| 1 | README for libffi-2.00 | 
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| 2 |  | 
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| 3 | libffi-2.00 has not been released yet! This is a development snapshot! | 
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| 4 |  | 
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| 5 | libffi-1.20 was released on [SOME FUTURE DAY]. Check the libffi web | 
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| 6 | page for updates: <URL:http://sourceware.cygnus.com/libffi/>. | 
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| 7 |  | 
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| 8 |  | 
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| 9 | What is libffi? | 
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| 10 | =============== | 
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| 11 |  | 
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| 12 | Compilers for high level languages generate code that follow certain | 
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| 13 | conventions. These conventions are necessary, in part, for separate | 
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| 14 | compilation to work. One such convention is the "calling | 
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| 15 | convention". The "calling convention" is essentially a set of | 
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| 16 | assumptions made by the compiler about where function arguments will | 
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| 17 | be found on entry to a function. A "calling convention" also specifies | 
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| 18 | where the return value for a function is found. | 
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| 19 |  | 
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| 20 | Some programs may not know at the time of compilation what arguments | 
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| 21 | are to be passed to a function. For instance, an interpreter may be | 
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| 22 | told at run-time about the number and types of arguments used to call | 
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| 23 | a given function. Libffi can be used in such programs to provide a | 
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| 24 | bridge from the interpreter program to compiled code. | 
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| 25 |  | 
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| 26 | The libffi library provides a portable, high level programming | 
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| 27 | interface to various calling conventions. This allows a programmer to | 
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| 28 | call any function specified by a call interface description at run | 
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| 29 | time. | 
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| 30 |  | 
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| 31 | Ffi stands for Foreign Function Interface. A foreign function | 
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| 32 | interface is the popular name for the interface that allows code | 
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| 33 | written in one language to call code written in another language. The | 
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| 34 | libffi library really only provides the lowest, machine dependent | 
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| 35 | layer of a fully featured foreign function interface. A layer must | 
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| 36 | exist above libffi that handles type conversions for values passed | 
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| 37 | between the two languages. | 
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| 38 |  | 
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| 39 |  | 
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| 40 | Supported Platforms and Prerequisites | 
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| 41 | ===================================== | 
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| 42 |  | 
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| 43 | Libffi has been ported to: | 
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| 44 |  | 
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| 45 | SunOS 4.1.3 & Solaris 2.x (Sparc v8) | 
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| 46 |  | 
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| 47 | Irix 5.3 & 6.2 (System V/o32 & n32) | 
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| 48 |  | 
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| 49 | Intel x86 - Linux (System V ABI) | 
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| 50 |  | 
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| 51 | Alpha - Linux and OSF/1 | 
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| 52 |  | 
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| 53 | m68k - Linux (System V ABI) | 
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| 54 |  | 
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| 55 | PowerPC - Linux (System V ABI, Darwin, AIX) | 
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| 56 |  | 
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| 57 | ARM - Linux (System V ABI) | 
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| 58 |  | 
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| 59 | Libffi has been tested with the egcs 1.0.2 gcc compiler. Chances are | 
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| 60 | that other versions will work.  Libffi has also been built and tested | 
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| 61 | with the SGI compiler tools. | 
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| 62 |  | 
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| 63 | On PowerPC, the tests failed (see the note below). | 
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| 64 |  | 
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| 65 | You must use GNU make to build libffi. SGI's make will not work. | 
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| 66 | Sun's probably won't either. | 
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| 67 |  | 
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| 68 | If you port libffi to another platform, please let me know! I assume | 
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| 69 | that some will be easy (x86 NetBSD), and others will be more difficult | 
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| 70 | (HP). | 
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| 71 |  | 
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| 72 |  | 
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| 73 | Installing libffi | 
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| 74 | ================= | 
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| 75 |  | 
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| 76 | [Note: before actually performing any of these installation steps, | 
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| 77 | you may wish to read the "Platform Specific Notes" below.] | 
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| 78 |  | 
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| 79 | First you must configure the distribution for your particular | 
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| 80 | system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the | 
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| 81 | "configure" program found in the root directory of the libffi source | 
