NAME
FFI::Platypus::Lang::CPP - Documentation and tools for using Platypus
with the C++ programming language
SYNOPSIS
NOTE: The original author of this module considered the techniques used
by and documented by this module to be somewhate experimental even back
in 2015 when he wrote it. The original author now thinks that it is
probably safer to write a C API layer between your C++ library and Perl
rather than try to call C++ directly as advocated by this module. While
the original author has not yet deprecated this module, users of this
module should consider its limitations before using it.
C++:
// on Linux compile with: g++ --shared -o basic.so basic.cpp
// elsewhere, consult your C++ compiler documentation
class Foo {
public:
// note you should avoid inlining functions
// for classes you intend to use with FFI
// as the compiler may not emit code/symbols
// for those functions.
Foo();
~Foo();
int get_bar();
void set_bar(int);
int _size();
private:
int bar;
};
Foo::Foo()
{
bar = 0;
}
Foo::~Foo()
{
}
int
Foo::get_bar()
{
return bar;
}
void
Foo::set_bar(int value)
{
bar = value;
}
int
Foo::_size()
{
return sizeof(Foo);
}
Perl:
package Foo;
use FFI::Platypus 1.00;
use FFI::Platypus::Memory qw( malloc free );
my $ffi = FFI::Platypus->new( api => 1 )
$ffi->lang('CPP');
$ffi->lib('./basic.so');
$ffi->custom_type( Foo => {
native_type => 'opaque',
perl_to_native => sub { ${ $_[0] } },
native_to_perl => sub { bless \$_[0], 'Foo' },
});
$ffi->attach( [ 'Foo::Foo()' => '_new' ] => ['Foo'] => 'void' );
$ffi->attach( [ 'Foo::~Foo()' => '_DESTROY' ] => ['Foo'] => 'void' );
$ffi->attach( [ 'Foo::get_bar()' => 'get_bar' ] => ['Foo'] => 'int' );
$ffi->attach( [ 'Foo::set_bar(int)'
=> 'set_bar' ] => ['Foo','int']
=> 'void' );
my $size = $ffi->function('Foo::_size()' => [] => 'int')->call;
sub new
{
my($class) = @_;
my $ptr = malloc $size;
my $self = bless \$ptr, $class;
_new($self);
$self;
}
sub DESTROY
{
my($self) = @_;
_DESTROY($self);
free($$self);
}
package main;
my $foo = Foo->new;
print $foo->get_bar, "\n"; # 0
$foo->set_bar(22);
print $foo->get_bar. "\n"; # 22
DESCRIPTION
This module provides some hooks for Platypus so that C++ names can be
mangled for you. It uses the same primitive types as C. This document
also documents issues and caveats that I have discovered in my attempts
to work with C++ and FFI.
This module is somewhat experimental. It is also available for adoption
for anyone either sufficiently knowledgable about C++ or eager enough
to learn enough about C++. If you are interested, please send me a pull
request or two on the project's GitHub.
There are numerous difficulties and caveats involved in using C++
libraries from Perl via FFI. This document is intended to enlighten on
that subject.
Note that in addition to using pre-compiled C++ libraries you can
bundle C++ code with your Perl distribution using FFI::Build. For a
complete example, which attempts to address the caveats listed below
you can take a look at this sample distro on GitHub:
https://github.com/plicease/Color-FFI
CAVEATS
In general I have done my research of FFI and C++ using the Gnu C++
compiler. I have done some testing with clang as well.
name mangling
C++ names are "mangled" to handle features such as function overloading
and the fact that some characters in the C++ names are illegal machine
code symbol names. What this means is that the C++ member function
Foo::get_bar looks like _ZN3Foo7get_barEv to FFI::Platypus. What makes
this even trickier is that different C++ compilers provide different
mangling formats. When you use the FFI::Platypus#lang method to tell
Platypus that you are intending to use it with C++, like this:
$ffi->lang('CPP');
it will mangle the names that you give it. That saves you having to
figure out the "real" name for Foo::get_bar.
