1Status 2====== 3 4libffi-3.0.13 was released on March 17, 2013. Check the libffi web 5page for updates: <URL:http://sourceware.org/libffi/>. 6 7 8What is libffi? 9=============== 10 11Compilers for high level languages generate code that follow certain 12conventions. These conventions are necessary, in part, for separate 13compilation to work. One such convention is the "calling 14convention". The "calling convention" is essentially a set of 15assumptions made by the compiler about where function arguments will 16be found on entry to a function. A "calling convention" also specifies 17where the return value for a function is found. 18 19Some programs may not know at the time of compilation what arguments 20are to be passed to a function. For instance, an interpreter may be 21told at run-time about the number and types of arguments used to call 22a given function. Libffi can be used in such programs to provide a 23bridge from the interpreter program to compiled code. 24 25The libffi library provides a portable, high level programming 26interface to various calling conventions. This allows a programmer to 27call any function specified by a call interface description at run 28time. 29 30FFI stands for Foreign Function Interface. A foreign function 31interface is the popular name for the interface that allows code 32written in one language to call code written in another language. The 33libffi library really only provides the lowest, machine dependent 34layer of a fully featured foreign function interface. A layer must 35exist above libffi that handles type conversions for values passed 36between the two languages. 37 38 39Supported Platforms 40=================== 41 42Libffi has been ported to many different platforms. 43For specific configuration details and testing status, please 44refer to the wiki page here: 45 46 http://www.moxielogic.org/wiki/index.php?title=Libffi_3.0.13 47 48At the time of release, the following basic configurations have been 49tested: 50 51|-----------------+------------------+-------------------------| 52| Architecture | Operating System | Compiler | 53|-----------------+------------------+-------------------------| 54| AArch64 | Linux | GCC | 55| Alpha | Linux | GCC | 56| Alpha | Tru64 | GCC | 57| ARM | Linux | GCC | 58| ARM | iOS | GCC | 59| AVR32 | Linux | GCC | 60| Blackfin | uClinux | GCC | 61| HPPA | HPUX | 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 | 68| MIPS | IRIX | 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 | 94| X86 | Linux | GCC | 95| X86 | Mac OSX | GCC | 96| X86 | OpenBSD | GCC | 97| X86 | OS/2 | 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|-----------------+------------------+-------------------------| 110 111Please send additional platform test results to 112libffi-discuss@sourceware.org and feel free to update the wiki page 113above. 114 115Installing libffi 116================= 117 118First you must configure the distribution for your particular 119system. 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 121distribution. 122 123You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and 124header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi 125will install under /usr/local by default. 126 127If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the 128--enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies 129mysteriously while using libffi. 130 131Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this 132will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you 133are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using 134Purify, as it will slow down the library. 135 136It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with 137Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh 138wrapper script during configuration like so: 139 140path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP=\"cl -nologo -EP\" 141 142For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64". 143You may also need to specify --build appropriately. When building with MSVC 144under a MingW environment, you may need to remove the line in configure 145that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath' command. ('cygpath' is not 146present in MingW, and is not required when using MingW-style paths.) 147 148For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available. 149 150Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all. 151 152Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using 153GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make . 154 155To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check". 156This will require that you have DejaGNU installed. 157 158To install the library and header files, type "make install". 159 160 161History 162======= 163 164See the ChangeLog files for details. 165 1663.0.13 Mar-17-13 167 Add Meta support. 168 Add missing Moxie bits. 169 Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86. 170 Build fix for m68000 targets. 171 Build fix for soft-float Power targets. 172 Fix the install dir location for some platforms when building 173 with GCC (OS X, Solaris). 174 Fix Cygwin regression. 175 1763.0.12 Feb-11-13 177 Add Moxie support. 178 Add AArch64 support. 179 Add Blackfin support. 180 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support. 181 Add MicroBlaze support. 182 Add Xtensa support. 183 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT. 184 Add support for native vendor compilers on 185 Solaris and AIX. 186 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64. 187 1883.0.11 Apr-11-12 189 Lots of build fixes. 190 Add Amiga newer MacOS support. 191 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var). 192 Add Linux/x32 support. 193 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows. 194 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support. 195 Add m68k FreeMiNT support. 196 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools. 197 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support. 198 Fix code pessimizations. 199 2003.0.10 Aug-23-11 201 Add support for Apple's iOS. 202 Add support for ARM VFP ABI. 203 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K. 204 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on 205 ARM and SPARC. 206 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5. 