Status

libffi-3.4.4 was released on October 23, 2022. Check the libffi web page for updates: URL:http://sourceware.org/libffi/.

What is libffi?

Compilers for high level languages generate code that follow certain conventions. These conventions are necessary, in part, for separate compilation to work. One such convention is the “calling convention”. The “calling convention” is essentially 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.

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.

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.

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.

Supported Platforms

Libffi has been ported to many different platforms.

At the time of release, the following basic configurations have been tested:

Architecture	Operating System	Compiler
AArch64 (ARM64)	iOS	Clang
AArch64	Linux	GCC
AArch64	Windows	MSVC
Alpha	Linux	GCC
Alpha	Tru64	GCC
ARC	Linux	GCC
ARC32	Linux	GCC
ARC64	Linux	GCC
ARM	Linux	GCC
ARM	iOS	GCC
ARM	Windows	MSVC
AVR32	Linux	GCC
Blackfin	uClinux	GCC
CSKY	Linux	GCC
HPPA	HPUX	GCC
HPPA64	HPUX	GCC
KVX	Linux	GCC
IA-64	Linux	GCC
LoongArch64	Linux	GCC
M68K	FreeMiNT	GCC
M68K	Linux	GCC
M68K	RTEMS	GCC
M88K	OpenBSD/mvme88k	GCC
Meta	Linux	GCC
MicroBlaze	Linux	GCC
MIPS	IRIX	GCC
MIPS	Linux	GCC
MIPS	RTEMS	GCC
MIPS64	Linux	GCC
Moxie	Bare metal	GCC
Nios II	Linux	GCC
OpenRISC	Linux	GCC
PowerPC 32-bit	AIX	GCC
PowerPC 32-bit	AIX	IBM XL C
PowerPC 64-bit	AIX	IBM XL C
PowerPC	AMIGA	GCC
PowerPC	Linux	GCC
PowerPC	Mac OSX	GCC
PowerPC	FreeBSD	GCC
PowerPC 64-bit	FreeBSD	GCC
PowerPC 64-bit	Linux ELFv1	GCC
PowerPC 64-bit	Linux ELFv2	GCC
RISC-V 32-bit	Linux	GCC
RISC-V 64-bit	Linux	GCC
S390	Linux	GCC
S390X	Linux	GCC
SPARC	Linux	GCC
SPARC	Solaris	GCC
SPARC	Solaris	Oracle Solaris Studio C
SPARC64	Linux	GCC
SPARC64	FreeBSD	GCC
SPARC64	Solaris	Oracle Solaris Studio C
TILE-Gx/TILEPro	Linux	GCC
VAX	OpenBSD/vax	GCC
WASM32	Chrome	GCC
WASM32	Firefox	GCC
X86	FreeBSD	GCC
X86	GNU HURD	GCC
X86	Interix	GCC
X86	kFreeBSD	GCC
X86	Linux	GCC
X86	OpenBSD	GCC
X86	OS/2	GCC
X86	Solaris	GCC
X86	Solaris	Oracle Solaris Studio C
X86	Windows/Cygwin	GCC
X86	Windows/MinGW	GCC
X86-64	FreeBSD	GCC
X86-64	Linux	GCC
X86-64	Linux/x32	GCC
X86-64	OpenBSD	GCC
X86-64	Solaris	Oracle Solaris Studio C
X86-64	Windows/Cygwin	GCC
X86-64	Windows/MinGW	GCC
X86-64	Mac OSX	GCC
Xtensa	Linux	GCC

Please send additional platform test results to libffi-discuss@sourceware.org.

Installing libffi

First you must configure the distribution for your particular system. Go to the directory you wish to build libffi in and run the “configure” program found in the root directory of the libffi source distribution. Note that building libffi requires a C99 compatible compiler.

If you’re building libffi directly from git hosted sources, configure won’t exist yet; run ./autogen.sh first. This will require that you install autoconf, automake and libtool.

You may want to tell configure where to install the libffi library and header files. To do that, use the --prefix configure switch. Libffi will install under /usr/local by default.

If you want to enable extra run-time debugging checks use the the --enable-debug configure switch. This is useful when your program dies mysteriously while using libffi.

Another useful configure switch is --enable-purify-safety. Using this will add some extra code which will suppress certain warnings when you are using Purify with libffi. Only use this switch when using Purify, as it will slow down the library.

