4 [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/libffi/libffi.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/libffi/libffi)
5 [![Build status](https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/8lko9vagbx4w2kxq?svg=true)](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/atgreen/libffi)
7 libffi-3.4 was released on TBD. Check the libffi web
8 page for updates: <URL:http://sourceware.org/libffi/>.
14 Compilers for high level languages generate code that follow certain
15 conventions. These conventions are necessary, in part, for separate
16 compilation to work. One such convention is the "calling
17 convention". The "calling convention" is essentially a set of
18 assumptions made by the compiler about where function arguments will
19 be found on entry to a function. A "calling convention" also specifies
20 where the return value for a function is found.
22 Some programs may not know at the time of compilation what arguments
23 are to be passed to a function. For instance, an interpreter may be
24 told at run-time about the number and types of arguments used to call
25 a given function. Libffi can be used in such programs to provide a
26 bridge from the interpreter program to compiled code.
28 The libffi library provides a portable, high level programming
29 interface to various calling conventions. This allows a programmer to
30 call any function specified by a call interface description at run
33 FFI stands for Foreign Function Interface. A foreign function
34 interface is the popular name for the interface that allows code
35 written in one language to call code written in another language. The
36 libffi library really only provides the lowest, machine dependent
37 layer of a fully featured foreign function interface. A layer must
38 exist above libffi that handles type conversions for values passed
39 between the two languages.
45 Libffi has been ported to many different platforms.
47 At the time of release, the following basic configurations have been
50 | Architecture | Operating System | Compiler |
51 | --------------- | ---------------- | ----------------------- |
52 | AArch64 (ARM64) | iOS | Clang |
53 | AArch64 | Linux | GCC |
54 | AArch64 | Windows | MSVC |
55 | Alpha | Linux | GCC |
56 | Alpha | Tru64 | GCC |
60 | ARM | Windows | MSVC |
61 | AVR32 | Linux | GCC |
62 | Blackfin | uClinux | GCC |
63 | CSKY | Linux | GCC |
66 | IA-64 | Linux | GCC |
67 | M68K | FreeMiNT | GCC |
68 | M68K | Linux | GCC |
69 | M68K | RTEMS | GCC |
70 | M88K | OpenBSD/mvme88k | GCC |
71 | Meta | Linux | GCC |
72 | MicroBlaze | Linux | GCC |
74 | MIPS | Linux | GCC |
75 | MIPS | RTEMS | GCC |
76 | MIPS64 | Linux | GCC |
77 | Moxie | Bare metal | GCC |
78 | Nios II | Linux | GCC |
79 | OpenRISC | Linux | GCC |
80 | PowerPC 32-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
81 | PowerPC 64-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
82 | PowerPC | AMIGA | GCC |
83 | PowerPC | Linux | GCC |
84 | PowerPC | Mac OSX | GCC |
85 | PowerPC | FreeBSD | GCC |
86 | PowerPC 64-bit | FreeBSD | GCC |
87 | PowerPC 64-bit | Linux ELFv1 | GCC |
88 | PowerPC 64-bit | Linux ELFv2 | GCC |
89 | RISC-V 32-bit | Linux | GCC |
90 | RISC-V 64-bit | Linux | GCC |
91 | S390 | Linux | GCC |
92 | S390X | Linux | GCC |
93 | SPARC | Linux | GCC |
94 | SPARC | Solaris | GCC |
95 | SPARC | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
96 | SPARC64 | Linux | GCC |
97 | SPARC64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
98 | SPARC64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
99 | TILE-Gx/TILEPro | Linux | GCC |
100 | VAX | OpenBSD/vax | GCC |
101 | X86 | FreeBSD | GCC |
102 | X86 | GNU HURD | GCC |
103 | X86 | Interix | GCC |
104 | X86 | kFreeBSD | GCC |
105 | X86 | Linux | GCC |
106 | X86 | OpenBSD | GCC |
108 | X86 | Solaris | GCC |
109 | X86 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
110 | X86 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC |
111 | X86 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
112 | X86-64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
113 | X86-64 | Linux | GCC |
114 | X86-64 | Linux/x32 | GCC |
115 | X86-64 | OpenBSD | GCC |
116 | X86-64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
117 | X86-64 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC |
118 | X86-64 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
119 | X86-64 | Mac OSX | GCC |
120 | Xtensa | Linux | GCC |
122 Please send additional platform test results to
123 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.
128 First you must configure the distribution for your particular
129 system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the
130 "configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source
131 distribution. Note that building libffi requires a C99 compatible
134 If you're building libffi directly from git hosted sources, configure
135 won't exist yet; run ./autogen.sh first. This will require that you
136 install autoconf, automake and libtool.
138 You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and
139 header files. To do that, use the ``--prefix`` configure switch. Libffi
140 will install under /usr/local by default.
142 If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the
143 ``--enable-debug`` configure switch. This is useful when your program dies
144 mysteriously while using libffi.
