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 | Linux | GCC |
55 | Alpha | Linux | GCC |
56 | Alpha | Tru64 | GCC |
60 | AVR32 | Linux | GCC |
61 | Blackfin | uClinux | GCC |
63 | IA-64 | Linux | GCC |
64 | M68K | FreeMiNT | GCC |
65 | M68K | Linux | GCC |
66 | M68K | RTEMS | GCC |
67 | M88K | OpenBSD/mvme88k | GCC |
68 | Meta | Linux | GCC |
69 | MicroBlaze | Linux | GCC |
71 | MIPS | Linux | GCC |
72 | MIPS | RTEMS | GCC |
73 | MIPS64 | Linux | GCC |
74 | Moxie | Bare metal | GCC |
75 | Nios II | Linux | GCC |
76 | PowerPC 32-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
77 | PowerPC 64-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
78 | PowerPC | AMIGA | GCC |
79 | PowerPC | Linux | GCC |
80 | PowerPC | Mac OSX | GCC |
81 | PowerPC | FreeBSD | GCC |
82 | PowerPC 64-bit | FreeBSD | GCC |
83 | PowerPC 64-bit | Linux | GCC |
84 | S390 | Linux | GCC |
85 | S390X | Linux | GCC |
86 | SPARC | Linux | GCC |
87 | SPARC | Solaris | GCC |
88 | SPARC | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
89 | SPARC64 | Linux | GCC |
90 | SPARC64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
91 | SPARC64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
92 | TILE-Gx/TILEPro | Linux | GCC |
93 | VAX | OpenBSD/vax | GCC |
94 | X86 | FreeBSD | GCC |
95 | X86 | GNU HURD | GCC |
96 | X86 | Interix | GCC |
97 | X86 | kFreeBSD | GCC |
99 | X86 | Mac OSX | GCC |
100 | X86 | OpenBSD | GCC |
102 | X86 | Solaris | GCC |
103 | X86 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
104 | X86 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC |
105 | X86 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
106 | X86-64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
107 | X86-64 | Linux | GCC |
108 | X86-64 | Linux/x32 | GCC |
109 | X86-64 | OpenBSD | GCC |
110 | X86-64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
111 | X86-64 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
112 | Xtensa | Linux | GCC |
113 |-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
115 Please send additional platform test results to
116 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org and feel free to update the wiki page
122 First you must configure the distribution for your particular
123 system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the
124 "configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source
127 You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and
128 header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi
129 will install under /usr/local by default.
131 If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the
132 --enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies
133 mysteriously while using libffi.
135 Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this
136 will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you
137 are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using
138 Purify, as it will slow down the library.
140 It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with
141 Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh
142 wrapper script during configuration like so:
144 path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP=\"cl -nologo -EP\"
146 For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64".
147 You may also need to specify --build appropriately. When building with MSVC
148 under a MingW environment, you may need to remove the line in configure
149 that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath' command. ('cygpath' is not
150 present in MingW, and is not required when using MingW-style paths.)
152 For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
154 Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
156 Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
157 GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make .
159 To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
160 This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
162 To install the library and header files, type "make install".
168 See the ChangeLog files for details.
172 Add m88k and DEC VAX support.
173 Fix MIPS N32 ABI bug.
177 Add missing Moxie bits.
178 Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86.
179 Build fix for m68000 targets.
180 Build fix for soft-float Power targets.
181 Fix the install dir location for some platforms when building
182 with GCC (OS X, Solaris).
183 Fix Cygwin regression.
188 Add Blackfin support.
189 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
190 Add MicroBlaze support.
192 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
193 Add support for native vendor compilers on
195 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.
199 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
200 Add Linux/x32 support.
201 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
202 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
203 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
204 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
205 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
206 Fix code pessimizations.
209 Add support for Apple's iOS.
210 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
211 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
212 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
214 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
215 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
216 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
217 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
219 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
220 Additional platform support.
223 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
224 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
225 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
226 Build DLL for windows.
229 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
233 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
236 Fix for closures on sh.
237 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
238 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
242 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
246 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
249 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
250 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
251 Clean up test instruction in README.
254 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
255 Thanks to Björn König.
258 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
259 Thanks to David Daney.
262 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
263 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
268 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
271 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
272 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
273 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
277 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
280 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
281 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
284 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
287 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
290 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
291 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
295 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
296 about certain low level code.
297 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
301 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
302 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
303 is now Cygnus Solutions.
306 Added notes about GNU make.
309 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
312 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
313 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
314 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
317 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
320 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
323 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
326 Interface changes based on feedback.
329 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
332 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
333 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
336 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
340 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
341 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
344 First release. No public announcement.
350 libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@moxielogic.com>.
352 The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
353 innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
356 Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
357 gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
359 The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
362 Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
365 aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
366 alpha Richard Henderson
368 blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
369 cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
375 microblaze Nathan Rossi
376 mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
379 nios ii Sandra Loosemore
380 pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
381 powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
382 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
383 powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
384 s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
387 sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
388 tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
390 x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
394 Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
395 stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
397 Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
400 Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
403 Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
405 Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
407 The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
408 happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
410 If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
411 author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
412 libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.