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_3.0.12
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 | PowerPC 32-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
72 | PowerPC 64-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
73 | PowerPC | AMIGA | GCC |
74 | PowerPC | Linux | GCC |
75 | PowerPC | Mac OSX | GCC |
76 | PowerPC | FreeBSD | GCC |
77 | PowerPC 64-bit | FreeBSD | GCC |
78 | PowerPC 64-bit | Linux | GCC |
79 | S390 | Linux | GCC |
80 | S390X | Linux | GCC |
81 | SPARC | Linux | GCC |
82 | SPARC | Solaris | GCC |
83 | SPARC | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
84 | SPARC64 | Linux | GCC |
85 | SPARC64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
86 | SPARC64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
87 | TILE-Gx/TILEPro | Linux | GCC |
88 | X86 | FreeBSD | GCC |
89 | X86 | GNU HURD | GCC |
90 | X86 | Interix | GCC |
91 | X86 | kFreeBSD | GCC |
93 | X86 | Mac OSX | GCC |
94 | X86 | OpenBSD | GCC |
96 | X86 | Solaris | GCC |
97 | X86 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
98 | X86 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC |
99 | X86 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
100 | X86-64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
101 | X86-64 | Linux | GCC |
102 | X86-64 | Linux/x32 | GCC |
103 | X86-64 | OpenBSD | GCC |
104 | X86-64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
105 | X86-64 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
106 | Xtensa | Linux | GCC |
107 |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
109 Please send additional platform test results to
110 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org and feel free to update the wiki page
116 First you must configure the distribution for your particular
117 system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the
118 "configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source
121 You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and
122 header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi
123 will install under /usr/local by default.
125 If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the
126 --enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies
127 mysteriously while using libffi.
129 Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this
130 will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you
131 are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using
132 Purify, as it will slow down the library.
134 It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with
135 Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh
136 wrapper script during configuration like so:
138 path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP=\"cl -nologo -EP\"
140 For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64".
141 You may also need to specify --build appropriately. When building with MSVC
142 under a MingW environment, you may need to remove the line in configure
143 that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath' command. ('cygpath' is not
144 present in MingW, and is not required when using MingW-style paths.)
146 For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
148 Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
150 Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
151 GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make .
153 To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
154 This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
156 To install the library and header files, type "make install".
162 See the ChangeLog files for details.
166 Add Blackfin support.
167 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
168 Add Microblaze support.
170 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
171 Add support for native vendor compilers on
173 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.
177 Add Amiga newer MacOS support.
178 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
179 Add Linux/x32 support.
180 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
181 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
182 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
183 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
184 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
185 Fix code pessimizations.
188 Add support for Apple's iOS.
189 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
190 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
191 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
193 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
194 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
195 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
196 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
198 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
199 Additional platform support.
202 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
203 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
204 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
205 Build DLL for windows.
208 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
212 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
215 Fix for closures on sh.
216 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
217 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
221 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
225 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
228 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
229 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
230 Clean up test instruction in README.
233 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
234 Thanks to Björn König.
237 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
238 Thanks to David Daney.
241 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
242 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
247 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
250 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
251 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
252 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
256 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
259 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
260 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
263 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
266 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
269 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
270 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
274 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
275 about certain low level code.
276 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
280 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
281 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
282 is now Cygnus Solutions.
285 Added notes about GNU make.
288 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
291 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
292 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
293 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
296 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
299 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
302 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
305 Interface changes based on feedback.
308 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
311 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
312 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
315 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
319 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
320 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
323 First release. No public announcement.
329 libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@redhat.com>.
331 The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
332 innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
335 Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
336 gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
338 The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
341 Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
344 aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
345 alpha Richard Henderson
347 blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
348 cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
353 microblaze Nathan Rossi
354 mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
356 pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
357 powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
358 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
359 powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
360 s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
363 sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
364 tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
365 x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
369 Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
370 stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
372 Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
375 Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
378 Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
380 Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
382 The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
383 happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
385 If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
386 author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
387 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.