4 libffi-4?? was released on TBD. Check the libffi web
5 page for updates: <URL:http://sourceware.org/libffi/>.
11 Compilers for high level languages generate code that follow certain
12 conventions. These conventions are necessary, in part, for separate
13 compilation to work. One such convention is the "calling
14 convention". The "calling convention" is essentially a set of
15 assumptions made by the compiler about where function arguments will
16 be found on entry to a function. A "calling convention" also specifies
17 where the return value for a function is found.
19 Some programs may not know at the time of compilation what arguments
20 are to be passed to a function. For instance, an interpreter may be
21 told at run-time about the number and types of arguments used to call
22 a given function. Libffi can be used in such programs to provide a
23 bridge from the interpreter program to compiled code.
25 The libffi library provides a portable, high level programming
26 interface to various calling conventions. This allows a programmer to
27 call any function specified by a call interface description at run
30 FFI stands for Foreign Function Interface. A foreign function
31 interface is the popular name for the interface that allows code
32 written in one language to call code written in another language. The
33 libffi library really only provides the lowest, machine dependent
34 layer of a fully featured foreign function interface. A layer must
35 exist above libffi that handles type conversions for values passed
36 between the two languages.
42 Libffi has been ported to many different platforms.
43 For specific configuration details and testing status, please
44 refer to the wiki page here:
46 http://www.moxielogic.org/wiki/index.php?title=Libffi_3.2
48 At the time of release, the following basic configurations have been
51 |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
52 | Architecture | Operating System | Compiler |
53 |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
54 | AArch64 (ARM64) | iOS | Clang |
55 | AArch64 | Linux | GCC |
56 | Alpha | Linux | GCC |
57 | Alpha | Tru64 | GCC |
61 | AVR32 | Linux | GCC |
62 | Blackfin | uClinux | GCC |
64 | IA-64 | Linux | GCC |
65 | M68K | FreeMiNT | GCC |
66 | M68K | Linux | GCC |
67 | M68K | RTEMS | GCC |
68 | M88K | OpenBSD/mvme88k | GCC |
69 | Meta | Linux | GCC |
70 | MicroBlaze | Linux | GCC |
72 | MIPS | Linux | GCC |
73 | MIPS | RTEMS | GCC |
74 | MIPS64 | Linux | GCC |
75 | Moxie | Bare metal | GCC |
76 | Nios II | Linux | GCC |
77 | OpenRISC | Linux | GCC |
78 | PowerPC 32-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
79 | PowerPC 64-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
80 | PowerPC | AMIGA | GCC |
81 | PowerPC | Linux | GCC |
82 | PowerPC | Mac OSX | GCC |
83 | PowerPC | FreeBSD | GCC |
84 | PowerPC 64-bit | FreeBSD | GCC |
85 | PowerPC 64-bit | Linux ELFv1 | GCC |
86 | PowerPC 64-bit | Linux ELFv2 | GCC |
87 | S390 | Linux | GCC |
88 | S390X | Linux | GCC |
89 | SPARC | Linux | GCC |
90 | SPARC | Solaris | GCC |
91 | SPARC | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
92 | SPARC64 | Linux | GCC |
93 | SPARC64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
94 | SPARC64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
95 | TILE-Gx/TILEPro | Linux | GCC |
96 | VAX | OpenBSD/vax | GCC |
97 | X86 | FreeBSD | GCC |
98 | X86 | GNU HURD | GCC |
99 | X86 | Interix | GCC |
100 | X86 | kFreeBSD | GCC |
101 | X86 | Linux | GCC |
102 | X86 | Mac OSX | GCC |
103 | X86 | OpenBSD | GCC |
105 | X86 | Solaris | GCC |
106 | X86 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
107 | X86 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC |
108 | X86 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
109 | X86-64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
110 | X86-64 | Linux | GCC |
111 | X86-64 | Linux/x32 | GCC |
112 | X86-64 | OpenBSD | GCC |
113 | X86-64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
114 | X86-64 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC |
115 | X86-64 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
116 | Xtensa | Linux | GCC |
117 |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
119 Please send additional platform test results to
120 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org and feel free to update the wiki page
126 First you must configure the distribution for your particular
127 system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the
128 "configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source
131 If you're building libffi directly from version control, configure won't
132 exist yet; run ./autogen.sh first.