If you don’t want to build documentation, use the --disable-docs configure switch.

It’s also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with Microsoft’s Visual C++ compiler. In this case, use the msvcc.sh wrapper script during configuration like so:

path/to/configure CC=path/to/msvcc.sh CXX=path/to/msvcc.sh LD=link CPP="cl -nologo -EP" CPPFLAGS="-DFFI_BUILDING_DLL"

For 64-bit Windows builds, use CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64" and CXX="path/to/msvcc.sh -m64". You may also need to specify --build appropriately.

It is also possible to build libffi on Windows platforms with the LLVM project’s clang-cl compiler, like below:

path/to/configure CC="path/to/msvcc.sh -clang-cl" CXX="path/to/msvcc.sh -clang-cl" LD=link CPP="clang-cl -EP"

When building with MSVC under a MingW environment, you may need to remove the line in configure that sets ‘fix_srcfile_path’ to a ‘cygpath’ command. (‘cygpath’ is not present in MingW, and is not required when using MingW-style paths.)

To build static library for ARM64 with MSVC using visual studio solution, msvc_build folder have aarch64/Ffi_staticLib.sln required header files in aarch64/aarch64_include/

SPARC Solaris builds require the use of the GNU assembler and linker. Point AS and LD environment variables at those tool prior to configuration.

For iOS builds, the libffi.xcodeproj Xcode project is available.

Configure has many other options. Use configure --help to see them all.

Once configure has finished, type “make”. Note that you must be using GNU make. You can ftp GNU make from ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/make .

To ensure that libffi is working as advertised, type “make check”. This will require that you have DejaGNU installed.

To install the library and header files, type make install.

History

See the git log for details at http://github.com/libffi/libffi.

TBD - TBD
    Add support for wasm32.
    Add support for HPPA64, and many HPPA fixes.
    Add support for ARCv3: ARC32 & ARC64.
    Many x86 Darwin fixes.

3.4.4 Oct-23-2022
    Important aarch64 fixes, including support for linux builds
      with Link Time Optimization (-flto).
    Fix x86 stdcall stack alignment.
    Fix x86 Windows msvc assembler compatibility.
    Fix moxie and or1k small structure args.

3.4.3 Sep-19-2022
    All struct args are passed by value, regardless of size, as per ABIs.
    Enable static trampolines for Cygwin.
    Add support for Loongson's LoongArch64 architecture.
    Fix x32 static trampolines.
    Fix 32-bit x86 stdcall stack corruption.
    Fix ILP32 aarch64 support.

3.4.2 Jun-28-2021
    Add static trampoline support for Linux on x86_64 and ARM64.
    Add support for Alibaba's CSKY architecture.
    Add support for Kalray's KVX architecture.
    Add support for Intel Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET).
    Add support for ARM Pointer Authentication (PA).
    Fix 32-bit PPC regression.
    Fix MIPS soft-float problem.
    Enable tmpdir override with the $LIBFFI_TMPDIR environment variable.
    Enable compatibility with MSVC runtime stack checking.
    Reject float and small integer argument in ffi_prep_cif_var().
      Callers must promote these types themselves.

3.3 Nov-23-2019
    Add RISC-V support.
    New API in support of GO closures.
    Add IEEE754 binary128 long double support for 64-bit Power
    Default to Microsoft's 64 bit long double ABI with Visual C++.
    GNU compiler uses 80 bits (128 in memory) FFI_GNUW64 ABI.
    Add Windows on ARM64 (WOA) support.
    Add Windows 32-bit ARM support.
    Raw java (gcj) API deprecated.
    Add pre-built PDF documentation to source distribution.
    Many new test cases and bug fixes.

3.2.1 Nov-12-2014
    Build fix for non-iOS AArch64 targets.

3.2 Nov-11-2014
    Add C99 Complex Type support (currently only supported on
      s390).
    Add support for PASCAL and REGISTER calling conventions on x86
      Windows/Linux.
    Add OpenRISC and Cygwin-64 support.
    Bug fixes.

3.1 May-19-2014
    Add AArch64 (ARM64) iOS support.
    Add Nios II support.
    Add m88k and DEC VAX support.
    Add support for stdcall, thiscall, and fastcall on non-Windows
      32-bit x86 targets such as Linux.
    Various Android, MIPS N32, x86, FreeBSD and UltraSPARC IIi
      fixes.
    Make the testsuite more robust: eliminate several spurious
      failures, and respect the $CC and $CXX environment variables.
    Archive off the manually maintained ChangeLog in favor of git
      log.

