4 libffi-3.1 was released on May 19, 2014. Check the libffi web page
5 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_3.1
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 CXX=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP=\"cl -nologo -EP\"
151 For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64" and
152 CXX="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64". You may also need to specify --build
155 When building with MSVC under a MingW environment, you may need to
156 remove the line in configure that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath'
157 command. ('cygpath' is not present in MingW, and is not required when
158 using MingW-style paths.)
160 For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
162 Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
164 Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
165 GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make .
167 To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
168 This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
170 To install the library and header files, type "make install".
176 See the git log for details at http://github.com/atgreen/libffi.
179 Add AArch64 (ARM64) iOS support.
181 Add m88k and DEC VAX support.
182 Add support for stdcall, thiscall, and fastcall on non-Windows
183 32-bit x86 targets such as Linux.
184 Various Android, MIPS N32, x86, FreeBSD and UltraSPARC IIi
186 Make the testsuite more robust: eliminate several spurious
187 failures, and respect the $CC and $CXX environment variables.
188 Archive off the manually maintained ChangeLog in favor of git
193 Add missing Moxie bits.
194 Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86.
195 Build fix for m68000 targets.
196 Build fix for soft-float Power targets.
197 Fix the install dir location for some platforms when building
198 with GCC (OS X, Solaris).
199 Fix Cygwin regression.
204 Add Blackfin support.
205 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
206 Add MicroBlaze support.
208 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
209 Add support for native vendor compilers on
211 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.
215 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
216 Add Linux/x32 support.
217 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
218 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
219 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
220 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
221 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
222 Fix code pessimizations.
225 Add support for Apple's iOS.
226 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
227 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
228 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
230 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
231 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
232 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
233 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
235 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
236 Additional platform support.
239 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
240 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
241 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
242 Build DLL for windows.
245 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
249 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
252 Fix for closures on sh.
253 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
254 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
258 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
262 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
265 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
266 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
267 Clean up test instruction in README.
270 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
271 Thanks to Björn König.
274 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
275 Thanks to David Daney.
278 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
279 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
284 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
287 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
288 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
289 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
293 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
296 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
297 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
300 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
303 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
306 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
307 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
311 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
312 about certain low level code.
313 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
317 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
318 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
319 is now Cygnus Solutions.
322 Added notes about GNU make.
325 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
328 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
329 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
330 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
333 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
336 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
339 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
342 Interface changes based on feedback.
345 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
348 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
349 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
352 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
356 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
357 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
360 First release. No public announcement.
366 libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@moxielogic.com>.
368 The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
369 innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
372 Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
373 gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
375 The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
378 Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
381 aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
382 alpha Richard Henderson
384 blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
385 cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
391 microblaze Nathan Rossi
392 mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
395 nios ii Sandra Loosemore
396 pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
397 powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
398 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
399 powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
400 s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
403 sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
404 tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
406 x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
410 Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
411 stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
413 Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
416 Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
419 Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
421 Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
423 The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
424 happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
426 If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
427 author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
428 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.