The current implementation uses the c++filt command or
FFI::Platypus::Lang::CPP::Demangle::XS if it is installed. If c++filt
cannot be found at install time, then
FFI::Platypus::Lang::CPP::Demangle::XS will be made a prerequsite, so
you can have some confidence that this feature will work even if your
platform does not provide c++filt. The XS module is not a prerequsite
when c++filt IS found because using c++filt does not require invoking
the compiler and may be more reliable.
If the approach to mangling C++ names described above does not work for
you, or if it makes you feel slightly queasy, then you can also write C
wrapper functions around each C++ method that you want to call from
Perl. You can write these wrapper functions right in your C++ code
using the extern "C" trick:
class Foo {
public:
int bar() { return 1; }
}
extern "C" int
my_bar(Class *foo)
{
return foo->bar();
}
Then instead of attaching Foo::bar() attach my_bar.
$ffi->attach( my_bar => [ 'Foo' ] => 'int' );
constructors, destructors and methods
Constructors and destructors are essentially just functions that do not
return a value that need to be called when the object is created and
when it is no longer needed (respectively). They take a pointer to the
object (this) as their first argument. Constructors can take additional
arguments, as you might expect they just come after the object itself.
Destructors take no arguments other than the object itself (this).
You need to alloate the memory needed for the object before you call
the constructor and free it after calling the destructor. The tricky
bit is figuring out how much memory to allocate. If you have access to
the header file that describes the class and a compiler you can compute
the size from within C++ and hand it off to Perl using a static method
as I did in the "SYNOPSIS" above.
Regular methods also take the object pointer as their first argument.
Additional arguments follow, and they may or may not return a value.
inline functions
C++ compilers typically do not emit symbols for inlined functions. If
you get a message like this:
unable to find Foo::get_bar() at basic line 21
even though you are sure that class has that method, this is probably
the problem that you are having. The Gnu C++ compiler, g++ has an
option to force it to emit the symbols, even for inlined functions:
-fkeep-inline-functions # use this
Clang has an option to do the opposite of this:
-fvisibility-inlines-hidden # do not use this
but unhelpfully not a way to keep inlined functions. This appears to be
a deliberate design decision made by the clang developers and it makes
sense for C++, since inline functions are typically defined in C++
header files (.h) so it is difficult to determine in which object file
the uninlined inlined functions should go.
If you have the source of the C++ and you can recompile it you can also
optionally change it to not use inlined functions. In addition to
removing any inline keywords from the source, you need to move the
implementations of any methods outside of the class body. That is, do
not do this:
class Foo {
public:
int bar() { return 1; } # WRONG
}
Do this:
class Foo {
public:
int bar(); # RIGHT
}
int
Foo::bar() # RIGHT
{
return 1;
}
the standard C++ library
If you are getting errors like this:
unable to find Foo::Foo()
that can't be explained by the issues described above, set the
environment variable FFI_PLATYPUS_DLERROR to a true value and try
again. If you see a warning like this:
error loading Foo.so: Foo.so: undefined symbol: __gxx_personality_v0
then you probably need to explicitly link with the standard C++
library. The most portable way to deal with this is by using
ExtUtils::CppGuess.
METHODS
Generally you will not use this class directly, instead interacting
with the FFI::Platypus instance. However, the public methods used by
Platypus are documented here.
native_type_map
my $hashref = FFI::Platypus::Lang::CPP->native_type_map;
This returns a hash reference containing the native aliases for the C++
programming languages. That is the keys are native C++ types and the
values are libffi native types.
mangler
my $mangler = FFI::Platypus::Lang::CPP->mangler($ffi->libs);
# prints _ZN9MyInteger7int_sumEii
print $mangler->("MyInteger::int_sum(int, int)");
Returns a subroutine reference that will "mangle" C++ names.
EXAMPLES
Using a C++ class without writing bundling any C/C++ code
The example in the "SYNOPSIS" shows how you can use a C++ class without
writing any wrapper code, though you will have to guess or determine
the instance size of the class.
Using a C++ class with a wrapper
(For the full source for this example, see examples/wrapper.{pl,cpp}
that came with this distribution)
Sometimes it is easier to write wrapper functions around your new and
delete operations. Consider if you add these functions to the C++
source to the example in the "SYNOPSIS".
