Interfacing external C code with duplicate method names using Cython

Question

I want to provide a native interface to some C code from my Python code. For this I decided on Cython.

In this specific case, I have some C files which have duplicate names, resulting in compilation issues. Is there any way I can circumvent this? The solution from the official documentation (https://cython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/src/userguide/external_C_code.html#resolving-naming-conflicts-c-name-specifications) does not seem to be sufficient.

The following example has been stripped down to demonstrate the issue, while my actual use case is for a larger third-party library. In the best case, I can avoid having multiple *.so files with similar content. I might need to use the different definitions of the same method during runtime.

---

Example

# File setup.py
from setuptools import setup
from Cython.Build import cythonize

setup(
    ext_modules = cythonize("my_test.pyx", language_level=3)
)

# File my_test.pyx
from binding cimport add as _add, subtract as _subtract, module1_main as _main

print('Hello World')


def add(a, b):
    return _add(a, b)


def subtract(a, b):
    return _subtract(a, b)


def main():
    return _main()

# File binding.pxd
cdef extern from "module1.c":
    int add (int a, int b)
    int subtract (int a, int b)
    int module1_main "main" ()


cdef extern from "module2.c":
    int module2_main "main" ()

// File module1.c
#include <stdio.h>

static int add(int a, int b) {
    return a + b;
}


static int subtract(int a, int b) {
    return a - b;
}


int main() {
    printf("Result: %d", add(40, 2));
    return 0;
}

// File module2.c
#include <stdio.h>


int main() {
    printf("Hello from module 2");
    return 0;
}

Error message

(venv) user@host ~/path/to/directory $ python setup.py build_ext --inplace
Compiling my_test.pyx because it changed.
[1/1] Cythonizing my_test.pyx
running build_ext
building 'my_test' extension
x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc -pthread -Wno-unused-result -Wsign-compare -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -g -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -g -fwrapv -O2 -fPIC -I. "-I/home/user/path/to/directory/venv/include" -I/usr/include/python3.8 -c my_test.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-cpython-38/my_test.o
In file included from my_test.c:716:
module2.c:4:5: error: redefinition of ‘main’
    4 | int main() {
      |     ^~~~
In file included from my_test.c:715:
module1.c:13:5: note: previous definition of ‘main’ was here
   13 | int main() {
      |     ^~~~
error: command '/usr/bin/x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc' failed with exit code 1