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Anthony Greenc6dddbd2009-10-04 08:11:33 -04001Status
2======
3
Anthony Green09b23cf2012-04-27 08:29:48 -04004libffi-3.0.XX was released on XXXXXXX. Check the libffi web page for
5updates: <URL:http://sourceware.org/libffi/>.
Anthony Greenc6dddbd2009-10-04 08:11:33 -04006
7
8What is libffi?
9===============
10
11Compilers for high level languages generate code that follow certain
12conventions. These conventions are necessary, in part, for separate
13compilation to work. One such convention is the "calling
14convention". The "calling convention" is essentially a set of
15assumptions made by the compiler about where function arguments will
16be found on entry to a function. A "calling convention" also specifies
17where the return value for a function is found.
18
19Some programs may not know at the time of compilation what arguments
20are to be passed to a function. For instance, an interpreter may be
21told at run-time about the number and types of arguments used to call
22a given function. Libffi can be used in such programs to provide a
23bridge from the interpreter program to compiled code.
24
25The libffi library provides a portable, high level programming
26interface to various calling conventions. This allows a programmer to
27call any function specified by a call interface description at run
28time.
29
30FFI stands for Foreign Function Interface. A foreign function
31interface is the popular name for the interface that allows code
32written in one language to call code written in another language. The
33libffi library really only provides the lowest, machine dependent
34layer of a fully featured foreign function interface. A layer must
35exist above libffi that handles type conversions for values passed
36between the two languages.
37
38
39Supported Platforms
40===================
41
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -050042Libffi has been ported to many different platforms.
43For specific configuration details and testing status, please
44refer to the wiki page here:
Anthony Greenc6dddbd2009-10-04 08:11:33 -040045
Anthony Greenee6696f2011-08-23 12:30:29 -040046 http://www.moxielogic.org/wiki/index.php?title=Libffi_3.0.11
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -050047
48At the time of release, the following basic configurations have been
49tested:
50
51|--------------+------------------|
52| Architecture | Operating System |
53|--------------+------------------|
54| Alpha | Linux |
Anthony Green7b7a42f2010-01-12 09:14:14 -050055| Alpha | Tru64 |
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -050056| ARM | Linux |
Anthony Greene2214f82011-02-08 19:22:56 -050057| ARM | iOS |
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -050058| AVR32 | Linux |
Anthony Green09b23cf2012-04-27 08:29:48 -040059| Blackfin | uClinux |
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -050060| HPPA | HPUX |
61| IA-64 | Linux |
Anthony Greenbd78c9c2012-03-21 08:09:30 -040062| M68K | FreeMiNT |
Anthony Green630b9c02011-02-09 06:24:23 -050063| M68K | RTEMS |
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -050064| MIPS | IRIX |
65| MIPS | Linux |
Anthony Green630b9c02011-02-09 06:24:23 -050066| MIPS | RTEMS |
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -050067| MIPS64 | Linux |
Anthony Greenafaf3382012-01-23 14:17:13 -050068| PowerPC | AMIGA |
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -050069| PowerPC | Linux |
70| PowerPC | Mac OSX |
71| PowerPC | FreeBSD |
72| PowerPC64 | Linux |
73| S390 | Linux |
74| S390X | Linux |
75| SPARC | Linux |
76| SPARC | Solaris |
77| SPARC64 | Linux |
78| SPARC64 | FreeBSD |
79| X86 | FreeBSD |
Anthony Green747d6c32011-02-09 14:56:23 -050080| X86 | Interix |
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -050081| X86 | kFreeBSD |
82| X86 | Linux |
83| X86 | Mac OSX |
84| X86 | OpenBSD |
Anthony Greenf2c2a4f2010-04-13 10:19:28 -040085| X86 | OS/2 |
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -050086| X86 | Solaris |
87| X86 | Windows/Cygwin |
88| X86 | Windows/MingW |
89| X86-64 | FreeBSD |
90| X86-64 | Linux |
Anthony Green9bcc8842012-04-06 11:53:07 -040091| X86-64 | Linux/x32 |
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -050092| X86-64 | OpenBSD |
Anthony Green4b18d1f2010-01-01 10:24:27 -050093| X86-64 | Windows/MingW |
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -050094|--------------+------------------|
Anthony Green2e7e03d2009-12-31 07:43:22 -050095
Anthony Greenc6dddbd2009-10-04 08:11:33 -040096Please send additional platform test results to
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -050097libffi-discuss@sourceware.org and feel free to update the wiki page
98above.
