1Status
2======
3
4libffi-3.1 was released on May 19, 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
155When building with MSVC under a MingW environment, you may need to
156remove the line in configure that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath'
157command. ('cygpath' is not present in MingW, and is not required when
158using MingW-style paths.)
159
160For iOS builds, the 'libffi.xcodeproj' Xcode project is available.
161
162Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all.
163
164Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using
165GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make .
166
167To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check".
168This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.
169
170To install the library and header files, type "make install".
171
172
173History
174=======
175
176See the git log for details at http://github.com/atgreen/libffi.
177
1783.1 May-19-14
179 Add AArch64 (ARM64) iOS support.
180 Add Nios II support.
181 Add m88k and DEC VAX support.
182 Add support for stdcall, thiscall, and fastcall on non-Windows
183 32-bit x86 targets such as Linux.
184 Various Android, MIPS N32, x86, FreeBSD and UltraSPARC IIi
185 fixes.
186 Make the testsuite more robust: eliminate several spurious
187 failures, and respect the $CC and $CXX environment variables.
188 Archive off the manually maintained ChangeLog in favor of git
189 log.
190
1913.0.13 Mar-17-13
192 Add Meta support.
193 Add missing Moxie bits.
194 Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86.
195 Build fix for m68000 targets.
196 Build fix for soft-float Power targets.
197 Fix the install dir location for some platforms when building
198 with GCC (OS X, Solaris).
199 Fix Cygwin regression.
200
2013.0.12 Feb-11-13
202 Add Moxie support.
203 Add AArch64 support.
204 Add Blackfin support.
205 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
206 Add MicroBlaze support.
207 Add Xtensa support.
208 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
209 Add support for native vendor compilers on
210 Solaris and AIX.
211 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.
212
2133.0.11 Apr-11-12
214 Lots of build fixes.
215 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
216 Add Linux/x32 support.
217 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
218 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
219 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
220 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
221 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
222 Fix code pessimizations.
223
2243.0.10 Aug-23-11
225 Add support for Apple's iOS.
226 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
227 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
228 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
229 ARM and SPARC.
230 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
231 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
232 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
233 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
234 Solaris compiler.
235 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
236 Additional platform support.
237
2383.0.9 Dec-31-09
239 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
240 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
241 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
242 Build DLL for windows.
243
2443.0.8 Dec-19-08
245 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
246
2473.0.7 Nov-11-08
248 Fix for ppc FreeBSD.
249 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
250
2513.0.6 Jul-17-08
252 Fix for closures on sh.
253 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
254 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
255
2563.0.5 Apr-3-08
257 Fix libffi.pc file.
258 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
259 Fix x86 closure bug.
260
2613.0.4 Feb-24-08
262 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
263
2643.0.3 Feb-22-08
265 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
266 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
267 Clean up test instruction in README.
268
2693.0.2 Feb-21-08
270 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
271 Thanks to Björn König.
272
2733.0.1 Feb-15-08
274 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
275 Thanks to David Daney.
276
2773.0.0 Feb-15-08
278 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
279 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
280
281 [10 years go by...]
282
2831.20 Oct-5-98
284 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
285
2861.19 Oct-5-98
287 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
288 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
289 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
290 Henderson.
291
2921.18 Apr-17-98
293 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
294
2951.17 Feb-24-98
296 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
297 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
298
2991.16 Feb-11-98
300 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
301
3021.15 Dec-4-97
303 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
304
3051.14 May-13-97
306 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
307 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
308 <mcmanr@eq.gs.com>.
309
3101.13 Dec-2-96
311 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
312 about certain low level code.
313 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
314 Linux x86 a.out fix.
315
3161.12 Nov-22-96
317 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
318 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
319 is now Cygnus Solutions.
320
3211.11 Oct-30-96
322 Added notes about GNU make.
323
3241.10 Oct-29-96
325 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
326
3271.09 Oct-29-96
328 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
329 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
330 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
331
3321.08 Oct-15-96
333 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
334
3351.07 Oct-14-96
336 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
337
3381.06 Oct-14-96
339 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
340
3411.05 Oct-14-96
342 Interface changes based on feedback.
343
3441.04 Oct-11-96
345 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
346
3471.03 Oct-10-96
348 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
349 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
350
3511.02 Oct-9-96
352 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
353 Added "make test".
354
3551.01 Oct-8-96
356 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
357 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
358
3591.00 Oct-7-96
360 First release. No public announcement.
361
362
363Authors & Credits
364=================
365
366libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@moxielogic.com>.
367
368The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
369innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
370details.
371
372Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
373gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
374
375The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
376Thorup.
377
378Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
379developers:
380
381aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
382alpha Richard Henderson
383arm Raffaele Sena
384blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
385cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
386frv Anthony Green
387ia64 Hans Boehm
388m32r Kazuhiro Inaoka
389m68k Andreas Schwab
390m88k Miod Vallat
391microblaze Nathan Rossi
392mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
393mips64 David Daney
394moxie Anthony Green
395nios ii Sandra Loosemore
396pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
397powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
398 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
399powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
400s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
401sh Kaz Kojima
402sh64 Kaz Kojima
403sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
404tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
405vax Miod Vallat
406x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
407x86-64 Bo Thorsen
408xtensa Chris Zankel
409
410Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
411stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
412
413Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
414configuration help.
415
416Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
417interface.
418
419Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
420
421Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
422
423The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
424happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
425
426If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
427author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
428libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.
429