// These could also be class methods
extern "C" Foo*
Foo_new()
{
return new Foo();
}
extern "C" void
Foo_delete(Foo *foo)
{
delete foo;
}
Now we can use this class without having to know in the perl code what
the size of the class is. We declare the constructor and destructor in
Perl space like this:
$ffi->attach( [ 'Foo_new' => 'new' ] => [] => 'Foo' );
$ffi->attach( [ 'Foo_delete' => 'DESTROY' ] => ['Foo'] => 'void' );
We've also removed the Perl new and DESTROY wrappers as they are
unnecessary now, and so the the C++ functions are attached directly to
their intended names.
Exceptions
(For the full source of this example, see examples/exception.{pl,cpp}
that came with this distribution)
If your library throws an exception and you do not catch it in C++ it
is going to kill your program. As an example, suppose set_bar in the
example above throws an exception:
void
Foo::set_bar(int value)
{
if(value > 512)
throw new FooException("too hot");
if(value < 0)
throw new FooException("too cold");
bar = value;
}
Now if you try to use set_bar with a bad value like this from Perl:
$foo->set_bar(-2);
it will crash your Perl program.
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'FooException'
Abort
To handle this, you need to write a wrapper around the set_bar method.
static FooException *last_exception = NULL;
extern "C" FooException *
Foo_get_exception()
{
return last_exception;
}
extern "C" void
Foo_reset_exception()
{
if(last_exception != NULL)
delete last_exception;
last_exception = NULL;
}
extern "C" void
Foo_set_bar(Foo *foo, int value)
{
try
{
Foo_reset_exception();
foo->set_bar(value);
}
catch(FooException *e)
{
last_exception = e;
}
}
Next we will write an interface to the FooException class in Perl:
package FooException;
use overload '""' => sub { "exception: " . $_[0]->message . "\n" };
$ffi->custom_type( FooException => {
native_type => 'opaque',
perl_to_native => sub { ${ $_[0] } },
native_to_perl => sub {
defined $_[0]
? (bless \$_[0], 'FooException')
: ();
},
});
$ffi->attach(
[ 'Foo_get_exception' => 'get_exception' ] => [] => 'FooException'
);
$ffi->attach(
[ 'FooException::message()' => 'message' ] => ['FooException'] => 'string'
);
And finally we write a wrapper for the Perl set_bar method.
$ffi->attach( [ 'Foo_set_bar' => '_set_bar' ] => ['Foo','int']
=> 'void' );
sub set_bar
{
my($self, $value) = @_;
$self->_set_bar($value);
my $error = FooException->get_exception;
die $error if $error;
}
And now when we give set_bar a bogus value we get a Perl exception
instead of an application crash:
exception: too cold
So we can easily wrap the call to set_bar in a Perl eval if we want to
catch the exception and handle it.
SUPPORT
If something does not work as advertised, or the way that you think it
should, or if you have a feature request, please open an issue on this
project's GitHub issue tracker:
https://github.com/PerlFFI/FFI-Platypus-Lang-CPP/issues
CONTRIBUTING
If you have implemented a new feature or fixed a bug then you may make
a pull reequest on this project's GitHub repository:
https://github.com/PerlFFI/FFI-Platypus-Lang-CPP/issues
Caution: if you do this too frequently I may nominate you as the new
maintainer. Extreme caution: if you like that sort of thing.
This project's GitHub issue tracker listed above is not Write-Only. If
you want to contribute then feel free to browse through the existing
issues and see if there is something you feel you might be good at and
take a whack at the problem. I frequently open issues myself that I
hope will be accomplished by someone in the future but do not have time
to immediately implement myself.
Another good area to help out in is documentation. I try to make sure
that there is good document coverage, that is there should be
documentation describing all the public features and warnings about
common pitfalls, but an outsider's or alternate view point on such
things would be welcome; if you see something confusing or lacks
sufficient detail I encourage documentation only pull requests to
improve things.
SEE ALSO
FFI::Platypus
The Core Platypus documentation.
FFI::Build + FFI::Build::File::CXX
Bundle C or C++ with your FFI / Perl extension.
ExtUtils::CppGuess
Guess the appropriate C++ compiler / linker flags for your C compiler
platform combination.
AUTHOR
Graham Ollis <
[email protected]>
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is copyright (c) 2015 by Graham Ollis.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