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| 82 | distribution. | 
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| 83 |  | 
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| 84 | You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and | 
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| 85 | header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch.  Libffi | 
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| 86 | will install under /usr/local by default. | 
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| 87 |  | 
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| 88 | If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the | 
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| 89 | --enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies | 
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| 90 | mysteriously while using libffi. | 
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| 91 |  | 
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| 92 | Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this | 
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| 93 | will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you | 
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| 94 | are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using | 
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| 95 | Purify, as it will slow down the library. | 
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| 96 |  | 
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| 97 | Configure has many other options. Use "configure --help" to see them all. | 
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| 98 |  | 
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| 99 | Once configure has finished, type "make". Note that you must be using | 
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| 100 | GNU make. SGI's make will not work.  Sun's probably won't either. | 
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| 101 | You can ftp GNU make from prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu. | 
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| 102 |  | 
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| 103 | To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type "make test". | 
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| 104 |  | 
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| 105 | To install the library and header files, type "make install". | 
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| 106 |  | 
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| 107 |  | 
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| 108 | Using libffi | 
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| 109 | ============ | 
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| 110 |  | 
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| 111 | The Basics | 
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| 112 | ---------- | 
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| 113 |  | 
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| 114 | Libffi assumes that you have a pointer to the function you wish to | 
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| 115 | call and that you know the number and types of arguments to pass it, | 
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| 116 | as well as the return type of the function. | 
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| 117 |  | 
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| 118 | The first thing you must do is create an ffi_cif object that matches | 
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| 119 | the signature of the function you wish to call. The cif in ffi_cif | 
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| 120 | stands for Call InterFace. To prepare a call interface object, use the | 
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| 121 | following function: | 
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| 122 |  | 
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| 123 | ffi_status ffi_prep_cif(ffi_cif *cif, ffi_abi abi, | 
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| 124 | unsigned int nargs, | 
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| 125 | ffi_type *rtype, ffi_type **atypes); | 
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| 126 |  | 
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| 127 | CIF is a pointer to the call interface object you wish | 
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| 128 | to initialize. | 
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| 129 |  | 
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| 130 | ABI is an enum that specifies the calling convention | 
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| 131 | to use for the call. FFI_DEFAULT_ABI defaults | 
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| 132 | to the system's native calling convention. Other | 
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| 133 | ABI's may be used with care. They are system | 
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| 134 | specific. | 
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| 135 |  | 
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| 136 | NARGS is the number of arguments this function accepts. | 
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| 137 | libffi does not yet support vararg functions. | 
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| 138 |  | 
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| 139 | RTYPE is a pointer to an ffi_type structure that represents | 
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| 140 | the return type of the function. Ffi_type objects | 
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| 141 | describe the types of values. libffi provides | 
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| 142 | ffi_type objects for many of the native C types: | 
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| 143 | signed int, unsigned int, signed char, unsigned char, | 
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| 144 | etc. There is also a pointer ffi_type object and | 
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| 145 | a void ffi_type. Use &ffi_type_void for functions that | 
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| 146 | don't return values. | 
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| 147 |  | 
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| 148 | ATYPES is a vector of ffi_type pointers. ARGS must be NARGS long. | 
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| 149 | If NARGS is 0, this is ignored. | 
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| 150 |  | 
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| 151 |  | 
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| 152 | ffi_prep_cif will return a status code that you are responsible | 
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| 153 | for checking. It will be one of the following: | 
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| 154 |  | 
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| 155 | FFI_OK - All is good. | 
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| 156 |  | 
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| 157 | FFI_BAD_TYPEDEF - One of the ffi_type objects that ffi_prep_cif | 
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| 158 | came across is bad. | 
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| 159 |  | 
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| 160 |  | 
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| 161 | Before making the call, the VALUES vector should be initialized | 