Anthony Greenc6dddbd2009-10-04 08:11:33 -040099
100Installing libffi
101=================
102
Anthony Greenc6dddbd2009-10-04 08:11:33 -0400103First you must configure the distribution for your particular
104system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the
105"configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source
106distribution.
107
108You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and
109header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi
110will install under /usr/local by default.
111
112If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the
113--enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies
114mysteriously while using libffi.
115
116Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this
117will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you
118are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using
119Purify, as it will slow down the library.
120
Anthony Greenff3cd682010-01-15 11:27:24 -0500121It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with
122Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh
123wrapper script during configuration like so:
124
Anthony Green9dc9a292010-04-13 10:33:52 -0400125path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP=\"cl -nologo -EP\"
126
127For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64".
128You may also need to specify --build appropriately. When building with MSVC
129under a MingW environment, you may need to remove the line in configure
130that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath' command. ('cygpath' is not
131present in MingW, and is not required when using MingW-style paths.)
Anthony Greenff3cd682010-01-15 11:27:24 -0500132
Nicolas Lelongd330f192012-05-05 09:37:02 -0400133For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
Anthony Greenf4983182011-02-09 06:26:46 -0500134
Anthony Greenc6dddbd2009-10-04 08:11:33 -0400135Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
136
137Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
138GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu.
139
140To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
141This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
142
143To install the library and header files, type "make install".
144
145
Anthony Greenc6dddbd2009-10-04 08:11:33 -0400146History
147=======
148
Anthony Greenf7c0bc62009-12-25 01:22:11 -0500149See the ChangeLog files for details.
150
Anthony Green09b23cf2012-04-27 08:29:48 -04001513.0.12 XXX-XX-XX
152 Add Blackfin support.
153
Anthony Greenff3d76f2012-04-11 23:16:48 -04001543.0.11 Apr-11-12
Anthony Green59bb61a2012-04-06 08:26:14 -0400155 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
Anthony Green964c5b92012-03-03 14:46:20 -0500156 Add Linux/x32 support.
Anthony Green59bb61a2012-04-06 08:26:14 -0400157 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
158 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
Anthony Green59bb61a2012-04-06 08:26:14 -0400159 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
Mike Lewisebb8e892012-04-06 20:02:08 -0400160 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
161 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
Anthony Greenafaf3382012-01-23 14:17:13 -0500162 Fix code pessimizations.
Anthony Green59bb61a2012-04-06 08:26:14 -0400163 Lots of build fixes.
Anthony Greenee6696f2011-08-23 12:30:29 -0400164
Anthony Greenc6265c32011-08-23 10:31:33 -04001653.0.10 Aug-23-11
Anthony Greencbb062c2011-02-17 20:39:21 -0500166 Add support for Apple's iOS.
Anthony Green1fbf9dc2011-02-13 08:06:39 -0500167 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
Anthony Green630b9c02011-02-09 06:24:23 -0500168 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
Anthony Greenc6265c32011-08-23 10:31:33 -0400169 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
170 ARM and SPARC.
Anthony Green2db72612010-11-21 10:50:56 -0500171 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
Anthony Greencbb062c2011-02-17 20:39:21 -0500172 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
173 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
Anthony Greene2214f82011-02-08 19:22:56 -0500174 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
Anthony Greencbb062c2011-02-17 20:39:21 -0500175 Solaris compiler.