3.0.13 Mar-17-2013
    Add Meta support.
    Add missing Moxie bits.
    Fix stack alignment bug on 32-bit x86.
    Build fix for m68000 targets.
    Build fix for soft-float Power targets.
    Fix the install dir location for some platforms when building
      with GCC (OS X, Solaris).
    Fix Cygwin regression.

3.0.12 Feb-11-2013
    Add Moxie support.
    Add AArch64 support.
    Add Blackfin support.
    Add TILE-Gx/TILEPro support.
    Add MicroBlaze support.
    Add Xtensa support.
    Add support for PaX enabled kernels with MPROTECT.
    Add support for native vendor compilers on
      Solaris and AIX.
    Work around LLVM/GCC interoperability issue on x86_64.

3.0.11 Apr-11-2012
    Lots of build fixes.
    Add support for variadic functions (ffi_prep_cif_var).
    Add Linux/x32 support.
    Add thiscall, fastcall and MSVC cdecl support on Windows.
    Add Amiga and newer MacOS support.
    Add m68k FreeMiNT support.
    Integration with iOS' xcode build tools.
    Fix Octeon and MC68881 support.
    Fix code pessimizations.

3.0.10 Aug-23-2011
    Add support for Apple's iOS.
    Add support for ARM VFP ABI.
    Add RTEMS support for MIPS and M68K.
    Fix instruction cache clearing problems on
      ARM and SPARC.
    Fix the N64 build on mips-sgi-irix6.5.
    Enable builds with Microsoft's compiler.
    Enable x86 builds with Oracle's Solaris compiler.
    Fix support for calling code compiled with Oracle's Sparc
      Solaris compiler.
    Testsuite fixes for Tru64 Unix.
    Additional platform support.

3.0.9 Dec-31-2009
    Add AVR32 and win64 ports.  Add ARM softfp support.
    Many fixes for AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, *BSD.
    Several PowerPC and x86-64 bug fixes.
    Build DLL for windows.

3.0.8 Dec-19-2008
    Add *BSD, BeOS, and PA-Linux support.

3.0.7 Nov-11-2008
    Fix for ppc FreeBSD.
    (thanks to Andreas Tobler)

3.0.6 Jul-17-2008
    Fix for closures on sh.
    Mark the sh/sh64 stack as non-executable.
    (both thanks to Kaz Kojima)

3.0.5 Apr-3-2008
    Fix libffi.pc file.
    Fix #define ARM for IcedTea users.
    Fix x86 closure bug.

3.0.4 Feb-24-2008
    Fix x86 OpenBSD configury.

3.0.3 Feb-22-2008
    Enable x86 OpenBSD thanks to Thomas Heller, and
      x86-64 FreeBSD thanks to Björn König and Andreas Tobler.
    Clean up test instruction in README.

3.0.2 Feb-21-2008
    Improved x86 FreeBSD support.
    Thanks to Björn König.

3.0.1 Feb-15-2008
    Fix instruction cache flushing bug on MIPS.
    Thanks to David Daney.

3.0.0 Feb-15-2008
    Many changes, mostly thanks to the GCC project.
    Cygnus Solutions is now Red Hat.

  [10 years go by...]

1.20 Oct-5-1998
    Raffaele Sena produces ARM port.

1.19 Oct-5-1998
    Fixed x86 long double and long long return support.
    m68k bug fixes from Andreas Schwab.
    Patch for DU assembler compatibility for the Alpha from Richard
      Henderson.

1.18 Apr-17-1998
    Bug fixes and MIPS configuration changes.

1.17 Feb-24-1998
    Bug fixes and m68k port from Andreas Schwab. PowerPC port from
    Geoffrey Keating. Various bug x86, Sparc and MIPS bug fixes.

1.16 Feb-11-1998
    Richard Henderson produces Alpha port.

1.15 Dec-4-1997
    Fixed an n32 ABI bug. New libtool, auto* support.

1.14 May-13-97
    libtool is now used to generate shared and static libraries.
    Fixed a minor portability problem reported by Russ McManus
    <mcmanr@eq.gs.com>.