207 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler. 208 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler. 209 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc 210 Solaris compiler. 211 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix. 212 Additional platform support. 213 2143.0.9 Dec-31-09 215 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support. 216 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD. 217 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes. 218 Build DLL for windows. 219 2203.0.8 Dec-19-08 221 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support. 222 2233.0.7 Nov-11-08 224 Fix for ppc FreeBSD. 225 (thanks to Andreas Tobler) 226 2273.0.6 Jul-17-08 228 Fix for closures on sh. 229 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable. 230 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima) 231 2323.0.5 Apr-3-08 233 Fix libffi.pc file. 234 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users. 235 Fix x86 closure bug. 236 2373.0.4 Feb-24-08 238 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury. 239 2403.0.3 Feb-22-08 241 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and 242 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler. 243 Clean up test instruction in README. 244 2453.0.2 Feb-21-08 246 Improved x86 FreeBSD support. 247 Thanks to Björn König. 248 2493.0.1 Feb-15-08 250 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS. 251 Thanks to David Daney. 252 2533.0.0 Feb-15-08 254 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project. 255 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat. 256 257 [10 years go by...] 258 2591.20 Oct-5-98 260 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port. 261 2621.19 Oct-5-98 263 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support. 264 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab. 265 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard 266 Henderson. 267 2681.18 Apr-17-98 269 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes. 270 2711.17 Feb-24-98 272 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from 273 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes. 274 2751.16 Feb-11-98 276 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port. 277 2781.15 Dec-4-97 279 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support. 280 2811.14 May-13-97 282 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries. 283 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus 284 <mcmanr@eq.gs.com>. 285 2861.13 Dec-2-96 287 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining 288 about certain low level code. 289 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args. 290 Linux x86 a.out fix. 291 2921.12 Nov-22-96 293 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return 294 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support 295 is now Cygnus Solutions. 296 2971.11 Oct-30-96 298 Added notes about GNU make. 299 3001.10 Oct-29-96 301 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers. 302 3031.09 Oct-29-96 304 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint 305 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration 306 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds. 307 3081.08 Oct-15-96 309 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups. 310 3111.07 Oct-14-96 312 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes. 313 3141.06 Oct-14-96 315 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port. 316 3171.05 Oct-14-96 318 Interface changes based on feedback. 319 3201.04 Oct-11-96 321 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug). 322 3231.03 Oct-10-96 324 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for 325 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests. 326 3271.02 Oct-9-96 328 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support. 329 Added "make test". 330 3311.01 Oct-8-96 332 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some 333 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools. 334 3351.00 Oct-7-96 336 First release. No public announcement. 337 338 339Authors & Credits 340================= 341 342libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@redhat.com>. 343 344The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made 345innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for 346details. 347 348Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free 349gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines. 350 351The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab 352Thorup. 353 354Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following 355developers: 356 357aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh 358alpha Richard Henderson 359arm Raffaele Sena 360blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca 361cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson 362frv Anthony Green 363ia64 Hans Boehm 364m32r Kazuhiro Inaoka 365m68k Andreas Schwab 366microblaze Nathan Rossi 367mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall 368mips64 David Daney 369moxie Anthony Green 370pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler 371powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler, 372 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist 373powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek 374s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand 375sh Kaz Kojima 376sh64 Kaz Kojima 377sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam 378tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee 379x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston 380x86-64 Bo Thorsen 381xtensa Chris Zankel 382 383Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of 384stepping through the code and tracking down bugs. 385 386Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and 387configuration help. 388 389Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi 390interface. 391 392Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite. 393 394Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux. 395 396The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm 397happy to make corrections or additions upon request. 398 399If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the 400author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at 401libffi-discuss@sourceware.org. 402