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 You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and
130 header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi
131 will install under /usr/local by default.
133 If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the
134 --enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies
135 mysteriously while using libffi.
137 Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this
138 will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you
139 are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using
140 Purify, as it will slow down the library.
142 It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with
143 Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh
144 wrapper script during configuration like so:
146 path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP=\"cl -nologo -EP\"
148 For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64".
149 You may also need to specify --build appropriately. When building with MSVC
150 under a MingW environment, you may need to remove the line in configure
151 that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath' command. ('cygpath' is not
152 present in MingW, and is not required when using MingW-style paths.)
154 For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
156 Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
158 Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
159 GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make .
161 To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
162 This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
164 To install the library and header files, type "make install".
170 See the ChangeLog files for details.
173 Add AArch64 (ARM64) iOS support.
175 Add m88k and DEC VAX support.
176 Fix MIPS N32 ABI bug.
177 Various FreeBSD and UltraSPARC IIi fixes.
181 Add missing Moxie bits.
182 Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86.
183 Build fix for m68000 targets.
184 Build fix for soft-float Power targets.
185 Fix the install dir location for some platforms when building
186 with GCC (OS X, Solaris).
187 Fix Cygwin regression.
192 Add Blackfin support.
193 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
194 Add MicroBlaze support.
196 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
197 Add support for native vendor compilers on
199 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.
203 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
204 Add Linux/x32 support.
205 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
206 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
207 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
208 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
209 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
210 Fix code pessimizations.
213 Add support for Apple's iOS.
214 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
215 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
216 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
218 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
219 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
220 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
221 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
223 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
224 Additional platform support.
227 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
228 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
229 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
230 Build DLL for windows.
233 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
237 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
240 Fix for closures on sh.
241 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
242 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
246 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
250 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
253 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
254 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
255 Clean up test instruction in README.
258 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
259 Thanks to Björn König.
262 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
263 Thanks to David Daney.
266 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
267 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
272 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
275 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
276 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
277 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
281 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
284 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
285 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
288 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
291 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
294 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
295 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
299 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
300 about certain low level code.
301 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
305 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
306 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
307 is now Cygnus Solutions.
310 Added notes about GNU make.
313 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
316 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
317 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
318 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
321 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
324 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
327 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
330 Interface changes based on feedback.
333 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
336 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
337 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
340 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
344 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
345 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
348 First release. No public announcement.
354 libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@moxielogic.com>.
356 The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
357 innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
360 Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
361 gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
363 The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
366 Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
369 aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
370 alpha Richard Henderson
372 blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
373 cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
379 microblaze Nathan Rossi
380 mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
383 nios ii Sandra Loosemore
384 pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
385 powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
386 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
387 powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
388 s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
391 sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
392 tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
394 x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
398 Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
399 stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
401 Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
404 Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
407 Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
409 Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
411 The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
412 happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
414 If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
415 author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
416 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.