1Status
2======
3
4libffi-3.0.12 was released on XXXXXXX. Check the libffi web page for
5updates: <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_3.0.11
47
48At the time of release, the following basic configurations have been
49tested:
50
51|-----------------+------------------|
52| Architecture | Operating System |
53|-----------------+------------------|
54| AArch64 | Linux |
55| Alpha | Linux |
56| Alpha | Tru64 |
57| ARM | Linux |
58| ARM | iOS |
59| AVR32 | Linux |
60| Blackfin | uClinux |
61| HPPA | HPUX |
62| IA-64 | Linux |
63| M68K | FreeMiNT |
64| M68K | RTEMS |
65| MIPS | IRIX |
66| MIPS | Linux |
67| MIPS | RTEMS |
68| MIPS64 | Linux |
69| PowerPC | AMIGA |
70| PowerPC | Linux |
71| PowerPC | Mac OSX |
72| PowerPC | FreeBSD |
73| PowerPC64 | Linux |
74| S390 | Linux |
75| S390X | Linux |
76| SPARC | Linux |
77| SPARC | Solaris |
78| SPARC64 | Linux |
79| SPARC64 | FreeBSD |
80| TILE-Gx/TILEPro | Linux |
81| X86 | FreeBSD |
82| X86 | Interix |
83| X86 | kFreeBSD |
84| X86 | Linux |
85| X86 | Mac OSX |
86| X86 | OpenBSD |
87| X86 | OS/2 |
88| X86 | Solaris |
89| X86 | Windows/Cygwin |
90| X86 | Windows/MingW |
91| X86-64 | FreeBSD |
92| X86-64 | Linux |
93| X86-64 | Linux/x32 |
94| X86-64 | OpenBSD |
95| X86-64 | Windows/MingW |
96|-----------------+------------------|
97
98Please send additional platform test results to
99libffi-discuss@sourceware.org and feel free to update the wiki page
100above.
101
102Installing libffi
103=================
104
105First you must configure the distribution for your particular
106system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the
107"configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source
108distribution.
109
110You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and
111header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi
112will install under /usr/local by default.
113
114If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the
115--enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies
116mysteriously while using libffi.
117
118Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this
119will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you
120are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using
121Purify, as it will slow down the library.
122
123It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with
124Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh
125wrapper script during configuration like so:
126
127path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP=\"cl -nologo -EP\"
128
129For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64".
130You may also need to specify --build appropriately. When building with MSVC
131under a MingW environment, you may need to remove the line in configure
132that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath' command. ('cygpath' is not
133present in MingW, and is not required when using MingW-style paths.)
134
135For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
136
137Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
138
139Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
140GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu.
141
142To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
143This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
144
145To install the library and header files, type "make install".
146
147
148History
149=======
150
151See the ChangeLog files for details.
152
1533.0.12 XXX-XX-XX
154 Add Blackfin support.
155 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
156 Add AArch64 support.
157 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
158
1593.0.11 Apr-11-12
160 Lots of build fixes.
161 Add Amiga newer MacOS support.
162 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
163 Add Linux/x32 support.
164 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
165 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
166 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
167 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
168 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
169 Fix code pessimizations.
170 Lots of build fixes.
171
1723.0.10 Aug-23-11
173 Add support for Apple's iOS.
174 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
175 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
176 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
177 ARM and SPARC.
178 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
179 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
180 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
181 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
182 Solaris compiler.
183 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
184 Additional platform support.
185
1863.0.9 Dec-31-09
187 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
188 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
189 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
190 Build DLL for windows.
191
1923.0.8 Dec-19-08
193 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
194
1953.0.7 Nov-11-08
196 Fix for ppc FreeBSD.
197 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
198
1993.0.6 Jul-17-08
200 Fix for closures on sh.
201 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
202 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
203
2043.0.5 Apr-3-08
205 Fix libffi.pc file.
206 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
207 Fix x86 closure bug.
208
2093.0.4 Feb-24-08
210 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
211
2123.0.3 Feb-22-08
213 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
214 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
215 Clean up test instruction in README.
216
2173.0.2 Feb-21-08
218 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
219 Thanks to Björn König.
220
2213.0.1 Feb-15-08
222 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
223 Thanks to David Daney.
224
2253.0.0 Feb-15-08
226 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
227 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
228
229 [10 years go by...]
230
2311.20 Oct-5-98
232 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
233
2341.19 Oct-5-98
235 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
236 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
237 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
238 Henderson.
239
2401.18 Apr-17-98
241 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
242
2431.17 Feb-24-98
244 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
245 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
246
2471.16 Feb-11-98
248 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
249
2501.15 Dec-4-97
251 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
252
2531.14 May-13-97
254 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
255 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
256 <mcmanr@eq.gs.com>.
257
2581.13 Dec-2-96
259 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
260 about certain low level code.
261 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
262 Linux x86 a.out fix.
263
2641.12 Nov-22-96
265 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
266 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
267 is now Cygnus Solutions.
268
2691.11 Oct-30-96
270 Added notes about GNU make.
271
2721.10 Oct-29-96
273 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
274
2751.09 Oct-29-96
276 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
277 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
278 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
279
2801.08 Oct-15-96
281 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
282
2831.07 Oct-14-96
284 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
285
2861.06 Oct-14-96
287 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
288
2891.05 Oct-14-96
290 Interface changes based on feedback.
291
2921.04 Oct-11-96
293 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
294
2951.03 Oct-10-96
296 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
297 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
298
2991.02 Oct-9-96
300 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
301 Added "make test".
302
3031.01 Oct-8-96
304 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
305 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
306
3071.00 Oct-7-96
308 First release. No public announcement.
309
310
311Authors & Credits
312=================
313
314libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@redhat.com>.
315
316The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
317innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
318details.
319
320Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
321gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
322
323The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
324Thorup.
325
326Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
327developers:
328
329aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
330alpha Richard Henderson
331arm Raffaele Sena
332blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
333cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
334frv Anthony Green
335ia64 Hans Boehm
336m32r Kazuhiro Inaoka
337m68k Andreas Schwab
338mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
339mips64 David Daney
340pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
341powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
342 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
343powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
344s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
345sh Kaz Kojima
346sh64 Kaz Kojima
347sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
348tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
349x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
350x86-64 Bo Thorsen
351
352Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
353stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
354
355Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
356configuration help.
357
358Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
359interface.
360
361Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
362
363Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
364
365The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
366happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
367
368If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
369author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
370libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.
371