4 libffi-3.0.12 was released on XXXXXXX. Check the libffi web page for
5 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_3.0.11
48 At the time of release, the following basic configurations have been
51 |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
52 | Architecture | Operating System | Compiler |
53 |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
54 | AArch64 | Linux | GCC |
55 | Alpha | Linux | GCC |
56 | Alpha | Tru64 | GCC |
59 | AVR32 | Linux | GCC |
60 | Blackfin | uClinux | GCC |
62 | IA-64 | Linux | GCC |
63 | M68K | FreeMiNT | GCC |
64 | M68K | RTEMS | GCC |
66 | MIPS | Linux | GCC |
67 | MIPS | RTEMS | GCC |
68 | MIPS64 | Linux | GCC |
69 | PowerPC 32-bit | AIX 6.1.0.0 | IBM XL C/C++, V11.1 |
70 | PowerPC 32-bit | AIX 7.1.1.0 | IBM XL C/C++, V11.1 |
71 | PowerPC | AMIGA | GCC |
72 | PowerPC | Linux | GCC |
73 | PowerPC | Mac OSX | GCC |
74 | PowerPC | FreeBSD | GCC |
75 | PowerPC64 | Linux | GCC |
76 | S390 | Linux | GCC |
77 | S390X | Linux | GCC |
78 | SPARC | Linux | GCC |
79 | SPARC | Solaris | GCC |
80 | SPARC | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
81 | SPARC64 | Linux | GCC |
82 | SPARC64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
83 | SPARC64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
84 | TILE-Gx/TILEPro | Linux | GCC |
85 | X86 | FreeBSD | GCC |
86 | X86 | Interix | GCC |
87 | X86 | kFreeBSD | GCC |
89 | X86 | Mac OSX | GCC |
90 | X86 | OpenBSD | GCC |
92 | X86 | Solaris | GCC |
93 | X86 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
94 | X86 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC |
95 | X86 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
96 | X86-64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
97 | X86-64 | Linux | GCC |
98 | X86-64 | Linux/x32 | GCC |
99 | X86-64 | OpenBSD | GCC |
100 | X86-64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
101 | X86-64 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
102 |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
104 Please send additional platform test results to
105 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org and feel free to update the wiki page
111 First you must configure the distribution for your particular
112 system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the
113 "configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source
116 You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and
117 header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi
118 will install under /usr/local by default.
120 If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the
121 --enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies
122 mysteriously while using libffi.
124 Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this
125 will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you
126 are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using
127 Purify, as it will slow down the library.
129 It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with
130 Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh
131 wrapper script during configuration like so:
133 path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP=\"cl -nologo -EP\"
135 For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64".
136 You may also need to specify --build appropriately. When building with MSVC
137 under a MingW environment, you may need to remove the line in configure
138 that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath' command. ('cygpath' is not
139 present in MingW, and is not required when using MingW-style paths.)
141 For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
143 Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
145 Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
146 GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu.
148 To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
149 This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
151 To install the library and header files, type "make install".
157 See the ChangeLog files for details.
160 Add Blackfin support.
161 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
163 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
164 Add support for native vendor compilers on
169 Add Amiga newer MacOS support.
170 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
171 Add Linux/x32 support.
172 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
173 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
174 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
175 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
176 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
177 Fix code pessimizations.
180 Add support for Apple's iOS.
181 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
182 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
183 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
185 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
186 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
187 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
188 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
190 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
191 Additional platform support.
194 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
195 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
196 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
197 Build DLL for windows.
200 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
204 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
207 Fix for closures on sh.
208 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
209 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
213 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
217 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
220 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
221 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
222 Clean up test instruction in README.
225 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
226 Thanks to Björn König.
229 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
230 Thanks to David Daney.
233 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
234 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
239 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
242 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
243 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
244 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
248 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
251 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
252 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
255 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
258 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
261 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
262 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
266 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
267 about certain low level code.
268 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
272 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
273 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
274 is now Cygnus Solutions.
277 Added notes about GNU make.
280 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
283 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
284 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
285 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
288 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
291 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
294 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
297 Interface changes based on feedback.
300 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
303 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
304 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
307 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
311 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
312 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
315 First release. No public announcement.
321 libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@redhat.com>.
323 The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
324 innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
327 Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
328 gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
330 The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
333 Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
336 aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
337 alpha Richard Henderson
339 blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
340 cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
345 mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
347 pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
348 powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
349 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
350 powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
351 s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
354 sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
355 tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
356 x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
359 Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
360 stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
362 Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
365 Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
368 Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
370 Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
372 The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
373 happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
375 If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
376 author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
377 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.