1Status 2====== 3 4[](https://travis-ci.org/libffi/libffi) 5[](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/atgreen/libffi) 6 7libffi-3.3 was released on November 23, 2019. Check the libffi web 8page for updates: <URL:http://sourceware.org/libffi/>. 9 10 11What is libffi? 12=============== 13 14Compilers for high level languages generate code that follow certain 15conventions. These conventions are necessary, in part, for separate 16compilation to work. One such convention is the "calling 17convention". The "calling convention" is essentially a set of 18assumptions made by the compiler about where function arguments will 19be found on entry to a function. A "calling convention" also specifies 20where the return value for a function is found. 21 22Some programs may not know at the time of compilation what arguments 23are to be passed to a function. For instance, an interpreter may be 24told at run-time about the number and types of arguments used to call 25a given function. Libffi can be used in such programs to provide a 26bridge from the interpreter program to compiled code. 27 28The libffi library provides a portable, high level programming 29interface to various calling conventions. This allows a programmer to 30call any function specified by a call interface description at run 31time. 32 33FFI stands for Foreign Function Interface. A foreign function 34interface is the popular name for the interface that allows code 35written in one language to call code written in another language. The 36libffi library really only provides the lowest, machine dependent 37layer of a fully featured foreign function interface. A layer must 38exist above libffi that handles type conversions for values passed 39between the two languages. 40 41 42Supported Platforms 43=================== 44 45Libffi has been ported to many different platforms. 46 47At the time of release, the following basic configurations have been 48tested: 49 50| Architecture | Operating System | Compiler | 51| --------------- | ---------------- | ----------------------- | 52| AArch64 (ARM64) | iOS | Clang | 53| AArch64 | Linux | GCC | 54| AArch64 | Windows | MSVC | 55| Alpha | Linux | GCC | 56| Alpha | Tru64 | GCC | 57| ARC | Linux | GCC | 58| ARM | Linux | GCC | 59| ARM | iOS | GCC | 60| ARM | Windows | MSVC | 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| RISC-V 32-bit | Linux | GCC | 88| RISC-V 64-bit | Linux | GCC | 89| S390 | Linux | GCC | 90| S390X | Linux | GCC | 91| SPARC | Linux | GCC | 92| SPARC | Solaris | GCC | 93| SPARC | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C | 94| SPARC64 | Linux | GCC | 95| SPARC64 | FreeBSD | GCC | 96| SPARC64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C | 97| TILE-Gx/TILEPro | Linux | GCC | 98| VAX | OpenBSD/vax | GCC | 99| X86 | FreeBSD | GCC | 100| X86 | GNU HURD | GCC | 101| X86 | Interix | GCC | 102| X86 | kFreeBSD | GCC | 103| X86 | Linux | GCC | 104| X86 | Mac OSX | GCC | 105| X86 | OpenBSD | GCC | 106| X86 | OS/2 | GCC | 107| X86 | Solaris | GCC | 108| X86 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C | 109| X86 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC | 110| X86 | Windows/MingW | GCC | 111| X86-64 | FreeBSD | GCC | 112| X86-64 | Linux | GCC | 113| X86-64 | Linux/x32 | GCC | 114| X86-64 | OpenBSD | GCC | 115| X86-64 | Solaris | Oracle Solaris Studio C | 116| X86-64 | Windows/Cygwin | GCC | 117| X86-64 | Windows/MingW | GCC | 118| X86-64 | Mac OSX | GCC | 119| Xtensa | Linux | GCC | 120 121Please send additional platform test results to 122[email protected]. 123 124Installing libffi 125================= 126 127First you must configure the distribution for your particular 128system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the 129"configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source 130distribution. Note that building libffi requires a C99 compatible 131compiler. 132 133If you're building libffi directly from git hosted sources, configure 134won't exist yet; run ./autogen.sh first. This will require that you 135install autoconf, automake and libtool. 136 137You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and 138header files. To do that, use the ``--prefix`` configure switch. Libffi 139will install under /usr/local by default. 140 141If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the 142``--enable-debug`` configure switch. This is useful when your program dies 143mysteriously while using libffi. 144 145Another useful configure switch is ``--enable-purify-safety``. Using this 146will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you 147are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using 148Purify, as it will slow down the library. 149 150If you don't want to build documentation, use the ``--disable-docs`` 151configure switch. 152 153It's also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with 154Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh 155wrapper script during configuration like so: 156 157 path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh CXX=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP="cl -nologo -EP" CPPFLAGS="-DFFI_BUILDING_DLL" 158 159For 64-bit Windows builds, use ``CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64"`` and 160``CXX="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64"``. You may also need to specify 161``--build`` appropriately. 