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