134 You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and
135 header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi
136 will install under /usr/local by default.
138 If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the
139 --enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies
140 mysteriously while using libffi.
142 Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this
143 will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you
144 are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using
145 Purify, as it will slow down the library.
147 It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with
148 Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh
149 wrapper script during configuration like so:
151 path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh CXX=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP="cl -nologo -EP"
153 For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64" and
154 CXX="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64". You may also need to specify --build
157 It is also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with the LLVM
158 project's clang-cl compiler, like below:
160 path/to/configure CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -clang-cl" CXX="path/to/msvcc.sh -clang-cl" LD=link CPP="clang-cl -EP"
162 When building with MSVC under a MingW environment, you may need to
163 remove the line in configure that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath'
164 command. ('cygpath' is not present in MingW, and is not required when
165 using MingW-style paths.)
167 For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
169 Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
171 Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
172 GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make .
174 To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
175 This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
177 To install the library and header files, type "make install".
183 See the git log for details at http://github.com/atgreen/libffi.
186 New API in support of GO closures.
189 Build fix for non-iOS AArch64 targets.
192 Add C99 Complex Type support (currently only supported on
194 Add support for PASCAL and REGISTER calling conventions on x86
196 Add OpenRISC and Cygwin-64 support.
200 Add AArch64 (ARM64) iOS support.
202 Add m88k and DEC VAX support.
203 Add support for stdcall, thiscall, and fastcall on non-Windows
204 32-bit x86 targets such as Linux.
205 Various Android, MIPS N32, x86, FreeBSD and UltraSPARC IIi
207 Make the testsuite more robust: eliminate several spurious
208 failures, and respect the $CC and $CXX environment variables.
209 Archive off the manually maintained ChangeLog in favor of git
214 Add missing Moxie bits.
215 Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86.
216 Build fix for m68000 targets.
217 Build fix for soft-float Power targets.
218 Fix the install dir location for some platforms when building
219 with GCC (OS X, Solaris).
220 Fix Cygwin regression.
225 Add Blackfin support.
226 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
227 Add MicroBlaze support.
229 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
230 Add support for native vendor compilers on
232 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.
236 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
237 Add Linux/x32 support.
238 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
239 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
240 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
241 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
242 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
243 Fix code pessimizations.
246 Add support for Apple's iOS.
247 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
248 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
249 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
251 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
252 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
253 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
254 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
256 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
257 Additional platform support.
260 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
261 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
262 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
263 Build DLL for windows.
266 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
270 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
273 Fix for closures on sh.
274 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
275 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
279 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
283 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
286 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
287 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
288 Clean up test instruction in README.
291 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
292 Thanks to Björn König.
295 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
296 Thanks to David Daney.
299 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
300 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
305 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
308 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
309 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
310 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
314 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
317 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
318 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
321 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
324 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
327 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
328 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
332 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
333 about certain low level code.
334 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
338 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
339 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
340 is now Cygnus Solutions.
343 Added notes about GNU make.
346 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
349 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
350 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
351 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
354 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
357 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
360 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
363 Interface changes based on feedback.
366 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
369 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
370 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
373 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
377 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
378 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
381 First release. No public announcement.
387 libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@moxielogic.com>.
389 The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
390 innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
393 Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
394 gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
396 The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
399 Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
402 aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
403 alpha Richard Henderson
405 blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
406 cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
412 microblaze Nathan Rossi
413 mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
416 nios ii Sandra Loosemore
417 openrisc Sebastian Macke
418 pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
419 powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
420 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
421 powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
422 s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
425 sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
426 tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
428 x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
432 Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
433 stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
435 Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
438 Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
441 Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
443 Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
445 The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
446 happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
448 If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
449 author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
450 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.