1Status
2======
3
4libffi-3.1 was released on May 11, 2014. Check the libffi web page
5for 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_3.1
47
48At the time of release, the following basic configurations have been
49tested:
50
51|-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
52| Architecture | Operating System | Compiler |
53|-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
54| AArch64 (ARM64) | iOS | Clang |
55| AArch64 | Linux | GCC |
56| Alpha | Linux | GCC |
57| Alpha | Tru64 | GCC |
58| ARC | Linux | GCC |
59| ARM | Linux | GCC |
60| ARM | iOS | GCC |
61| AVR32 | Linux | GCC |
62| Blackfin | uClinux | GCC |
63| HPPA | HPUX | 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 |
71| MIPS | IRIX | 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 |
103| X86 | OS/2 | 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|-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
116
117Please send additional platform test results to
118libffi-discuss@sourceware.org and feel free to update the wiki page
119above.
120
121Installing libffi
122=================
123
124First you must configure the distribution for your particular
125system. 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
127distribution.
128
129If you're building libffi directly from version control, configure won't
130exist yet; run ./autogen.sh first.
131
132You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and
133header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi
134will install under /usr/local by default.
135
136If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the
137--enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies
138mysteriously while using libffi.
139
140Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this
141will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you
142are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using
143Purify, as it will slow down the library.
144
145It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with
146Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh
147wrapper script during configuration like so:
148
149path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh CXX=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP="cl -nologo -EP"
150
151For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64" and
152CXX="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64". You may also need to specify --build
153appropriately.
154
155It is also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with the LLVM
156project's clang-cl compiler, like below:
157
158path/to/configure CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -clang-cl" CXX="path/to/msvcc.sh -clang-cl" LD=link CPP="clang-cl -EP"
159
160When building with MSVC under a MingW environment, you may need to
161remove the line in configure that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath'
162command. ('cygpath' is not present in MingW, and is not required when
163using MingW-style paths.)
164
165For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
166
167Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
168
169Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
170GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make .
171
172To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
173This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
174
175To install the library and header files, type "make install".
176
177
178History
179=======
180
181See the git log for details at http://github.com/atgreen/libffi.
182
1833.1 May-11-14
184 Add AArch64 (ARM64) iOS support.
185 Add Nios II support.
186 Add m88k and DEC VAX support.
187 Add support for stdcall, thiscall, and fastcall on non-Windows
188 32-bit x86 targets such as Linux.
189 Various Android, MIPS N32, x86, FreeBSD and UltraSPARC IIi
190 fixes.
191 Make the testsuite more robust: eliminate several spurious
192 failures, and respect the $CC and $CXX environment variables.
193 Archive off the manually maintained ChangeLog in favor of git
194 log.
195
1963.0.13 Mar-17-13
197 Add Meta support.
198 Add missing Moxie bits.
199 Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86.
200 Build fix for m68000 targets.
201 Build fix for soft-float Power targets.
202 Fix the install dir location for some platforms when building
203 with GCC (OS X, Solaris).
204 Fix Cygwin regression.
205
2063.0.12 Feb-11-13
207 Add Moxie support.
208 Add AArch64 support.
209 Add Blackfin support.
210 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
211 Add MicroBlaze support.
212 Add Xtensa support.
213 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
214 Add support for native vendor compilers on
215 Solaris and AIX.
216 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.
217
2183.0.11 Apr-11-12
219 Lots of build fixes.
220 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
221 Add Linux/x32 support.
222 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
223 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
224 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
225 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
226 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
227 Fix code pessimizations.
228
2293.0.10 Aug-23-11
230 Add support for Apple's iOS.
231 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
232 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
233 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
234 ARM and SPARC.
235 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
236 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
237 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
238 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
239 Solaris compiler.
240 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
241 Additional platform support.
242
2433.0.9 Dec-31-09
244 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
245 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
246 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
247 Build DLL for windows.
248
2493.0.8 Dec-19-08
250 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
251
2523.0.7 Nov-11-08
253 Fix for ppc FreeBSD.
254 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
255
2563.0.6 Jul-17-08
257 Fix for closures on sh.
258 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
259 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
260
2613.0.5 Apr-3-08
262 Fix libffi.pc file.
263 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
264 Fix x86 closure bug.
265
2663.0.4 Feb-24-08
267 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
268
2693.0.3 Feb-22-08
270 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
271 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
272 Clean up test instruction in README.
273
2743.0.2 Feb-21-08
275 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
276 Thanks to Björn König.
277
2783.0.1 Feb-15-08
279 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
280 Thanks to David Daney.
281
2823.0.0 Feb-15-08
283 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
284 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
285
286 [10 years go by...]
287
2881.20 Oct-5-98
289 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
290
2911.19 Oct-5-98
292 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
293 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
294 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
295 Henderson.
296
2971.18 Apr-17-98
298 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
299
3001.17 Feb-24-98
301 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
302 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
303
3041.16 Feb-11-98
305 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
306
3071.15 Dec-4-97
308 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
309
3101.14 May-13-97
311 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
312 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
313 <mcmanr@eq.gs.com>.
314
3151.13 Dec-2-96
316 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
317 about certain low level code.
318 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
319 Linux x86 a.out fix.
320
3211.12 Nov-22-96
322 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
323 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
324 is now Cygnus Solutions.
325
3261.11 Oct-30-96
327 Added notes about GNU make.
328
3291.10 Oct-29-96
330 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
331
3321.09 Oct-29-96
333 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
334 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
335 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
336
3371.08 Oct-15-96
338 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
339
3401.07 Oct-14-96
341 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
342
3431.06 Oct-14-96
344 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
345
3461.05 Oct-14-96
347 Interface changes based on feedback.
348
3491.04 Oct-11-96
350 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
351
3521.03 Oct-10-96
353 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
354 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
355
3561.02 Oct-9-96
357 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
358 Added "make test".
359
3601.01 Oct-8-96
361 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
362 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
363
3641.00 Oct-7-96
365 First release. No public announcement.
366
367
368Authors & Credits
369=================
370
371libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@moxielogic.com>.
372
373The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
374innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
375details.
376
377Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
378gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
379
380The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
381Thorup.
382
383Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
384developers:
385
386aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
387alpha Richard Henderson
388arm Raffaele Sena
389blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
390cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
391frv Anthony Green
392ia64 Hans Boehm
393m32r Kazuhiro Inaoka
394m68k Andreas Schwab
395m88k Miod Vallat
396microblaze Nathan Rossi
397mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
398mips64 David Daney
399moxie Anthony Green
400nios ii Sandra Loosemore
401pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
402powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
403 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
404powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
405s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
406sh Kaz Kojima
407sh64 Kaz Kojima
408sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
409tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
410vax Miod Vallat
411x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
412x86-64 Bo Thorsen
413xtensa Chris Zankel
414
415Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
416stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
417
418Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
419configuration help.
420
421Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
422interface.
423
424Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
425
426Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
427
428The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
429happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
430
431If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
432author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
433libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.
434