Before the C-API can be used in an extension module it must be initialized by calling the macro import_cvxopt. As an example we show the module initialization from the cvxopt.blas module, which itself uses the API:
PyMODINIT_FUNC initblas(void) { PyObject *m; m = Py_InitModule3("cvxopt.blas", blas_functions, blas__doc__); if (import_cvxopt() < 0) return; }