cuda-pathfinder 1.6.1 Release notes#

Released on Aug 17, 2026

Highlights#

  • Make Windows dynamic-library discovery architecture-aware. Pathfinder now detects whether the current Python interpreter is x64 or Arm64, searches only the matching CUDA Toolkit and wheel directories, and reports only the CTK libraries available for that architecture through SUPPORTED_NVIDIA_LIBNAMES. A known library unavailable for the current architecture raises DynamicLibNotAvailableError. (PR #2393)

  • Add Windows Arm64 discovery for CUDA 13.4 layouts while retaining legacy CUDA 12 wheel directories as x64-only fallbacks. This includes corrected architecture-specific locations for cuDLA, NVVM, CUPTI, and cuSPARSELt. NVVM binaries found in an unqualified legacy directory are checked for a matching PE machine architecture before loading. (PR #2393)

  • Add UnsupportedArchError for unsupported Windows Python platform tags. (PR #2393)

  • Make Windows static-library discovery architecture-aware. Searches now use the current Python interpreter architecture to select the matching lib/x64 or lib/arm64 CUDA Toolkit and wheel directories. CUDA 12 component-wheel and legacy Conda fallbacks remain x64-only. (PR #2491)

  • Fix Windows binary-utility discovery for CUDA 13.4 Arm64 layouts. Prefer the Compute Sanitizer launcher, locate standalone Nsight Systems and Nsight Compute through their installer registry entries, and select architecture-specific executable targets using the native Windows machine architecture. (PR #2586)

Bugfixes#

  • Ensure find_nvidia_binary_utility() returns an absolute path when a configured search root is relative. On Windows, dynamic-library loading now warns when registering a dependent-DLL directory fails before falling back to updating PATH. (PR #2399)

Documentation#

  • Document that source builds require Git history and cuda-pathfinder-v* tags so setuptools-scm can derive the package version. (PR #2424)

Internal maintenance#

  • Group Windows search locations by architecture in the dynamic-library descriptor catalog. Add explicit _X64 and _ARM64 variants of the internal SUPPORTED_LIBNAMES_WINDOWS* and SITE_PACKAGES_LIBDIRS_WINDOWS* tables. Unsuffixed names remain x64 aliases for backward compatibility. (PR #2393)

  • Remove the obsolete descriptor-catalog writer and its catalog-update tools. The site-packages collection scripts remain available for gathering library paths. (PR #2393)

  • Use pathlib.Path internally for static- and bitcode-library discovery while preserving the public string return types. (PR #2493)

  • Isolate Windows Nsight registry discovery in a dedicated internal module and add focused tests; runtime behavior is unchanged. (PR #2614)