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| 162 | with pointers to the appropriate argument values. | 
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| 163 |  | 
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| 164 | To call the the function using the initialized ffi_cif, use the | 
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| 165 | ffi_call function: | 
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| 166 |  | 
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| 167 | void ffi_call(ffi_cif *cif, void *fn, void *rvalue, void **avalues); | 
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| 168 |  | 
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| 169 | CIF is a pointer to the ffi_cif initialized specifically | 
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| 170 | for this function. | 
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| 171 |  | 
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| 172 | FN is a pointer to the function you want to call. | 
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| 173 |  | 
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| 174 | RVALUE is a pointer to a chunk of memory that is to hold the | 
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| 175 | result of the function call. Currently, it must be | 
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| 176 | at least one word in size (except for the n32 version | 
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| 177 | under Irix 6.x, which must be a pointer to an 8 byte | 
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| 178 | aligned value (a long long). It must also be at least | 
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| 179 | word aligned (depending on the return type, and the | 
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| 180 | system's alignment requirements). If RTYPE is | 
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| 181 | &ffi_type_void, this is ignored. If RVALUE is NULL, | 
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| 182 | the return value is discarded. | 
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| 183 |  | 
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| 184 | AVALUES is a vector of void* that point to the memory locations | 
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| 185 | holding the argument values for a call. | 
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| 186 | If NARGS is 0, this is ignored. | 
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| 187 |  | 
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| 188 |  | 
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| 189 | If you are expecting a return value from FN it will have been stored | 
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| 190 | at RVALUE. | 
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| 191 |  | 
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| 192 |  | 
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| 193 |  | 
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| 194 | An Example | 
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| 195 | ---------- | 
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| 196 |  | 
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| 197 | Here is a trivial example that calls puts() a few times. | 
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| 198 |  | 
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| 199 | #include <stdio.h> | 
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| 200 | #include <ffi.h> | 
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| 201 |  | 
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| 202 | int main() | 
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| 203 | { | 
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| 204 | ffi_cif cif; | 
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| 205 | ffi_type *args[1]; | 
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| 206 | void *values[1]; | 
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| 207 | char *s; | 
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| 208 | int rc; | 
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| 209 |  | 
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| 210 | /* Initialize the argument info vectors */ | 
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| 211 | args[0] = &ffi_type_uint; | 
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| 212 | values[0] = &s; | 
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| 213 |  | 
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| 214 | /* Initialize the cif */ | 
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| 215 | if (ffi_prep_cif(&cif, FFI_DEFAULT_ABI, 1, | 
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| 216 | &ffi_type_uint, args) == FFI_OK) | 
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| 217 | { | 
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| 218 | s = "Hello World!"; | 
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| 219 | ffi_call(&cif, puts, &rc, values); | 
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| 220 | /* rc now holds the result of the call to puts */ | 
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| 221 |  | 
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| 222 | /* values holds a pointer to the function's arg, so to | 
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| 223 | call puts() again all we need to do is change the | 
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| 224 | value of s */ | 
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| 225 | s = "This is cool!"; | 
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| 226 | ffi_call(&cif, puts, &rc, values); | 
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| 227 | } | 
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| 228 |  | 
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| 229 | return 0; | 
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| 230 | } | 
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| 231 |  | 
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| 232 |  | 
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| 233 |  | 
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| 234 | Aggregate Types | 
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| 235 | --------------- | 
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| 236 |  | 
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| 237 | Although libffi has no special support for unions or bit-fields, it is | 
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| 238 | perfectly happy passing structures back and forth. You must first | 
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| 239 | describe the structure to libffi by creating a new ffi_type object | 
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| 240 | for it. Here is the definition of ffi_type: | 
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| 241 |  | 
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| 242 | typedef struct _ffi_type | 
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| 243 | { | 
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| 244 | unsigned size; | 
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| 245 | short alignment; | 
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| 246 | short type; | 
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| 247 | struct _ffi_type **elements; | 
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| 248 | } ffi_type; | 
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| 249 |  | 
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| 250 | All structures must have type set to FFI_TYPE_STRUCT.  You may set | 
