4 libffi-3.0.14 was released on TBD. 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_3.0.13
48 At the time of release, the following basic configurations have been
51 |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
52 | Architecture | Operating System | Compiler |
53 |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
54 | AArch64 (ARM64) | iOS | Clang |
55 | AArch64 | Linux | GCC |
56 | Alpha | Linux | GCC |
57 | Alpha | Tru64 | GCC |
61 | AVR32 | Linux | GCC |
62 | Blackfin | uClinux | GCC |
64 | IA-64 | Linux | GCC |
65 | M68K | FreeMiNT | GCC |
66 | M68K | Linux | GCC |
67 | M68K | RTEMS | GCC |
68 | M88K | OpenBSD/mvme88k | GCC |
69 | Meta | Linux | GCC |
70 | MicroBlaze | Linux | GCC |
72 | MIPS | Linux | GCC |
73 | MIPS | RTEMS | GCC |
74 | MIPS64 | Linux | GCC |
75 | Moxie | Bare metal | GCC |
76 | Nios II | Linux | GCC |
77 | PowerPC 32-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
78 | PowerPC 64-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
79 | PowerPC | AMIGA | GCC |
80 | PowerPC | Linux | GCC |
81 | PowerPC | Mac OSX | GCC |
82 | PowerPC | FreeBSD | GCC |
83 | PowerPC 64-bit | FreeBSD | GCC |
84 | PowerPC 64-bit | Linux ELFv1 | GCC |
85 | PowerPC 64-bit | Linux ELFv2 | GCC |
86 | S390 | Linux | GCC |
87 | S390X | Linux | GCC |
88 | SPARC | Linux | GCC |
89 | SPARC | Solaris | GCC |
90 | SPARC | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
91 | SPARC64 | Linux | GCC |
92 | SPARC64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
93 | SPARC64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
94 | TILE-Gx/TILEPro | Linux | GCC |
95 | VAX | OpenBSD/vax | GCC |
96 | X86 | FreeBSD | GCC |
97 | X86 | GNU HURD | GCC |
98 | X86 | Interix | GCC |
99 | X86 | kFreeBSD | GCC |
100 | X86 | Linux | GCC |
101 | X86 | Mac OSX | GCC |
102 | X86 | OpenBSD | GCC |
104 | X86 | Solaris | GCC |
105 | X86 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
106 | X86 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC |
107 | X86 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
108 | X86-64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
109 | X86-64 | Linux | GCC |
110 | X86-64 | Linux/x32 | GCC |
111 | X86-64 | OpenBSD | GCC |
112 | X86-64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
113 | X86-64 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
114 | Xtensa | Linux | GCC |
115 |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
117 Please send additional platform test results to
118 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org and feel free to update the wiki page
124 First you must configure the distribution for your particular
125 system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the
126 "configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source
129 If you're building libffi directly from version control, configure won't
130 exist yet; run ./autogen.sh first.
132 You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and
133 header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi
134 will install under /usr/local by default.
136 If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the
137 --enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies
138 mysteriously while using libffi.
140 Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this
141 will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you
142 are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using
143 Purify, as it will slow down the library.
145 It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with
146 Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh
147 wrapper script during configuration like so:
149 path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP=\"cl -nologo -EP\"
151 For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64".
152 You may also need to specify --build appropriately. When building with MSVC
153 under a MingW environment, you may need to remove the line in configure
154 that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath' command. ('cygpath' is not
155 present in MingW, and is not required when using MingW-style paths.)
157 For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
159 Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
161 Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
162 GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make .
164 To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
165 This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
167 To install the library and header files, type "make install".
173 See the ChangeLog files for details.
176 Add AArch64 (ARM64) iOS support.
178 Add m88k and DEC VAX support.
180 Fix MIPS N32 ABI bug.
181 Various x86, FreeBSD and UltraSPARC IIi fixes.
185 Add missing Moxie bits.
186 Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86.
187 Build fix for m68000 targets.
188 Build fix for soft-float Power targets.
189 Fix the install dir location for some platforms when building
190 with GCC (OS X, Solaris).
191 Fix Cygwin regression.
196 Add Blackfin support.
197 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
198 Add MicroBlaze support.
200 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
201 Add support for native vendor compilers on
203 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.
207 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
208 Add Linux/x32 support.
209 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
210 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
211 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
212 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
213 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
214 Fix code pessimizations.
217 Add support for Apple's iOS.
218 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
219 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
220 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
222 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
223 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
224 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
225 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
227 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
228 Additional platform support.
231 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
232 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
233 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
234 Build DLL for windows.
237 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
241 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
244 Fix for closures on sh.
245 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
246 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
250 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
254 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
257 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
258 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
259 Clean up test instruction in README.
262 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
263 Thanks to Björn König.
266 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
267 Thanks to David Daney.
270 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
271 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
276 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
279 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
280 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
281 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
285 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
288 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
289 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
292 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
295 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
298 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
299 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
303 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
304 about certain low level code.
305 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
309 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
310 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
311 is now Cygnus Solutions.
314 Added notes about GNU make.
317 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
320 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
321 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
322 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
325 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
328 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
331 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
334 Interface changes based on feedback.
337 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
340 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
341 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
344 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
348 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
349 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
352 First release. No public announcement.
358 libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@moxielogic.com>.
360 The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
361 innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
364 Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
365 gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
367 The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
370 Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
373 aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
374 alpha Richard Henderson
376 blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
377 cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
383 microblaze Nathan Rossi
384 mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
387 nios ii Sandra Loosemore
388 pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
389 powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
390 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
391 powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
392 s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
395 sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
396 tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
398 x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
402 Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
403 stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
405 Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
408 Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
411 Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
413 Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
415 The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
416 happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
418 If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
419 author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
420 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.