.. SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
.. SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

.. py:currentmodule:: cuda.pathfinder

``cuda-pathfinder`` 1.6.1 Release notes
=======================================

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``.

* 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.

* Add ``UnsupportedArchError`` for unsupported Windows Python platform tags.

* 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.

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.

* Remove the obsolete descriptor-catalog writer and its catalog-update tools.
  The site-packages collection scripts remain available for gathering library
  paths.