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| 251 | size and alignment to 0. These will be calculated and reset to the | 
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| 252 | appropriate values by ffi_prep_cif(). | 
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| 253 |  | 
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| 254 | elements is a NULL terminated array of pointers to ffi_type objects | 
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| 255 | that describe the type of the structure elements. These may, in turn, | 
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| 256 | be structure elements. | 
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| 257 |  | 
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| 258 | The following example initializes a ffi_type object representing the | 
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| 259 | tm struct from Linux's time.h: | 
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| 260 |  | 
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| 261 | struct tm { | 
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| 262 | int tm_sec; | 
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| 263 | int tm_min; | 
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| 264 | int tm_hour; | 
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| 265 | int tm_mday; | 
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| 266 | int tm_mon; | 
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| 267 | int tm_year; | 
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| 268 | int tm_wday; | 
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| 269 | int tm_yday; | 
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| 270 | int tm_isdst; | 
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| 271 | /* Those are for future use. */ | 
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| 272 | long int __tm_gmtoff__; | 
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| 273 | __const char *__tm_zone__; | 
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| 274 | }; | 
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| 275 |  | 
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| 276 | { | 
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| 277 | ffi_type tm_type; | 
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| 278 | ffi_type *tm_type_elements[12]; | 
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| 279 | int i; | 
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| 280 |  | 
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| 281 | tm_type.size = tm_type.alignment = 0; | 
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| 282 | tm_type.elements = &tm_type_elements; | 
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| 283 |  | 
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| 284 | for (i = 0; i < 9; i++) | 
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| 285 | tm_type_elements[i] = &ffi_type_sint; | 
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| 286 |  | 
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| 287 | tm_type_elements[9] = &ffi_type_slong; | 
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| 288 | tm_type_elements[10] = &ffi_type_pointer; | 
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| 289 | tm_type_elements[11] = NULL; | 
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| 290 |  | 
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| 291 | /* tm_type can now be used to represent tm argument types and | 
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| 292 | return types for ffi_prep_cif() */ | 
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| 293 | } | 
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| 294 |  | 
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| 295 |  | 
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| 296 |  | 
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| 297 | Platform Specific Notes | 
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| 298 | ======================= | 
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| 299 |  | 
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| 300 | Intel x86 | 
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| 301 | --------- | 
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| 302 |  | 
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| 303 | There are no known problems with the x86 port. | 
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| 304 |  | 
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| 305 | Sun Sparc - SunOS 4.1.3 & Solaris 2.x | 
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| 306 | ------------------------------------- | 
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| 307 |  | 
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| 308 | There's a bug in the structure passing code for sparc processors. | 
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| 309 | Struct arguments that are passed in value actually end up being passed | 
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| 310 | by reference. This will be fixed Real Soon Now. | 
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| 311 |  | 
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| 312 | "long long" values are not supported yet. | 
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| 313 |  | 
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| 314 | You must use GNU Make to build libffi on Sun platforms. | 
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| 315 |  | 
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| 316 | MIPS - Irix 5.3 & 6.x | 
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| 317 | --------------------- | 
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| 318 |  | 
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| 319 | Irix 6.2 and better supports three different calling conventions: o32, | 
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| 320 | n32 and n64. Currently, libffi only supports both o32 and n32 under | 
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| 321 | Irix 6.x, but only o32 under Irix 5.3. Libffi will automatically be | 
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| 322 | configured for whichever calling convention it was built for. | 
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| 323 |  | 
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| 324 | By default, the configure script will try to build libffi with the GNU | 
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| 325 | development tools. To build libffi with the SGI development tools, set | 
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| 326 | the environment variable CC to either "cc -32" or "cc -n32" before | 
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| 327 | running configure under Irix 6.x (depending on whether you want an o32 | 
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| 328 | or n32 library), or just "cc" for Irix 5.3. | 
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| 329 |  | 
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| 330 | With the n32 calling convention, when returning structures smaller | 
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| 331 | than 16 bytes, be sure to provide an RVALUE that is 8 byte aligned. | 
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| 332 | Here's one way of forcing this: | 
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| 333 |  | 
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| 334 | double struct_storage[2]; | 
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| 335 | my_small_struct *s = (my_small_struct *) struct_storage; | 
