4 libffi-3.0.13 was released on March 16, 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 | Meta | Linux | GCC |
67 | MicroBlaze | Linux | GCC |
69 | MIPS | Linux | GCC |
70 | MIPS | RTEMS | GCC |
71 | MIPS64 | Linux | GCC |
72 | Moxie | Bare metal | GCC
73 | PowerPC 32-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
74 | PowerPC 64-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
75 | PowerPC | AMIGA | GCC |
76 | PowerPC | Linux | GCC |
77 | PowerPC | Mac OSX | GCC |
78 | PowerPC | FreeBSD | GCC |
79 | PowerPC 64-bit | FreeBSD | GCC |
80 | PowerPC 64-bit | Linux | GCC |
81 | S390 | Linux | GCC |
82 | S390X | Linux | GCC |
83 | SPARC | Linux | GCC |
84 | SPARC | Solaris | GCC |
85 | SPARC | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
86 | SPARC64 | Linux | GCC |
87 | SPARC64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
88 | SPARC64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
89 | TILE-Gx/TILEPro | Linux | GCC |
90 | X86 | FreeBSD | GCC |
91 | X86 | GNU HURD | GCC |
92 | X86 | Interix | GCC |
93 | X86 | kFreeBSD | GCC |
95 | X86 | Mac OSX | GCC |
96 | X86 | OpenBSD | GCC |
98 | X86 | Solaris | GCC |
99 | X86 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
100 | X86 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC |
101 | X86 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
102 | X86-64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
103 | X86-64 | Linux | GCC |
104 | X86-64 | Linux/x32 | GCC |
105 | X86-64 | OpenBSD | GCC |
106 | X86-64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
107 | X86-64 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
108 | Xtensa | Linux | GCC |
109 |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
111 Please send additional platform test results to
112 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org and feel free to update the wiki page
118 First you must configure the distribution for your particular
119 system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the
120 "configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source
123 You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and
124 header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi
125 will install under /usr/local by default.
127 If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the
128 --enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies
129 mysteriously while using libffi.
131 Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this
132 will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you
133 are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using
134 Purify, as it will slow down the library.
136 It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with
137 Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh
138 wrapper script during configuration like so:
140 path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP=\"cl -nologo -EP\"
142 For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64".
143 You may also need to specify --build appropriately. When building with MSVC
144 under a MingW environment, you may need to remove the line in configure
145 that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath' command. ('cygpath' is not
146 present in MingW, and is not required when using MingW-style paths.)
148 For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
150 Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
152 Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
153 GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make .
155 To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
156 This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
158 To install the library and header files, type "make install".
164 See the ChangeLog files for details.
169 Add missing Moxie bits.
170 Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86.
175 Add Blackfin support.
176 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
177 Add MicroBlaze support.
179 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
180 Add support for native vendor compilers on
182 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.
186 Add Amiga newer MacOS support.
187 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
188 Add Linux/x32 support.
189 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
190 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
191 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
192 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
193 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
194 Fix code pessimizations.
197 Add support for Apple's iOS.
198 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
199 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
200 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
202 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
203 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
204 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
205 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
207 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
208 Additional platform support.
211 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
212 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
213 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
214 Build DLL for windows.
217 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
221 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
224 Fix for closures on sh.
225 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
226 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
230 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
234 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
237 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
238 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
239 Clean up test instruction in README.
242 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
243 Thanks to Björn König.
246 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
247 Thanks to David Daney.
250 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
251 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
256 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
259 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
260 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
261 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
265 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
268 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
269 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
272 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
275 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
278 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
279 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
283 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
284 about certain low level code.
285 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
289 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
290 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
291 is now Cygnus Solutions.
294 Added notes about GNU make.
297 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
300 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
301 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
302 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
305 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
308 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
311 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
314 Interface changes based on feedback.
317 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
320 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
321 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
324 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
328 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
329 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
332 First release. No public announcement.
338 libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@redhat.com>.
340 The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
341 innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
344 Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
345 gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
347 The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
350 Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
353 aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
354 alpha Richard Henderson
356 blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
357 cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
362 microblaze Nathan Rossi
363 mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
366 pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
367 powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
368 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
369 powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
370 s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
373 sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
374 tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
375 x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
379 Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
380 stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
382 Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
385 Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
388 Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
390 Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
392 The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
393 happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
395 If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
396 author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
397 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.