package ctypes

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

Install

dune-project
 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

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!

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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.

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 >= "3.17.2"
  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. nx
  62. octez-l2-libs
  63. octez-libs
  64. opasswd
  65. opencc < "transition"
  66. opencc0
  67. opencc1
  68. opencc1_1
  69. orocksdb
  70. osx-acl
  71. osx-attr
  72. osx-cf
  73. osx-fsevents
  74. osx-membership
  75. osx-mount
  76. osx-secure-transport
  77. osx-xattr
  78. owl >= "0.9.0"
  79. pari
  80. pari-bindings
  81. pg_query
  82. pkcs11-driver
  83. pkcs11-rev
  84. portaudio_c_bindings
  85. portmidi
  86. posix-base
  87. posix-bindings < "3"
  88. posix-getopt >= "2.0.0"
  89. posix-math2
  90. posix-signal
  91. posix-socket
  92. posix-socket-unix
  93. posix-time2
  94. posix-types
  95. posix-uname
  96. ppx_cstubs >= "0.7.0"
  97. py >= "1.1"
  98. quickjs
  99. raygui
  100. raylib
  101. reed-solomon-erasure
  102. rfc1951 >= "1.3.0"
  103. rune
  104. sanlock
  105. sarek
  106. sattools
  107. sodium < "0.6.0"
  108. spin >= "0.8.0"
  109. spoc
  110. srt
  111. stk_iconv
  112. swipl
  113. sys-socket
  114. sys-socket-unix
  115. tensorflow
  116. tezos-hacl
  117. tezos-hacl-glue-unix < "12.3"
  118. tezos-sapling
  119. tezos-wasmer
  120. tgls >= "0.9.0"
  121. torch
  122. tsdl >= "1.1.0"
  123. tsdl-image >= "0.3.0"
  124. tsdl-mixer
  125. tsdl-ttf >= "0.3"
  126. unix-errno >= "0.4.1" & < "0.5.0" | >= "0.6.2"
  127. unix-sys-resource
  128. unix-sys-stat
  129. unix-time
  130. unix-type-representations >= "0.1.1"
  131. uring-trace
  132. wasmer
  133. wasmtime
  134. xedbindings
  135. xxhash
  136. yaml
  137. yara
  138. yices2_bindings
  139. zstandard
  140. zstd >= "0.4"

Conflicts (1)

  1. host-system-msvc
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