1.13 Dec-2-1996
    Added --enable-purify-safety to keep Purify from complaining
      about certain low level code.
    Sparc fix for calling functions with < 6 args.
    Linux x86 a.out fix.

1.12 Nov-22-1996
    Added missing ffi_type_void, needed for supporting void return
      types. Fixed test case for non MIPS machines. Cygnus Support
      is now Cygnus Solutions.

1.11 Oct-30-1996
    Added notes about GNU make.

1.10 Oct-29-1996
    Added configuration fix for non GNU compilers.

1.09 Oct-29-1996
    Added --enable-debug configure switch. Clean-ups based on LCLint
    feedback. ffi_mips.h is always installed. Many configuration
    fixes. Fixed ffitest.c for sparc builds.

1.08 Oct-15-1996
    Fixed n32 problem. Many clean-ups.

1.07 Oct-14-1996
    Gordon Irlam rewrites v8.S again. Bug fixes.

1.06 Oct-14-1996
    Gordon Irlam improved the sparc port.

1.05 Oct-14-1996
    Interface changes based on feedback.

1.04 Oct-11-1996
    Sparc port complete (modulo struct passing bug).

1.03 Oct-10-1996
    Passing struct args, and returning struct values works for
    all architectures/calling conventions. Expanded tests.

1.02 Oct-9-1996
    Added SGI n32 support. Fixed bugs in both o32 and Linux support.
    Added "make test".

1.01 Oct-8-1996
    Fixed float passing bug in mips version. Restructured some
    of the code. Builds cleanly with SGI tools.

1.00 Oct-7-1996
    First release. No public announcement.

Authors & Credits

libffi was originally written by Anthony Green green@moxielogic.com.

The developers of the GNU Compiler Collection project have made innumerable valuable contributions. See the ChangeLog file for details.

Some of the ideas behind libffi were inspired by Gianni Mariani’s free gencall library for Silicon Graphics machines.

The closure mechanism was designed and implemented by Kresten Krab Thorup.

Major processor architecture ports were contributed by the following developers:

aarch64             Marcus Shawcroft, James Greenhalgh
alpha               Richard Henderson
arc                 Hackers at Synopsis
arm                 Raffaele Sena
avr32               Bradley Smith
blackfin            Alexandre Keunecke I. de Mendonca
cris                Simon Posnjak, Hans-Peter Nilsson
csky                Ma Jun, Zhang Wenmeng
frv                 Anthony Green
ia64                Hans Boehm
kvx                 Yann Sionneau
loongarch64         Cheng Lulu, Xi Ruoyao, Xu Hao,
                    Zhang Wenlong, Pan Xuefeng
m32r                Kazuhiro Inaoka
m68k                Andreas Schwab
m88k                Miod Vallat
metag               Hackers at Imagination Technologies
microblaze          Nathan Rossi
mips                Anthony Green, Casey Marshall
mips64              David Daney
moxie               Anthony Green
nios ii             Sandra Loosemore
openrisc            Sebastian Macke
pa                  Randolph Chung, Dave Anglin, Andreas Tobler
pa64                Dave Anglin
powerpc             Geoffrey Keating, Andreas Tobler,
                    David Edelsohn, John Hornkvist
powerpc64           Jakub Jelinek
riscv               Michael Knyszek, Andrew Waterman, Stef O'Rear
s390                Gerhard Tonn, Ulrich Weigand
sh                  Kaz Kojima
sh64                Kaz Kojima
sparc               Anthony Green, Gordon Irlam
tile-gx/tilepro     Walter Lee
vax                 Miod Vallat
wasm32              Hood Chatham, Brion Vibber, Kleis Auke Wolthuizen
x86                 Anthony Green, Jon Beniston
x86-64              Bo Thorsen
xtensa              Chris Zankel

Jesper Skov and Andrew Haley both did more than their fair share of stepping through the code and tracking down bugs.

Thanks also to Tom Tromey for bug fixes, documentation and configuration help.

Thanks to Jim Blandy, who provided some useful feedback on the libffi interface.

Andreas Tobler has done a tremendous amount of work on the testsuite.

Alex Oliva solved the executable page problem for SElinux.

The list above is almost certainly incomplete and inaccurate. I’m happy to make corrections or additions upon request.

If you have a problem, or have found a bug, please file an issue on our issue tracker at https://github.com/libffi/libffi/issues.

The author can be reached at green@moxielogic.com.

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