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<html> <head> <title> libffi </title> </head> <body> <h1>libffi - a portable foreign function interface library</h1> <b>libffi-2.99.4</b> was released on February 14, 2008. You can ftp it from <a href="ftp://sources.redhat.com:/pub/libffi/libffi-2.99.4.gz">sources.redhat.com:/pub/libffi/libffi-2.99.4.tar.gz</a>. <p> libffi is free software. It has a very <a href="http://sources.redhat.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/libffi/LICENSE?rev=1.1&cvsroot=libffi&hideattic=1&sortbydate=0">liberal license</a>. <h2>What is libffi?</h2> Compilers for high level languages generate code that follows certain conventions. These conventions are necessary, in part, for separate compilation to work. One such convention is the "calling convention". The "calling convention" is a set of assumptions made by the compiler about where function arguments will be found on entry to a function. A "calling convention" also specifies where the return value for a function is found. <p> Some programs may not know at the time of compilation what arguments are to be passed to a function. For instance, an interpreter may be told at run-time about the number and types of arguments used to call a given function. Libffi can be used in such programs to provide a bridge from the interpreter program to compiled code. <p> The libffi library provides a portable, high level programming interface to various calling conventions. This allows a programmer to call any function specified by a call interface description at run-time. <p> FFI stands for Foreign Function Interface. A foreign function interface is the popular name for the interface that allows code written in one language to call code written in another language. The libffi library really only provides the lowest, machine dependent layer of a fully featured foreign function interface. A layer must exist above libffi that handles type conversions for values passed between the two languages. <h2>Supported Platforms</h2> Libffi has been ported to many different platforms, although this release was only tested on: <ul> <li> arm oabi linux <li> arm eabi linux <li> hppa64 linux <li> powerpc64 linux <li> sparc solaris (SPARC V9 ABI) <li> x86 cygwin <li> x86 linux <li> x86-64 linux </ul> <h2>How to get it</h2> You can download the latest version from <a href="ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/libffi/">sources.redhat.com:/pub/libffi/</a>. <p> You can also check out the very latest version via anonymous cvs. Here's how: <pre> cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@sources.redhat.com:/cvs/libffi login (password is ``anoncvs'') cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@sources.redhat.com:/cvs/libffi co libffi </pre> Once you have it checked out, you can update it with <tt>cvs update</tt>. <p> You can also <a href="http://sources.redhat.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/libffi/?cvsroot=libffi"> view the cvs archive</a> via cvsweb. <h2>Mailing lists</h2> For such a small piece of software, there are plenty of mailing lists available. <ul> <li><a href="/ml/libffi-announce/"><tt>libffi-announce</tt></a> is a low volume mailing list for libffi release announcements <li><a href="/ml/libffi-discuss/"><tt>libffi-discuss</tt></a> is a mailing list for asking questions, reporting bugs, etc. </ul> <p>To subscribe to the <code>libffi-announce</code> mailing list, enter your e-mail address: <form method="get" action="/cgi-bin/subscribe-sourceware"> <input type="hidden" name="listname" value="libffi-announce"> <input type="text" name="username" size="16"> <input type="Submit" name="submi t" value="Sign me up!"> </form> <br>To subscribe to the <code>libffi-discuss</code> mailing list, enter your e-mail address: <form method="get" action="/cgi-bin/subscribe-sourceware"> <input type="hidden" name="listname" value="libffi-discuss"> <input type="text" name="username" size="16"> <input type="Submit" name="submi t" value="Sign me up!"> </form> <p> <h2>Authors and Credits</h2> libffi was originally written by <a href="http://spindazzle.org/greenblog"><b>Anthony Green</b></a> <p> The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made innumerable valuable contributions. See this ChangeLog files in the source distribution for details. <p> Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani's free gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines. <p> The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab Thorup. <p> Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following developers: <pre> alpha Richard Henderson arm Raffaele Sena cris Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson frv Anthony Green ia64 Hans Boehm m32r Kazuhiro Inaoka m68k Andreas Schwab mips Anthony Green mips64 David Daney pa Randolph Chung powerpc Geoffrey Keating powerpc64 Jakub Jelinek s390 Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand sh Kaz Kojima sh64 Kaz Kojima sparc Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam x86 Anthony Green x86-64 Bo Thorsen </pre> <p> Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of stepping through the code and tracking down bugs. <p> Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and configuration help. <p> Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi interface. <p> Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite. <p> The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I'm happy to make corrections or additions upon request. <p> If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please send a note to <a href="mailto:libffi-discuss@sources.redhat.com">libffi-discuss@sources.redhat.com</a> or to me directly (<a href="mailto:green@redhat.com">green@redhat.com</a>). </body> </html>