176 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
Anthony Greenc6265c32011-08-23 10:31:33 -0400177 Additional platform support.
Anthony Green2db72612010-11-21 10:50:56 -0500178
Anthony Green2e7e03d2009-12-31 07:43:22 -05001793.0.9 Dec-31-09
Anthony Greenf7c0bc62009-12-25 01:22:11 -0500180 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
181 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
Anthony Green2e7e03d2009-12-31 07:43:22 -0500182 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
Anthony Green0cfe60e2009-12-29 10:06:04 -0500183 Build DLL for windows.
Anthony Greenf7c0bc62009-12-25 01:22:11 -0500184
1853.0.8 Dec-19-08
186 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
187
Anthony Greenc6dddbd2009-10-04 08:11:33 -04001883.0.7 Nov-11-08
189 Fix for ppc FreeBSD.
190 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
191
1923.0.6 Jul-17-08
193 Fix for closures on sh.
194 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
195 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
196
1973.0.5 Apr-3-08
198 Fix libffi.pc file.
199 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
200 Fix x86 closure bug.
201
2023.0.4 Feb-24-08
203 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
204
2053.0.3 Feb-22-08
206 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
207 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
208 Clean up test instruction in README.
209
2103.0.2 Feb-21-08
211 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
212 Thanks to Björn König.
213
2143.0.1 Feb-15-08
215 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
216 Thanks to David Daney.
217
2183.0.0 Feb-15-08
219 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
220 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
221
222 [10 years go by...]
223
2241.20 Oct-5-98
225 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
226
2271.19 Oct-5-98
228 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
229 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
230 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
231 Henderson.
232
2331.18 Apr-17-98
234 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
235
2361.17 Feb-24-98
237 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
238 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
239
2401.16 Feb-11-98
241 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
242
2431.15 Dec-4-97
244 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
245
2461.14 May-13-97
247 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
248 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
249 <mcmanr@eq.gs.com>.
250
2511.13 Dec-2-96
252 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
253 about certain low level code.
254 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
255 Linux x86 a.out fix.
256
2571.12 Nov-22-96
258 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
259 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
260 is now Cygnus Solutions.
261
2621.11 Oct-30-96
263 Added notes about GNU make.
264
2651.10 Oct-29-96
266 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
267
2681.09 Oct-29-96
269 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
270 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
271 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
272
2731.08 Oct-15-96
274 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
275
2761.07 Oct-14-96
277 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
278
2791.06 Oct-14-96
280 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
281
2821.05 Oct-14-96
283 Interface changes based on feedback.
284
2851.04 Oct-11-96
286 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
287
2881.03 Oct-10-96
289 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
290 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
291
2921.02 Oct-9-96
293 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
294 Added "make test".
295
2961.01 Oct-8-96
297 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
298 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
299
3001.00 Oct-7-96
301 First release. No public announcement.
302
303
304Authors & Credits
305=================
306
Anthony Greenff3d76f2012-04-11 23:16:48 -0400307libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@moxielogic.com>.
Anthony Greenc6dddbd2009-10-04 08:11:33 -0400308
309The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
310innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
311details.
312
313Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
314gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
315
316The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
317Thorup.
318
319Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
320developers:
321
322alpha Richard Henderson
323arm Raffaele Sena
324cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
325frv Anthony Green
326ia64 Hans Boehm
327m32r Kazuhiro Inaoka
328m68k Andreas Schwab
329mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
330mips64 David Daney
331pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
332powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
333 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
334powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
335s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
336sh Kaz Kojima
337sh64 Kaz Kojima
338sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
339x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
340x86-64 Bo Thorsen
341
342Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
343stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
344
345Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
346configuration help.
347
348Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
349interface.
350
351Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
352
353Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
354
355The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
356happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
357
Anthony Green630b9c02011-02-09 06:24:23 -0500358If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
359author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
360libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.