1Status
2======
3
4libffi-4?? was released on TBD. 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_3.2
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| OpenRISC | Linux | GCC |
78| PowerPC 32-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
79| PowerPC 64-bit | AIX | IBM XL C |
80| PowerPC | AMIGA | GCC |
81| PowerPC | Linux | GCC |
82| PowerPC | Mac OSX | GCC |
83| PowerPC | FreeBSD | GCC |
84| PowerPC 64-bit | FreeBSD | GCC |
85| PowerPC 64-bit | Linux ELFv1 | GCC |
86| PowerPC 64-bit | Linux ELFv2 | GCC |
87| S390 | Linux | GCC |
88| S390X | Linux | GCC |
89| SPARC | Linux | GCC |
90| SPARC | Solaris | GCC |
91| SPARC | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
92| SPARC64 | Linux | GCC |
93| SPARC64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
94| SPARC64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
95| TILE-Gx/TILEPro | Linux | GCC |
96| VAX | OpenBSD/vax | GCC |
97| X86 | FreeBSD | GCC |
98| X86 | GNU HURD | GCC |
99| X86 | Interix | GCC |
100| X86 | kFreeBSD | GCC |
101| X86 | Linux | GCC |
102| X86 | Mac OSX | GCC |
103| X86 | OpenBSD | GCC |
104| X86 | OS/2 | GCC |
105| X86 | Solaris | GCC |
106| X86 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
107| X86 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC |
108| X86 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
109| X86-64 | FreeBSD | GCC |
110| X86-64 | Linux | GCC |
111| X86-64 | Linux/x32 | GCC |
112| X86-64 | OpenBSD | GCC |
113| X86-64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C |
114| X86-64 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC |
115| X86-64 | Windows/MingW | GCC |
116| Xtensa | Linux | GCC |
117|-----------------+------------------+-------------------------|
118
119Please send additional platform test results to
120libffi-discuss@sourceware.org and feel free to update the wiki page
121above.
122
123Installing libffi
124=================
125
126First you must configure the distribution for your particular
127system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the
128"configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source
129distribution.
130
131If you're building libffi directly from version control, configure won't
132exist yet; run ./autogen.sh first.
133
134You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and
135header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi
136will install under /usr/local by default.
137
138If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the
139--enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies
140mysteriously while using libffi.
141
142Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this
143will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you
144are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using
145Purify, as it will slow down the library.
146
147It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with
148Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh
149wrapper script during configuration like so:
150
151path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh CXX=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP="cl -nologo -EP"
152
153For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64" and
154CXX="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64". You may also need to specify --build
155appropriately.
156
157It is also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with the LLVM
158project's clang-cl compiler, like below:
159
160path/to/configure CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -clang-cl" CXX="path/to/msvcc.sh -clang-cl" LD=link CPP="clang-cl -EP"
161
162When building with MSVC under a MingW environment, you may need to
163remove the line in configure that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath'
164command. ('cygpath' is not present in MingW, and is not required when
165using MingW-style paths.)
166
167For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
168
169Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
170
171Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
172GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make .
173
174To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
175This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
176
177To install the library and header files, type "make install".
178
179
180History
181=======
182
183See the git log for details at http://github.com/atgreen/libffi.
184
1854.0 TBD
186 New API in support of GO closures.
187
1883.2.1 Nov-12-14
189 Build fix for non-iOS AArch64 targets.
190
1913.2 Nov-11-14
192 Add C99 Complex Type support (currently only supported on
193 s390).
194 Add support for PASCAL and REGISTER calling conventions on x86
195 Windows/Linux.
196 Add OpenRISC and Cygwin-64 support.
197 Bug fixes.
198
1993.1 May-19-14
200 Add AArch64 (ARM64) iOS support.
201 Add Nios II support.
202 Add m88k and DEC VAX support.
203 Add support for stdcall, thiscall, and fastcall on non-Windows
204 32-bit x86 targets such as Linux.
205 Various Android, MIPS N32, x86, FreeBSD and UltraSPARC IIi
206 fixes.
207 Make the testsuite more robust: eliminate several spurious
208 failures, and respect the $CC and $CXX environment variables.
209 Archive off the manually maintained ChangeLog in favor of git
210 log.
211
2123.0.13 Mar-17-13
213 Add Meta support.
214 Add missing Moxie bits.
215 Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86.