162 163It is also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with the LLVM 164project's clang-cl compiler, like below: 165 166 path/to/configure CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -clang-cl" CXX="path/to/msvcc.sh -clang-cl" LD=link CPP="clang-cl -EP" 167 168When building with MSVC under a MingW environment, you may need to 169remove the line in configure that sets 'fix_srcfile_path' to a 'cygpath' 170command. ('cygpath' is not present in MingW, and is not required when 171using MingW-style paths.) 172 173To build static library for ARM64 with MSVC using visual studio solution, msvc_build folder have 174 aarch64/Ffi_staticLib.sln 175 required header files in aarch64/aarch64_include/ 176 177 178SPARC Solaris builds require the use of the GNU assembler and linker. 179Point ``AS`` and ``LD`` environment variables at those tool prior to 180configuration. 181 182For iOS builds, the ``libffi.xcodeproj`` Xcode project is available. 183 184Configure has many other options. Use ``configure --help`` to see them all. 185 186Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using 187GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make . 188 189To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make check". 190This will require that you have DejaGNU installed. 191 192To install the library and header files, type ``make install``. 193 194 195History 196======= 197 198See the git log for details at http://github.com/libffi/libffi. 199 200 3.3 Nov-23-19 201 Add RISC-V support. 202 New API in support of GO closures. 203 Add IEEE754 binary128 long double support for 64-bit Power 204 Default to Microsoft's 64 bit long double ABI with Visual C++. 205 GNU compiler uses 80 bits (128 in memory) FFI_GNUW64 ABI. 206 Add Windows on ARM64 (WOA) support. 207 Add Windows 32-bit ARM support. 208 Raw java (gcj) API deprecated. 209 Add pre-built PDF documentation to source distribution. 210 Many new tests cases and bug fixes. 211 212 3.2.1 Nov-12-14 213 Build fix for non-iOS AArch64 targets. 214 215 3.2 Nov-11-14 216 Add C99 Complex Type support (currently only supported on 217 s390). 218 Add support for PASCAL and REGISTER calling conventions on x86 219 Windows/Linux. 220 Add OpenRISC and Cygwin-64 support. 221 Bug fixes. 222 223 3.1 May-19-14 224 Add AArch64 (ARM64) iOS support. 225 Add Nios II support. 226 Add m88k and DEC VAX support. 227 Add support for stdcall, thiscall, and fastcall on non-Windows 228 32-bit x86 targets such as Linux. 229 Various Android, MIPS N32, x86, FreeBSD and UltraSPARC IIi 230 fixes. 231 Make the testsuite more robust: eliminate several spurious 232 failures, and respect the $CC and $CXX environment variables. 233 Archive off the manually maintained ChangeLog in favor of git 234 log. 235 236 3.0.13 Mar-17-13 237 Add Meta support. 238 Add missing Moxie bits. 239 Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86. 240 Build fix for m68000 targets. 241 Build fix for soft-float Power targets. 242 Fix the install dir location for some platforms when building 243 with GCC (OS X, Solaris). 244 Fix Cygwin regression. 245 246 3.0.12 Feb-11-13 247 Add Moxie support. 248 Add AArch64 support. 249 Add Blackfin support. 250 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support. 251 Add MicroBlaze support. 252 Add Xtensa support. 253 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT. 254 Add support for native vendor compilers on 255 Solaris and AIX. 256 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64. 257 258 3.0.11 Apr-11-12 259 Lots of build fixes. 260 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var). 261 Add Linux/x32 support. 262 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows. 263 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support. 264 Add m68k FreeMiNT support. 265 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools. 266 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support. 267 Fix code pessimizations. 268 269 3.0.10 Aug-23-11 270 Add support for Apple's iOS. 271 Add support for ARM VFP ABI. 272 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K. 273 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on 274 ARM and SPARC. 275 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5. 276 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler. 277 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler. 278 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc 279 Solaris compiler. 280 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix. 281 Additional platform support. 282 283 3.0.9 Dec-31-09 284 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support. 285 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD. 286 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes. 287 Build DLL for windows. 288 289 3.0.8 Dec-19-08 290 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support. 291 292 3.0.7 Nov-11-08 293 Fix for ppc FreeBSD. 294 (thanks to Andreas Tobler) 295 296 3.0.6 Jul-17-08 297 Fix for closures on sh. 298 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable. 299 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima) 300 301 3.0.5 Apr-3-08 302 Fix libffi.pc file. 303 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users. 304 Fix x86 closure bug. 305 306 3.0.4 Feb-24-08 307 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury. 308 309 3.0.3 Feb-22-08 310 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and 311 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler. 312 Clean up test instruction in README. 