libffi: A portable foreign-function interface library¶
Description¶
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.
License¶
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Upstream Contact¶
Type¶
standard
Equivalent System Packages¶
conda:
$ conda install libffi-devel
cygwin:
$ apt-cyg install libffi-devel
Debian/Ubuntu:
$ sudo apt-get install libffi-devel
Fedora/Redhat/CentOS:
$ sudo yum install libffi-devel
freebsd:
$ sudo pkg install libffi-devel
opensuse:
$ sudo zypper install libffi-devel
slackware:
$ sudo slackpkg install libffi-devel
void:
$ sudo xbps-install libffi-devel
See https://repology.org/project/libffi-devel/versions
If the system package is installed, ./configure will check whether it can be used.