Working with libzmq DRAFT sockets#

libzmq-4.2 has introduced the concept of unstable DRAFT APIs. As of libzmq-4.2, this includes the CLIENT-SERVER and RADIO-DISH patterns.

Because these APIs are explicitly unstable, pyzmq does not support them by default, and pyzmq binaries (wheels) will not be built with DRAFT API support. However, pyzmq can be built with draft socket support, as long as you compile pyzmq yourself with a special flag.

To install libzmq with draft support:

ZMQ_VERSION=4.3.5
PREFIX=/usr/local
CPU_COUNT=${CPU_COUNT:-$(python3 -c "import os; print(os.cpu_count())")}


wget https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/download/v${ZMQ_VERSION}/zeromq-${ZMQ_VERSION}.tar.gz -O libzmq.tar.gz
tar -xzf libzmq.tar.gz
cd zeromq-${ZMQ_VERSION}
./configure --prefix=${PREFIX} --enable-drafts
make -j${CPU_COUNT} && make install

And then build pyzmq with draft support:

export ZMQ_PREFIX=${PREFIX}
export ZMQ_DRAFT_API=1
pip install -v pyzmq --no-binary pyzmq

By specifying --no-binary pyzmq, pip knows to not install the pre-built wheels, and will compile pyzmq from source.

The ZMQ_PREFIX=$PREFIX part is only necessary if libzmq is installed somewhere not on the default search path. If libzmq is installed in /usr/local or similar, only the ZMQ_DRAFT_API option is required.

There are examples of the CLIENT-SERVER and RADIO-DISH patterns in the examples/draft directory of the pyzmq repository.