313 314 3.0.2 Feb-21-08 315 Improved x86 FreeBSD support. 316 Thanks to Björn König. 317 318 3.0.1 Feb-15-08 319 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS. 320 Thanks to David Daney. 321 322 3.0.0 Feb-15-08 323 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project. 324 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat. 325 326 [10 years go by...] 327 328 1.20 Oct-5-98 329 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port. 330 331 1.19 Oct-5-98 332 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support. 333 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab. 334 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard 335 Henderson. 336 337 1.18 Apr-17-98 338 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes. 339 340 1.17 Feb-24-98 341 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from 342 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes. 343 344 1.16 Feb-11-98 345 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port. 346 347 1.15 Dec-4-97 348 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support. 349 350 1.14 May-13-97 351 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries. 352 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus 353 <[email protected]>. 354 355 1.13 Dec-2-96 356 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining 357 about certain low level code. 358 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args. 359 Linux x86 a.out fix. 360 361 1.12 Nov-22-96 362 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return 363 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support 364 is now Cygnus Solutions. 365 366 1.11 Oct-30-96 367 Added notes about GNU make. 368 369 1.10 Oct-29-96 370 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers. 371 372 1.09 Oct-29-96 373 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint 374 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration 375 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds. 376 377 1.08 Oct-15-96 378 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups. 379 380 1.07 Oct-14-96 381 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes. 382 383 1.06 Oct-14-96 384 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port. 385 386 1.05 Oct-14-96 387 Interface changes based on feedback. 388 389 1.04 Oct-11-96 390 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug). 391 392 1.03 Oct-10-96 393 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for 394 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests. 395 396 1.02 Oct-9-96 397 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support. 398 Added "make test". 399 400 1.01 Oct-8-96 401 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some 402 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools. 403 404 1.00 Oct-7-96 405 First release. No public announcement. 406 407Authors & Credits 408================= 409 410libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <[email protected]>. 411 412The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made 413innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for 414details. 415 416Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free 417gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines. 418 419The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab 420Thorup. 421 422Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following 423developers: 424 425 aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh 426 alpha Richard Henderson 427 arc Hackers at Synopsis 428 arm Raffaele Sena 429 avr32 Bradley Smith 430 blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca 431 cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson 432 frv Anthony Green 433 ia64 Hans Boehm 434 m32r Kazuhiro Inaoka 435 m68k Andreas Schwab 436 m88k Miod Vallat 437 metag Hackers at Imagination Technologies 438 microblaze Nathan Rossi 439 mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall 440 mips64 David Daney 441 moxie Anthony Green 442 nios ii Sandra Loosemore 443 openrisc Sebastian Macke 444 pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler 445 powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler, 446 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist 447 powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek 448 riscv Michael Knyszek, Andrew Waterman, Stef O'Rear 449 s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand 450 sh Kaz Kojima 451 sh64 Kaz Kojima 452 sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam 453 tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee 454 vax Miod Vallat 455 x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston 456 x86-64 Bo Thorsen 457 xtensa Chris Zankel 458 459Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of 460stepping through the code and tracking down bugs. 461 462Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and 463configuration help. 464 465Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi 466interface. 467 468Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite. 469 470Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux. 471 472The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm 473happy to make corrections or additions upon request. 474 475If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the 476author at [email protected], or the project mailing list at 477[email protected]. 478
){kind=link}