

10. The Windows folder. Use the GetWindowsDirectory function to get the path of this folder.

(C:\Windows; possibly not supported with Python 3.8+)

11. The current folder.

(at the time PIL.ImageFont is first imported; possibly not supported with Python 3.8+)

12. The directories that are listed in the PATH environment variable. This doesn't include the per-application path specified by the App Paths registry key. The App Paths key isn't used when computing the DLL search path.

(possibly not supported with Python 3.8+)

the user DLL search directories that get added by SetDllDirectory() and AddDllDirectory(), such as with os.add_dll_directory()

(possibly supported with Python 3.8+)

[Adventurerohan]

where is that fribidi.dll its deleted from everywhere pls help me to get that

[radarhere]

If you scroll to the bottom of https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/actions/runs/20888169833, one of the run of our CI for generating wheels, you will find that present as well.

[Adventurerohan]

Thanks you so much @radarhere for helping me 💕✌️