1Status
2======
3
4libffi-3.2.1 was released on November 12, 2014. 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
1853.2.1 Nov-12-14
186 Build fix for non-iOS AArch64 targets.
187
1883.2 Nov-11-14
189 Add C99 Complex Type support (currently only supported on
190 s390).
191 Add support for PASCAL and REGISTER calling conventions on x86
192 Windows/Linux.
193 Add OpenRISC and Cygwin-64 support.
194 Bug fixes.
195
1963.1 May-19-14
197 Add AArch64 (ARM64) iOS support.
198 Add Nios II support.
199 Add m88k and DEC VAX support.
200 Add support for stdcall, thiscall, and fastcall on non-Windows
201 32-bit x86 targets such as Linux.
202 Various Android, MIPS N32, x86, FreeBSD and UltraSPARC IIi
203 fixes.
204 Make the testsuite more robust: eliminate several spurious
205 failures, and respect the $CC and $CXX environment variables.
206 Archive off the manually maintained ChangeLog in favor of git
207 log.
208
2093.0.13 Mar-17-13
210 Add Meta support.
211 Add missing Moxie bits.
212 Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86.
213 Build fix for m68000 targets.
214 Build fix for soft-float Power targets.
215 Fix the install dir location for some platforms when building
216 with GCC (OS X, Solaris).
217 Fix Cygwin regression.
218
2193.0.12 Feb-11-13
220 Add Moxie support.
221 Add AArch64 support.
222 Add Blackfin support.
223 Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
224 Add MicroBlaze support.
225 Add Xtensa support.
226 Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
227 Add support for native vendor compilers on
228 Solaris and AIX.
229 Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.
230
2313.0.11 Apr-11-12
232 Lots of build fixes.
233 Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
234 Add Linux/x32 support.
235 Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
236 Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
237 Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
238 Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
239 Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
240 Fix code pessimizations.
241
2423.0.10 Aug-23-11
243 Add support for Apple's iOS.
244 Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
245 Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
246 Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
247 ARM and SPARC.
248 Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
249 Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
250 Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
251 Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
252 Solaris compiler.
253 Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
254 Additional platform support.
255
2563.0.9 Dec-31-09
257 Add AVR32 and win64 ports. Add ARM softfp support.
258 Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
259 Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
260 Build DLL for windows.
261
2623.0.8 Dec-19-08
263 Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.
264
2653.0.7 Nov-11-08
266 Fix for ppc FreeBSD.
267 (thanks to Andreas Tobler)
268
2693.0.6 Jul-17-08
270 Fix for closures on sh.
271 Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
272 (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)
273
2743.0.5 Apr-3-08
275 Fix libffi.pc file.
276 Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
277 Fix x86 closure bug.
278
2793.0.4 Feb-24-08
280 Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.
281
2823.0.3 Feb-22-08
283 Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
284 x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
285 Clean up test instruction in README.
286
2873.0.2 Feb-21-08
288 Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
289 Thanks to Björn König.
290
2913.0.1 Feb-15-08
292 Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
293 Thanks to David Daney.
294
2953.0.0 Feb-15-08
296 Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
297 Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.
298
299 [10 years go by...]
300
3011.20 Oct-5-98
302 Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.
303
3041.19 Oct-5-98
305 Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
306 m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
307 Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
308 Henderson.
309
3101.18 Apr-17-98
311 Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.
312
3131.17 Feb-24-98
314 Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
315 Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.
316
3171.16 Feb-11-98
318 Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.
319
3201.15 Dec-4-97
321 Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.
322
3231.14 May-13-97
324 libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
325 Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
326 <mcmanr@eq.gs.com>.
327
3281.13 Dec-2-96
329 Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
330 about certain low level code.
331 Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
332 Linux x86 a.out fix.
333
3341.12 Nov-22-96
335 Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
336 types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
337 is now Cygnus Solutions.
338
3391.11 Oct-30-96
340 Added notes about GNU make.
341
3421.10 Oct-29-96
343 Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.
344
3451.09 Oct-29-96
346 Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
347 feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
348 fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.
349
3501.08 Oct-15-96
351 Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.
352
3531.07 Oct-14-96
354 Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.
355
3561.06 Oct-14-96
357 Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.
358
3591.05 Oct-14-96
360 Interface changes based on feedback.
361
3621.04 Oct-11-96
363 Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).
364
3651.03 Oct-10-96
366 Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
367 all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.
368
3691.02 Oct-9-96
370 Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
371 Added "make test".
372
3731.01 Oct-8-96
374 Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
375 of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.
376
3771.00 Oct-7-96
378 First release. No public announcement.
379
380
381Authors & Credits
382=================
383
384libffi was originally written by Anthony Green <green@moxielogic.com>.
385
386The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made
387innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for
388details.
389
390Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free
391gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.
392
393The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab
394Thorup.
395
396Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following
397developers:
398
399aarch64 Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
400alpha Richard Henderson
401arm Raffaele Sena
402blackfin Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
403cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
404frv Anthony Green
405ia64 Hans Boehm
406m32r Kazuhiro Inaoka
407m68k Andreas Schwab
408m88k Miod Vallat
409microblaze Nathan Rossi
410mips Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
411mips64 David Daney
412moxie Anthony Green
413nios ii Sandra Loosemore
414openrisc Sebastian Macke
415pa Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
416powerpc Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
417 David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
418powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek
419s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
420sh Kaz Kojima
421sh64 Kaz Kojima
422sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
423tile-gx/tilepro Walter Lee
424vax Miod Vallat
425x86 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
426x86-64 Bo Thorsen
427xtensa Chris Zankel
428
429Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of
430stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.
431
432Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and
433configuration help.
434
435Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi
436interface.
437
438Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.
439
440Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.
441
442The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm
443happy to make corrections or additions upon request.
444
445If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to the
446author at green@moxielogic.com, or the project mailing list at
447libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.
448