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| 336 | /* Use s for RVALUE */ | 
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| 337 |  | 
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| 338 | If you don't do this you are liable to get spurious bus errors. | 
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| 339 |  | 
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| 340 | "long long" values are not supported yet. | 
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| 341 |  | 
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| 342 | You must use GNU Make to build libffi on SGI platforms. | 
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| 343 |  | 
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| 344 | ARM - System V ABI | 
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| 345 | ------------------ | 
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| 346 |  | 
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| 347 | The ARM port was performed on a NetWinder running ARM Linux ELF | 
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| 348 | (2.0.31) and gcc 2.8.1. | 
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| 349 |  | 
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| 350 |  | 
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| 351 |  | 
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| 352 | PowerPC System V ABI | 
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| 353 | -------------------- | 
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| 354 |  | 
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| 355 | There are two `System V ABI's which libffi implements for PowerPC. | 
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| 356 | They differ only in how small structures are returned from functions. | 
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| 357 |  | 
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| 358 | In the FFI_SYSV version, structures that are 8 bytes or smaller are | 
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| 359 | returned in registers.  This is what GCC does when it is configured | 
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| 360 | for solaris, and is what the System V ABI I have (dated September | 
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| 361 | 1995) says. | 
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| 362 |  | 
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| 363 | In the FFI_GCC_SYSV version, all structures are returned the same way: | 
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| 364 | by passing a pointer as the first argument to the function.  This is | 
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| 365 | what GCC does when it is configured for linux or a generic sysv | 
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| 366 | target. | 
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| 367 |  | 
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| 368 | EGCS 1.0.1 (and probably other versions of EGCS/GCC) also has a | 
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| 369 | inconsistency with the SysV ABI: When a procedure is called with many | 
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| 370 | floating-point arguments, some of them get put on the stack.  They are | 
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| 371 | all supposed to be stored in double-precision format, even if they are | 
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| 372 | only single-precision, but EGCS stores single-precision arguments as | 
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| 373 | single-precision anyway.  This causes one test to fail (the `many | 
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| 374 | arguments' test). | 
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| 375 |  | 
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| 376 |  | 
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| 377 | What's With The Crazy Comments? | 
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| 378 | =============================== | 
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| 379 |  | 
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| 380 | You might notice a number of cryptic comments in the code, delimited | 
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| 381 | by /*@ and @*/. These are annotations read by the program LCLint, a | 
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| 382 | tool for statically checking C programs. You can read all about it at | 
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| 383 | <http://larch-www.lcs.mit.edu:8001/larch/lclint/index.html>. | 
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| 384 |  | 
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| 385 |  | 
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| 386 | History | 
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| 387 | ======= | 
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| 388 |  | 
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| 389 | 1.20 Oct-5-98 | 
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| 390 | Raffaele Sena produces ARM port. | 
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| 391 |  | 
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| 392 | 1.19 Oct-5-98 | 
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| 393 | Fixed x86 long double and long long return support. | 
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| 394 | m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab. | 
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| 395 | Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard | 
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| 396 | Henderson. | 
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| 397 |  | 
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| 398 | 1.18 Apr-17-98 | 
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| 399 | Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes. | 
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| 400 |  | 
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| 401 | 1.17 Feb-24-98 | 
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| 402 | Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from | 
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| 403 | Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes. | 
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| 404 |  | 
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| 405 | 1.16 Feb-11-98 | 
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| 406 | Richard Henderson produces Alpha port. | 
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| 407 |  | 
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| 408 | 1.15 Dec-4-97 | 
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| 409 | Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support. | 
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| 410 |  | 
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| 411 | 1.14 May-13-97 | 
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| 412 | libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries. | 
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| 413 | Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus | 
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| 414 | <mcmanr@eq.gs.com>. | 
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| 415 |  | 
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| 416 | 1.13 Dec-2-96 | 
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| 417 | Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining | 
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| 418 | about certain low level code. | 
