package ctypes

  1. Overview
  2. Docs
Combinators for binding to C libraries without writing any C

Install

Dune Dependency

Authors

Maintainers

Sources

0.23.0.tar.gz
sha256=cae47d815b27dd4c824a007f1145856044542fe2588d23a443ef4eefec360bf1
md5=b1af973ec9cf7867a63714e92df82f2a

Description

ctypes is a library for binding to C libraries using pure OCaml. The primary aim is to make writing C extensions as straightforward as possible. The core of ctypes is a set of combinators for describing the structure of C types -- numeric types, arrays, pointers, structs, unions and functions. You can use these combinators to describe the types of the functions that you want to call, then bind directly to those functions -- all without writing or generating any C!

To install the optional ctypes-foreign interface (which uses libffi to provide dynamic access to foreign libraries), you will need to also install the ctypes-foreign package.

opam install ctypes-foreign

This will make the ctypes-foreign ocamlfind subpackage available.

Tags

org:mirage

Published: 16 Aug 2024

README

README.md

ctypes is a library for binding to C libraries using pure OCaml. The primary aim is to make writing C extensions as straightforward as possible.

The core of ctypes is a set of combinators for describing the structure of C types -- numeric types, arrays, pointers, structs, unions and functions. You can use these combinators to describe the types of the functions that you want to call, then bind directly to those functions -- all without writing or generating any C!

Usage

Suppose you want to bind to the following C functions:

   int sigemptyset(sigset_t *set);
   int sigfillset(sigset_t *set);
   int sigaddset(sigset_t *set, int signum);
   int sigdelset(sigset_t *set, int signum);
   int sigismember(const sigset_t *set, int signum);

Using ctypes you can describe the interfaces to these functions as follows:

   let sigemptyset = foreign "sigemptyset" (ptr sigset_t @-> returning int)
   let sigfillset = foreign "sigfillset" (ptr sigset_t @-> returning int)
   let sigaddset = foreign "sigaddset" (ptr sigset_t @-> int @-> returning int)
   let sigdelset = foreign "sigdelset" (ptr sigset_t @-> int @-> returning int)
   let sigismember = foreign "sigismember" (ptr sigset_t @-> int @-> returning int)

The names bound by this code have the types you might expect:

   val sigemptyset : sigset_t ptr -> int
   val sigfillset : sigset_t ptr -> int
   val sigaddset : sigset_t ptr -> int -> int
   val sigdelset : sigset_t ptr -> int -> int
   val sigismember : sigset_t ptr -> int -> int

That's all there is to it. Unlike the usual way of writing C extensions, there are no C "stub" functions to write, so there's much less opportunity for error.

The documentation and source distribution contain more complex examples, involving structs, unions, arrays, callback functions, and so on, and show how to create and use C values (like instances of sigset_t ptr) in OCaml.

Links

Dev Dependencies (4)

  1. odoc with-doc
  2. conf-pkg-config with-test
  3. conf-fts with-test & os != "win32"
  4. ounit2 with-test

  1. ahrocksdb
  2. antic < "0.4.0"
  3. arb < "0.4.0"
  4. argon2
  5. arrayjit
  6. async_ssl >= "v0.15.0"
  7. bimage-unix
  8. bitgenerators
  9. calcium < "0.4.0"
  10. camlkit-base
  11. ceph
  12. cf
  13. checked_oint < "0.4.1"
  14. cmark
  15. cmarker
  16. corosync
  17. ctypes-build
  18. ctypes-foreign >= "0.23.0"
  19. ctypes-zarith
  20. ctypes_stubs_js
  21. cudajit
  22. decompress >= "1.3.0" & < "1.5.3"
  23. directories
  24. dlm >= "0.3.3"
  25. dune >= "3.17.0"
  26. echo
  27. eigen >= "0.1.4"
  28. extism
  29. flint
  30. fsevents
  31. gccjit
  32. gdal >= "0.10.0"
  33. gobject-introspection
  34. gpiod
  35. gr
  36. guile
  37. hacl-star-raw >= "0.7.2"
  38. hardcaml_c
  39. hardcaml_verilator
  40. hdr_histogram
  41. imguiml
  42. kqueue < "0.2.0"
  43. libbpf
  44. libbpf_maps
  45. libdash >= "0.3"
  46. libirmin
  47. lilv
  48. llama-cpp-ocaml
  49. llvm >= "3.7"
  50. lp-glpk
  51. lp-gurobi
  52. luv
  53. luv_unix
  54. lz4 >= "1.3.0"
  55. mariadb < "1.1.5" | >= "1.2.0"
  56. memcpy >= "0.2.2"
  57. metal
  58. mmdb
  59. mpg123
  60. netlink >= "0.3.4"
  61. octez-l2-libs
  62. octez-libs
  63. opasswd
  64. opencc < "transition"
  65. opencc0
  66. opencc1
  67. opencc1_1
  68. orocksdb
  69. osx-acl
  70. osx-attr
  71. osx-cf
  72. osx-fsevents
  73. osx-membership
  74. osx-mount
  75. osx-secure-transport
  76. osx-xattr
  77. owl >= "0.9.0"
  78. pari
  79. pari-bindings
  80. pg_query
  81. pkcs11-driver
  82. pkcs11-rev
  83. portaudio_c_bindings
  84. portmidi
  85. posix-base
  86. posix-bindings < "3"
  87. posix-getopt >= "2.0.0"
  88. posix-math2
  89. posix-signal
  90. posix-socket
  91. posix-socket-unix
  92. posix-time2
  93. posix-types
  94. posix-uname
  95. ppx_cstubs >= "0.7.0"
  96. py >= "1.1"
  97. quickjs
  98. raygui
  99. raylib
  100. reed-solomon-erasure
  101. rfc1951 >= "1.3.0"
  102. sanlock
  103. sarek
  104. sattools
  105. sodium < "0.6.0"
  106. spin >= "0.8.0"
  107. spoc
  108. srt
  109. stk_iconv
  110. swipl
  111. sys-socket
  112. sys-socket-unix
  113. tensorflow
  114. tezos-hacl
  115. tezos-hacl-glue-unix < "12.3"
  116. tezos-sapling
  117. tezos-wasmer
  118. torch
  119. tsdl >= "1.0.0"
  120. tsdl-image >= "0.3.0"
  121. tsdl-mixer
  122. tsdl-ttf >= "0.3"
  123. unix-errno >= "0.4.1" & < "0.5.0" | >= "0.6.2"
  124. unix-sys-resource
  125. unix-sys-stat
  126. unix-time
  127. unix-type-representations >= "0.1.1"
  128. uring-trace
  129. wasmer
  130. wasmtime
  131. xedbindings
  132. xxhash
  133. yaml
  134. yara
  135. yices2_bindings
  136. zstandard
  137. zstd >= "0.4"

Conflicts (1)

  1. host-system-msvc
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