error: expected declaration specifiers or '...' before string constant

Question

I am getting an error on a specific line that mimics the usage in another file.

PyObject *pyCharGetHeight(PyChar *self, void *closure) {
  CHAR_DATA *ch = PyChar_AsChar((PyObject *)self);
  PyObject *height = NULL;
  if(ch != NULL) height = Py_BuildValue("s", charGetHeight(ch));
  return height;
}

PyChar_addGetSetter("height", pyCharGetHeight, NULL, "Returns character's height");

is returning the following error, PyChar_addGetSetter... line

error: expected declaration specifiers or â...â before string constant

I am using the following includes:

#include <Python.h>
#include "../scripts/pychar.h"

And pychar.h does define PyChar_addGetSetter() as prototyped here:

void PyChar_addGetSetter(const char *name, void *g, void *s, const char *doc);

The function is written in ../scripts/pychar.c as follows:

void PyChar_addGetSetter(const char *name, void *g, void *s, const char *doc) {
  // make sure our list of get/setters is created
  if(pychar_getsetters == NULL) pychar_getsetters = newList();

  // make the GetSetter def
  PyGetSetDef *def = calloc(1, sizeof(PyGetSetDef));
  def->name        = strdup(name);
  def->get         = (getter)g;
  def->set         = (setter)s;
  def->doc         = (doc ? strdup(doc) : NULL);
  def->closure     = NULL;
  listPut(pychar_getsetters, def);
}

It seems like a structure or type is not being recognized, I am guessing my function.

Solution

It looks like you're trying to call a function at the top level of a .c file. You can't do that.

The error message could be a little nicer, but it looks like gcc is interpreting this as an attempt to declare a type named PyChar_addGetSetter and/or to declare a global variable of that type, and failing to interpret it either way, and telling you why that attempt failde.