| Status |
| ====== |
| |
| libffi-3.0.13 was released on March 16, 2013. Check the libffi web |
| page for updates: <URL:http://sourceware.org/libffi/>. |
| |
| |
| What is libffi? |
| =============== |
| |
| Compilers for high level languages generate code that follow certain |
| conventions. These conventions are necessary, in part, for separate |
| compilation to work. One such convention is the "calling |
| convention". The "calling convention" is essentially a set of |
| assumptions made by the compiler about where function arguments will |
| be found on entry to a function. A "calling convention" also specifies |
| where the return value for a function is found. |
| |
| Some programs may not know at the time of compilation what arguments |
| are to be passed to a function. For instance, an interpreter may be |
| told at run-time about the number and types of arguments used to call |
| a given function. Libffi can be used in such programs to provide a |
| bridge from the interpreter program to compiled code. |
| |
| The libffi library provides a portable, high level programming |
| interface to various calling conventions. This allows a programmer to |
| call any function specified by a call interface description at run |
| time. |
| |
| FFI stands for Foreign Function Interface. A foreign function |
| interface is the popular name for the interface that allows code |
| written in one language to call code written in another language. The |
| libffi library really only provides the lowest, machine dependent |
| layer of a fully featured foreign function interface. A layer must |
| exist above libffi that handles type conversions for values passed |
| between the two languages. |
| |
| |
| Supported Platforms |
| =================== |
| |
| Libffi has been ported to many different platforms. |
| For specific configuration details and testing status, please |
| refer to the wiki page here: |
| |
| http://www.moxielogic.org/wiki/index.php?title=Libffi_3.0.12 |
| |
| At the time of release, the following basic configurations have been |
| tested: |
| |
| |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------| |
| | Architecture | Operating System | Compiler | |
| |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------| |
| | AArch64 | Linux | GCC | |
| | Alpha | Linux | GCC | |
| | Alpha | Tru64 | GCC | |
| | ARM | Linux | GCC | |
| | ARM | iOS | GCC | |
| | AVR32 | Linux | GCC | |
| | Blackfin | uClinux | GCC | |
| | HPPA | HPUX | GCC | |
| | IA-64 | Linux | GCC | |
| | M68K | FreeMiNT | GCC | |
| | M68K | Linux | GCC | |
| | M68K | RTEMS | GCC | |
| | Meta | Linux | GCC | |
| | MicroBlaze | Linux | GCC | |
| | MIPS | IRIX | GCC | |
| | MIPS | Linux | GCC | |
| | MIPS | RTEMS | GCC | |
| | MIPS64 | Linux | GCC | |
| | Moxie | Bare metal | GCC |
| | PowerPC 32-bit | AIX | IBM XL C | |
| | PowerPC 64-bit | AIX | IBM XL C | |
| | PowerPC | AMIGA | GCC | |
| | PowerPC | Linux | GCC | |
| | PowerPC | Mac OSX | GCC | |
| | PowerPC | FreeBSD | GCC | |
| | PowerPC 64-bit | FreeBSD | GCC | |
| | PowerPC 64-bit | Linux | GCC | |
| | S390 | Linux | GCC | |
| | S390X | Linux | GCC | |
| | SPARC | Linux | GCC | |
| | SPARC | Solaris | GCC | |
| | SPARC | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C | |
| | SPARC64 | Linux | GCC | |
| | SPARC64 | FreeBSD | GCC | |
| | SPARC64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C | |
| | TILE-Gx/TILEPro | Linux | GCC | |
| | X86 | FreeBSD | GCC | |
| | X86 | GNU HURD | GCC | |
| | X86 | Interix | GCC | |
| | X86 | kFreeBSD | GCC | |
| | X86 | Linux | GCC | |
| | X86 | Mac OSX | GCC | |
| | X86 | OpenBSD | GCC | |
| | X86 | OS/2 | GCC | |
| | X86 | Solaris | GCC | |
| | X86 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C | |
| | X86 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC | |
| | X86 | Windows/MingW | GCC | |
| | X86-64 | FreeBSD | GCC | |
| | X86-64 | Linux | GCC | |
| | X86-64 | Linux/x32 | GCC | |
| | X86-64 | OpenBSD | GCC | |
| | X86-64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C | |
| | X86-64 | Windows/MingW | GCC | |
| | Xtensa | Linux | GCC | |
| |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------| |
| |
| Please send additional platform test results to |
| libffi-discuss@sourceware.org and feel free to update the wiki page |
| above. |
| |
| Installing libffi |
| ================= |
| |
| First you must configure the distribution for your particular |
| system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the |
| "configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source |
| distribution. |
| |
| You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and |
| header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi |
| will install under /usr/local by default. |
| |
| If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the |
| --enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies |
| mysteriously while using libffi. |
| |
| Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this |
| will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you |
| are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using |
| Purify, as it will slow down the library. |
| |
| It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with |
| Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh |
| wrapper script during configuration like so: |
| |
| path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP=\"cl -nologo -EP\" |
| |
| For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64". |
| You may also need to specify --build appropriately. When building with MSVC |
| under a MingW environment, you may need to remove the line in configure |
| that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath' command. ('cygpath' is not |
| present in MingW, and is not required when using MingW-style paths.) |
| |
| For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available. |
| |
| Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all. |
| |
| Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using |
| GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make . |
| |
| To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check". |
| This will require that you have DejaGNU installed. |
| |
| To install the library and header files, type "make install". |
| |
| |
| History |
| ======= |
| |
| See the ChangeLog files for details. |
| |
| 3.0.13 Mar-16-13 |
| |
| Add Meta support. |
| Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86. |
| |
| 3.0.12 Feb-11-13 |
| Add Moxie support. |
| Add AArch64 support. |
| Add Blackfin support. |
| Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support. |
| Add MicroBlaze support. |
| Add Xtensa support. |
| Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT. |
| Add support for native vendor compilers on |
| Solaris and AIX. |
| Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64. |
| |
| 3.0.11 Apr-11-12 |
| Lots of build fixes. |
| Add Amiga newer MacOS support. |
| Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var). |
| Add Linux/x32 support. |
| Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows. |
| Add Amiga and newer MacOS support. |
| Add m68k FreeMiNT support. |
| Integration with iOS' xcode build tools. |
| Fix Octeon and MC68881 support. |
| Fix code pessimizations. |
| |
| 3.0.10 Aug-23-11 |
| Add support for Apple's iOS. |
| Add support for ARM VFP ABI. |
| Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K. |
| Fix instruction cache clearing problems on |
| ARM and SPARC. |
| Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5. |
| Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler. |
| Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler. |
| Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc |
| Solaris compiler. |
| Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix. |
| Additional platform support. |
| |
| 3.0.9 Dec-31-09 |
| Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support. |
| Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD. |
| Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes. |
| Build DLL for windows. |
| |
| 3.0.8 Dec-19-08 |
| Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support. |
| |
| 3.0.7 Nov-11-08 |
| Fix for ppc FreeBSD. |
| (thanks to Andreas Tobler) |
| |
| 3.0.6 Jul-17-08 |
| Fix for closures on sh. |
| Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable. |
| (both thanks to Kaz Kojima) |
| |
| 3.0.5 Apr-3-08 |
| Fix libffi.pc file. |
| Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users. |
| Fix x86 closure bug. |
| |
| 3.0.4 Feb-24-08 |
| Fix x86 OpenBSD configury. |
| |
| 3.0.3 Feb-22-08 |
| Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and |
| x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler. |
| Clean up test instruction in README. |
| |
| 3.0.2 Feb-21-08 |
| Improved x86 FreeBSD support. |
| Thanks to Björn König. |
| |
| 3.0.1 Feb-15-08 |
| Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS. |
| Thanks to David Daney. |
| |
| 3.0.0 Feb-15-08 |
| Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project. |
| Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat. |
| |
| [10 years go by...] |
| |
| 1.20 Oct-5-98 |
| Raffaele Sena produces ARM port. |
| |
| 1.19 Oct-5-98 |
| Fixed x86 long double and long long return support. |
| m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab. |
| Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard |
| Henderson. |
| |
| 1.18 Apr-17-98 |
| Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes. |
| |
| 1.17 Feb-24-98 |
| Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from |
| Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes. |
| |
| 1.16 Feb-11-98 |
| Richard Henderson produces Alpha port. |
| |
| 1.15 Dec-4-97 |
| Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support. |
| |
| 1.14 May-13-97 |
| libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries. |
| Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus |
| <mcmanr@eq.gs.com>. |
| |
| 1.13 Dec-2-96 |
| Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining |
| about certain low level code. |
| Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args. |
| Linux x86 a.out fix. |
| |
| 1.12 Nov-22-96 |
| Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return |
| types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support |
| is now Cygnus Solutions. |
| |
| 1.11 Oct-30-96 |
| Added notes about GNU make. |
| |
| 1.10 Oct-29-96 |
| Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers. |
| |
| 1.09 Oct-29-96 |
| Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint |
| feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration |
| fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds. |
| |
| 1.08 Oct-15-96 |
| Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups. |
| |
| 1.07 Oct-14-96 |
| Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes. |
| |
| 1.06 Oct-14-96 |
| Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port. |
| |
| 1.05 Oct-14-96 |
| Interface changes based on feedback. |
| |
| 1.04 Oct-11-96 |
| Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug). |
| |
| 1.03 Oct-10-96 |
| Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for |
| all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests. |
| |
| 1.02 Oct-9-96 |
| Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support. |
| Added "make test". |
| |
| 1.01 Oct-8-96 |
| Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some |
| of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools. |
| |
| 1.00 Oct-7-96 |
| First release. No public announcement. |
| |
| |
| Authors & Credits |
| ================= |
| |
| libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@redhat.com>. |
| |
| The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made |
| innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for |
| details. |
| |
| Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free |
| gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines. |
| |
| The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab |
| Thorup. |
| |
| Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following |
| developers: |
| |
| aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh |
| alpha Richard Henderson |
| arm Raffaele Sena |
| blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca |
| cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson |
| frv Anthony Green |
| ia64 Hans Boehm |
| m32r Kazuhiro Inaoka |
| m68k Andreas Schwab |
| microblaze Nathan Rossi |
| mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall |
| mips64 David Daney |
| moxie Anthony Green |
| pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler |
| powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler, |
| David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist |
| powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek |
| s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand |
| sh Kaz Kojima |
| sh64 Kaz Kojima |
| sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam |
| tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee |
| x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston |
| x86-64 Bo Thorsen |
| xtensa Chris Zankel |
| |
| Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of |
| stepping through the code and tracking down bugs. |
| |
| Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and |
| configuration help. |
| |
| Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi |
| interface. |
| |
| Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite. |
| |
| Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux. |
| |
| The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm |
| happy to make corrections or additions upon request. |
| |
| If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the |
| author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at |
| libffi-discuss@sourceware.org. |