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| 419 | Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args. | 
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| 420 | Linux x86 a.out fix. | 
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| 421 |  | 
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| 422 | 1.12 Nov-22-96 | 
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| 423 | Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return | 
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| 424 | types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support | 
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| 425 | is now Cygnus Solutions. | 
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| 426 |  | 
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| 427 | 1.11 Oct-30-96 | 
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| 428 | Added notes about GNU make. | 
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| 429 |  | 
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| 430 | 1.10 Oct-29-96 | 
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| 431 | Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers. | 
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| 432 |  | 
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| 433 | 1.09 Oct-29-96 | 
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| 434 | Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint | 
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| 435 | feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration | 
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| 436 | fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds. | 
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| 437 |  | 
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| 438 | 1.08 Oct-15-96 | 
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| 439 | Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups. | 
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| 440 |  | 
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| 441 | 1.07 Oct-14-96 | 
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| 442 | Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes. | 
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| 443 |  | 
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| 444 | 1.06 Oct-14-96 | 
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| 445 | Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port. | 
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| 446 |  | 
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| 447 | 1.05 Oct-14-96 | 
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| 448 | Interface changes based on feedback. | 
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| 449 |  | 
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| 450 | 1.04 Oct-11-96 | 
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| 451 | Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug). | 
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| 452 |  | 
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| 453 | 1.03 Oct-10-96 | 
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| 454 | Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for | 
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| 455 | all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests. | 
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| 456 |  | 
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| 457 | 1.02 Oct-9-96 | 
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| 458 | Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support. | 
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| 459 | Added "make test". | 
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| 460 |  | 
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| 461 | 1.01 Oct-8-96 | 
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| 462 | Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some | 
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| 463 | of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools. | 
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| 464 |  | 
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| 465 | 1.00 Oct-7-96 | 
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| 466 | First release. No public announcement. | 
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| 467 |  | 
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| 468 |  | 
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| 469 | Authors & Credits | 
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| 470 | ================= | 
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| 471 |  | 
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| 472 | libffi was written by Anthony Green <green@cygnus.com>. | 
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| 473 |  | 
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| 474 | Portions of libffi were derived from Gianni Mariani's free gencall | 
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| 475 | library for Silicon Graphics machines. | 
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| 476 |  | 
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| 477 | The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab | 
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| 478 | Thorup. | 
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| 479 |  | 
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| 480 | The Sparc port was derived from code contributed by the fine folks at | 
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| 481 | Visible Decisions Inc <http://www.vdi.com>. Further enhancements were | 
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| 482 | made by Gordon Irlam at Cygnus Solutions <http://www.cygnus.com>. | 
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| 483 |  | 
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| 484 | The Alpha port was written by Richard Henderson at Cygnus Solutions. | 
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| 485 |  | 
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| 486 | Andreas Schwab ported libffi to m68k Linux and provided a number of | 
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| 487 | bug fixes. | 
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| 488 |  | 
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| 489 | Geoffrey Keating ported libffi to the PowerPC. | 
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| 490 |  | 
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| 491 | Raffaele Sena ported libffi to the ARM. | 
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| 492 |  | 
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| 493 | Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of | 
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| 494 | stepping through the code and tracking down bugs. | 
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| 495 |  | 
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| 496 | Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes and configuration help. | 
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| 497 |  | 
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| 498 | Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi | 
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| 499 | interface. | 
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| 500 |  | 
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| 501 | If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to | 
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| 502 | green@cygnus.com. | 
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