216 Build fix for m68000 targets.
217 Build fix for soft-float Power targets.
218 Fix the install dir location for some platforms when building
219 with GCC (OS X, Solaris).
220 Fix Cygwin regression.
221
2223.0.12 Feb-11-13
223 Add Moxie support.
224 Add AArch64 support.
225 Add Blackfin support.
226 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
227 Add MicroBlaze support.
228 Add Xtensa support.
229 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
230 Add support for native vendor compilers on
231 Solaris and AIX.
232 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.
233
2343.0.11 Apr-11-12
235 Lots of build fixes.
236 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
237 Add Linux/x32 support.
238 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
239 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
240 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
241 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
242 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
243 Fix code pessimizations.
244
2453.0.10 Aug-23-11
246 Add support for Apple's iOS.
247 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
248 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
249 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
250 ARM and SPARC.
251 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
252 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
253 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
254 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
255 Solaris compiler.
256 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
257 Additional platform support.
258
2593.0.9 Dec-31-09
260 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
261 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
262 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
263 Build DLL for windows.
264
2653.0.8 Dec-19-08
266 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
267
2683.0.7 Nov-11-08
269 Fix for ppc FreeBSD.
270 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
271
2723.0.6 Jul-17-08
273 Fix for closures on sh.
274 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
275 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
276
2773.0.5 Apr-3-08
278 Fix libffi.pc file.
279 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
280 Fix x86 closure bug.
281
2823.0.4 Feb-24-08
283 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
284
2853.0.3 Feb-22-08
286 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
287 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
288 Clean up test instruction in README.
289
2903.0.2 Feb-21-08
291 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
292 Thanks to Björn König.
293
2943.0.1 Feb-15-08
295 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
296 Thanks to David Daney.
297
2983.0.0 Feb-15-08
299 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
300 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
301
302 [10 years go by...]
303
3041.20 Oct-5-98
305 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
306
3071.19 Oct-5-98
308 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
309 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
310 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
311 Henderson.
312
3131.18 Apr-17-98
314 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
315
3161.17 Feb-24-98
317 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
318 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
319
3201.16 Feb-11-98
321 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
322
3231.15 Dec-4-97
324 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
325
3261.14 May-13-97
327 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
328 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
329 <mcmanr@eq.gs.com>.
330
3311.13 Dec-2-96
332 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
333 about certain low level code.
334 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
335 Linux x86 a.out fix.
336
3371.12 Nov-22-96
338 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
339 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
340 is now Cygnus Solutions.
341
3421.11 Oct-30-96
343 Added notes about GNU make.
344
3451.10 Oct-29-96
346 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
347
3481.09 Oct-29-96
349 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
350 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
351 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
352
3531.08 Oct-15-96
354 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
355
3561.07 Oct-14-96
357 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
358
3591.06 Oct-14-96
360 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
361
3621.05 Oct-14-96
363 Interface changes based on feedback.
364
3651.04 Oct-11-96
366 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
367
3681.03 Oct-10-96
369 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
370 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
371
3721.02 Oct-9-96
373 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
374 Added "make test".
375
3761.01 Oct-8-96
377 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
378 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
379
3801.00 Oct-7-96
381 First release. No public announcement.
382
383
384Authors & Credits
385=================
386
387libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@moxielogic.com>.
388
389The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
390innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
391details.
392
393Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
394gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
395
396The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
397Thorup.
398
399Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
400developers:
401
402aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
403alpha Richard Henderson
404arm Raffaele Sena
405blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
406cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
407frv Anthony Green
408ia64 Hans Boehm
409m32r Kazuhiro Inaoka
410m68k Andreas Schwab
411m88k Miod Vallat
412microblaze Nathan Rossi
413mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
414mips64 David Daney
415moxie Anthony Green
416nios ii Sandra Loosemore
417openrisc Sebastian Macke
418pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
419powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
420 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
421powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
422s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
423sh Kaz Kojima
424sh64 Kaz Kojima
425sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
426tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
427vax Miod Vallat
428x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
429x86-64 Bo Thorsen
430xtensa Chris Zankel
431
432Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
433stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
434
435Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
436configuration help.
437
438Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
439interface.
440
441Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
442
443Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
444
445The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
446happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
447
448If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
449author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
450libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.
451