SQLCipher in Python (Build & Use) 🇬🇧

Gather all the stuff needed to build SQLCipher in Windows :

MSVC compiler which could be found on Microsoft website here.
ActiveTCL which could be found on ActiveTCL website here.
OpenSSL for windows which could be downloaded here (doesn’t download the light version). Install-it in a directory without special characters.
The source code of SQLCipher from Github. It’s recommended to clone the repository in a directory without special characters.

git clone https://github.com/sqlcipher/sqlcipher.git

Configuration of the build (edit Makefile.msc)

Change

# Flags controlling use of the in memory btree implementation
#
# SQLITE_TEMP_STORE is 0 to force temporary tables to be in a file, 1 to
# default to file, 2 to default to memory, and 3 to force temporary
# tables to always be in memory.
#
TCC = $(TCC) -DSQLITE_TEMP_STORE=1
RCC = $(RCC) -DSQLITE_TEMP_STORE=1

into

TCC = $(TCC) -DSQLITE_TEMP_STORE=2 -DSQLITE_HAS_CODEC -I"C:\Dev\Tools\OpenSSL-Win64\include"

And add after this :

# If ICU support is enabled, add the linker options for it.
#
!IF $(USE_ICU)!=0
LTLIBPATHS = $(LTLIBPATHS) /LIBPATH:$(ICULIBDIR)
LTLIBS = $(LTLIBS) $(LIBICU)
!ENDIF
# <</mark>>

the two lines :

# If ICU support is enabled, add the linker options for it.
#
!IF $(USE_ICU)!=0
LTLIBPATHS = $(LTLIBPATHS) /LIBPATH:$(ICULIBDIR)
LTLIBS = $(LTLIBS) $(LIBICU)
!ENDIF
# <</mark>>

LTLIBPATHS = $(LTLIBPATHS) /LIBPATH:"C:\Dev\Tools\OpenSSL-Win64\lib\VC\static"
LTLIBS = $(LTLIBS) libcrypto64MT.lib libssl64MT.lib ws2_32.lib shell32.lib advapi32.lib gdi32.lib user32.lib crypt32.lib

Build SQLCipher

nmake /f Makefile.msc

It will build two new files

Copy / Replace the existing sqlite3.dll and sqlite3.exe in the python directory

Use it in Python

connection = sqlite3.connect(path)
connection.cursor().execute("PRAGMA key='your_password'")