146 Another useful configure switch is ``--enable-purify-safety``. Using this
147 will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you
148 are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using
149 Purify, as it will slow down the library.
151 If you don't want to build documentation, use the ``--disable-docs``
154 It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with
155 Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh
156 wrapper script during configuration like so:
158 path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh CXX=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP="cl -nologo -EP" CPPFLAGS="-DFFI_BUILDING_DLL"
160 For 64-bit Windows builds, use ``CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64"`` and
161 ``CXX="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64"``. You may also need to specify
162 ``--build`` appropriately.
164 It is also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with the LLVM
165 project's clang-cl compiler, like below:
167 path/to/configure CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -clang-cl" CXX="path/to/msvcc.sh -clang-cl" LD=link CPP="clang-cl -EP"
169 When building with MSVC under a MingW environment, you may need to
170 remove the line in configure that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath'
171 command. ('cygpath' is not present in MingW, and is not required when
172 using MingW-style paths.)
174 To build static library for ARM64 with MSVC using visual studio solution, msvc_build folder have
175 aarch64/Ffi_staticLib.sln
176 required header files in aarch64/aarch64_include/
179 SPARC Solaris builds require the use of the GNU assembler and linker.
180 Point ``AS`` and ``LD`` environment variables at those tool prior to
183 For iOS builds, the ``libffi.xcodeproj`` Xcode project is available.
185 Configure has many other options. Use ``configure --help`` to see them all.
187 Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
188 GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make .
190 To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
191 This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
193 To install the library and header files, type ``make install``.
199 See the git log for details at http://github.com/libffi/libffi.
202 Add support for Alibaba's CSKY architecture.
203 Add support for Intel Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET).
204 Add support for ARM Pointer Authentication (PA).
205 Fix 32-bit PPC regression.
206 Fix MIPS soft-float problem.
210 New API in support of GO closures.
211 Add IEEE754 binary128 long double support for 64-bit Power
212 Default to Microsoft's 64 bit long double ABI with Visual C++.
213 GNU compiler uses 80 bits (128 in memory) FFI_GNUW64 ABI.
214 Add Windows on ARM64 (WOA) support.
215 Add Windows 32-bit ARM support.
216 Raw java (gcj) API deprecated.
217 Add pre-built PDF documentation to source distribution.
218 Many new test cases and bug fixes.
221 Build fix for non-iOS AArch64 targets.
224 Add C99 Complex Type support (currently only supported on
226 Add support for PASCAL and REGISTER calling conventions on x86
228 Add OpenRISC and Cygwin-64 support.
232 Add AArch64 (ARM64) iOS support.
234 Add m88k and DEC VAX support.
235 Add support for stdcall, thiscall, and fastcall on non-Windows
236 32-bit x86 targets such as Linux.
237 Various Android, MIPS N32, x86, FreeBSD and UltraSPARC IIi
239 Make the testsuite more robust: eliminate several spurious
240 failures, and respect the $CC and $CXX environment variables.
241 Archive off the manually maintained ChangeLog in favor of git
246 Add missing Moxie bits.
247 Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86.
248 Build fix for m68000 targets.
249 Build fix for soft-float Power targets.
250 Fix the install dir location for some platforms when building
251 with GCC (OS X, Solaris).
252 Fix Cygwin regression.
257 Add Blackfin support.
258 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
259 Add MicroBlaze support.
261 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
262 Add support for native vendor compilers on
264 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.
268 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
269 Add Linux/x32 support.
270 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
271 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
272 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
273 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
274 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
275 Fix code pessimizations.
278 Add support for Apple's iOS.
279 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
280 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
281 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
283 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
284 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
285 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
286 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
288 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
289 Additional platform support.
292 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
293 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
294 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
295 Build DLL for windows.
298 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
302 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
305 Fix for closures on sh.
306 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
307 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
311 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
315 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
318 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
319 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
320 Clean up test instruction in README.
323 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
324 Thanks to Björn König.
327 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
328 Thanks to David Daney.
331 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
332 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
337 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
340 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
341 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
342 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
346 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
349 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
350 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
353 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
356 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
359 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
360 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
364 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
365 about certain low level code.
366 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
370 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
371 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
372 is now Cygnus Solutions.
375 Added notes about GNU make.
378 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
381 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
382 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
383 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
386 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
389 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
392 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
395 Interface changes based on feedback.
398 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
401 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
402 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
405 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
409 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
410 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
413 First release. No public announcement.
418 libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@moxielogic.com>.
420 The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
421 innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
424 Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
425 gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
427 The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
430 Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
433 aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
434 alpha Richard Henderson
435 arc Hackers at Synopsis
438 blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
439 cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
440 csky Ma Jun, Zhang Wenmeng
446 metag Hackers at Imagination Technologies
447 microblaze Nathan Rossi
448 mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
451 nios ii Sandra Loosemore
452 openrisc Sebastian Macke
453 pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
454 powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
455 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
456 powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
457 riscv Michael Knyszek, Andrew Waterman, Stef O'Rear
458 s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
461 sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
462 tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
464 x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
468 Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
469 stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
471 Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
474 Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
477 Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
479 Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
481 The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
482 happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
484 If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
485 author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
486 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.