4 libffi-3.0.12 was released on February 11, 2013. 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_3.0.12
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 | Linux | GCC |
65 | M68K | RTEMS | GCC |
66 | MicroBlaze | Linux | GCC |
68 | MIPS | Linux | GCC |
69 | MIPS | RTEMS | GCC |
70 | MIPS64 | Linux | GCC |
71 | Moxie | Bare metal | GCC
72 | PowerPC 32-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
73 | PowerPC 64-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
74 | PowerPC | AMIGA | GCC |
75 | PowerPC | Linux | GCC |
76 | PowerPC | Mac OSX | GCC |
77 | PowerPC | FreeBSD | GCC |
78 | PowerPC 64-bit | FreeBSD | GCC |
79 | PowerPC 64-bit | Linux | GCC |
80 | S390 | Linux | GCC |
81 | S390X | Linux | GCC |
82 | SPARC | Linux | GCC |
83 | SPARC | Solaris | GCC |
84 | SPARC | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
85 | SPARC64 | Linux | GCC |
86 | SPARC64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
87 | SPARC64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
88 | TILE-Gx/TILEPro | Linux | GCC |
89 | X86 | FreeBSD | GCC |
90 | X86 | GNU HURD | GCC |
91 | X86 | Interix | GCC |
92 | X86 | kFreeBSD | GCC |
94 | X86 | Mac OSX | GCC |
95 | X86 | OpenBSD | GCC |
97 | X86 | Solaris | GCC |
98 | X86 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
99 | X86 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC |
100 | X86 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
101 | X86-64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
102 | X86-64 | Linux | GCC |
103 | X86-64 | Linux/x32 | GCC |
104 | X86-64 | OpenBSD | GCC |
105 | X86-64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
106 | X86-64 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
107 | Xtensa | Linux | GCC |
108 |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
110 Please send additional platform test results to
111 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org and feel free to update the wiki page
117 First you must configure the distribution for your particular
118 system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the
119 "configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source
122 You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and
123 header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi
124 will install under /usr/local by default.
126 If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the
127 --enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies
128 mysteriously while using libffi.
130 Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this
131 will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you
132 are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using
133 Purify, as it will slow down the library.
135 It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with
136 Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh
137 wrapper script during configuration like so:
139 path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP=\"cl -nologo -EP\"
141 For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64".
142 You may also need to specify --build appropriately. When building with MSVC
143 under a MingW environment, you may need to remove the line in configure
144 that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath' command. ('cygpath' is not
145 present in MingW, and is not required when using MingW-style paths.)
147 For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
149 Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
151 Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
152 GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make .
154 To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
155 This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
157 To install the library and header files, type "make install".
163 See the ChangeLog files for details.
168 Add Blackfin support.
169 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
170 Add MicroBlaze support.
172 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
173 Add support for native vendor compilers on
175 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.
179 Add Amiga newer MacOS support.
180 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
181 Add Linux/x32 support.
182 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
183 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
184 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
185 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
186 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
187 Fix code pessimizations.
190 Add support for Apple's iOS.
191 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
192 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
193 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
195 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
196 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
197 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
198 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
200 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
201 Additional platform support.
204 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
205 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
206 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
207 Build DLL for windows.
210 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
214 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
217 Fix for closures on sh.
218 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
219 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
223 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
227 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
230 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
231 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
232 Clean up test instruction in README.
235 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
236 Thanks to Björn König.
239 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
240 Thanks to David Daney.
243 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
244 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
249 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
252 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
253 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
254 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
258 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
261 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
262 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
265 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
268 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
271 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
272 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
276 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
277 about certain low level code.
278 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
282 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
283 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
284 is now Cygnus Solutions.
287 Added notes about GNU make.
290 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
293 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
294 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
295 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
298 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
301 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
304 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
307 Interface changes based on feedback.
310 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
313 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
314 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
317 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
321 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
322 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
325 First release. No public announcement.
331 libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@redhat.com>.
333 The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
334 innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
337 Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
338 gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
340 The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
343 Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
346 aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
347 alpha Richard Henderson
349 blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
350 cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
355 microblaze Nathan Rossi
356 mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
359 pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
360 powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
361 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
362 powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
363 s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
366 sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
367 tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
368 x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
372 Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
373 stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
375 Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
378 Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
381 Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
383 Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
385 The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
386 happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
388 If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
389 author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
390 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.