[erlang-questions] Erlang FFI: 1st discussion summary

Serge Aleynikov saleyn@REDACTED
Fri Sep 14 14:07:55 CEST 2007


Alceste,

Perhaps others on the list feel the same way, but I just wanted to 
express support for your initiative as I find your contribution very 
useful and for the amount of effort you put in following the EEP 
process, and hope that the work can make it soon into the distribution 
(at least in a beta form).

Regards,

Serge

Alceste Scalas wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> in order to make it easier to follow the Erlang FFI (Foreign
> Function Interface) proposal, here's a summary of the discussion so
> far, and a set of possible solutions for the issues being raised.  I
> could send other summaries like this, if/when needed.
> 
> The initial Erlang FFI proposal is still available in [0].  It was
> accepted as EEP-0007 [1], but it has been frozen until the
> discussion on this mailing list settles.  A link to the first thread
> of the discussion itself is in [2].
> 
> Here's an index of the issues and suggestions that have appeared so
> far (I'm reordering them for ease of answer):
> 
>     1. Raimo Niskanen proposed a type-tagged interface for the FFI
>        calls: call arguments and return values could be tuples in
>        the form {type_tag(), Value} [3];
> 
>     2. Claes Wikström and Vlad Dumitrescu wondered how C pointers
>        (to buffers or strings) returned by FFI calls could be turned
>        into Erlang binaries;
> 
>     3. when C buffers are turned into Erlang binaries, binary
>        matching could be used e.g. to extract C struct fields.  But
>        this could require knowing the sizes of the C types on the
>        system in use.
> 
> Here are the proposals for addressing these issues (based on the
> ideas gathered so far).
> 
> 
> ========================
> 1. Type-tagged FFI calls
> ========================
> 
> Type tags are extremely useful and can increase call safety, but
> they can also kill FFI performance (see the final note in [4]).  A
> good compromise would be to leave the lower-level FFI BIFs without
> tags, and implement type tags handling in Erlang (i.e. in a ffi.erl
> module).  Raimo agreed with this idea.
> 
> The old untagged ffi:call/3 and ffi:call/2 BIFs could be kept with a
> different name (proposal: ffi:raw_call/3 and ffi:raw_call/2).  The
> higher-level, type-tagged interface for FFI calls could be:
> 
>     ffi:call(Port, {ReturnType, Function}, [TaggedVal]) ->
>             {ReturnType,term()}
>         ReturnType = type_tag()
>         Function = string() | atom()
>         TaggedVal  = {type_tag(), Val}
>         Val        = term()
>         type_tag() = uchar|schar|...|pointer|size_t|ssize_t
> 
> It checks whether the required C function was preloaded with
> erl_ddll:load_library/3.  Then, two alternatives arise:
> 
>     a. if the C function was preloaded, its signature is compared
>        with the type tags.  If they match, a raw FFI call is
>        performed (with ffi:raw_call/2); otherwise, a badarg
>        exception is raised;
> 
>     b. if the C function was *not* preloaded, the type tags will be
>        ignored and a raw FFI call will be performed (with
>        ffi:raw_call/3).
> 
> In both cases, the raw FFI call return value will be returned as a
> {ReturnType, RawReturnValue} tuple.
> 
> 
>     --------------------------------------------------
>     1.1. Getting information about preloaded functions
>     --------------------------------------------------
> 
>     The proposed high-level ffi:call/3 would need information about
>     functions and FFI signatures preloaded with
>     erl_ddll:load_library/3.  This information could be useful for
>     developers, too (e.g. for debugging pourposes).  For these
>     reasons, the erl_ddll:info/2 BIF could be extended with a
>     'preloads' argument, that would return a list of preloaded
>     functions, signatures etc.  This information could be obtained
>     via erl_ddll:info/1 and erl_ddll:info/0 as well.
> 
> 
> ======================================================
> 2. Creating Erlang binaries from C strings and buffers
> ======================================================
> 
> The first proposal on this issue [5] can be revised considering type
> tagging.  A new 'cstring' type atom/tag can be introduced, in order
> to distinguish NULL-terminated C strings from generic 'pointer's to
> byte buffers.  Two functions could be used for turning them into
> Erlang binaries:
> 
>     ffi:cstring_to_binary(TaggedCString) -> binary()
>         TaggedCString = {cstring, CStringPtr}
>         CStringPtr = integer()
> 
>         Return a new binary with a copy of the given NULL-terminated
>         C string (including the trailing \0);
> 
>     ffi:buffer_to_binary(TaggedPointer, Size) -> binary()
>         TaggedPointer = {pointer, Ptr}
>         Ptr = integer()
> 
>         Return a new binary filled with a copy of Size bytes read
>         from the given C pointer.
> 
> These two functions would have, as seen in the previous section,
> their type-untagged equivalents: ffi:raw_cstring_to_binary/1 and
> ffi:raw_buffer_to_binary/2.
> 
> 
> ==================================
> 3. Determining the size of C types
> ==================================
> 
> The sizes of C types could be determined in run-time with a new
> ffi:sizeof/1 BIF (initially proposed in [6]):
> 
>       * ffi:sizeof(CType) -> integer()
>             CType = type_tag()
> 
>             Return the number of bytes used by CType on the current
>             platform.
> 
> Type size information should, in general, *not* be hardcoded,
> because it may change when running the same BEAM files on different
> architectures.  The BIF above is the recommended way for getting
> type sizes when writing portable code.
> 
> However, when the FFI-based code is *not* expected to be portable
> without recompilation, the size of C types remains constant and
> could be determined when the Erlang/OTP sources are compiled.  Thus,
> this information could be stored in a .hrl file.  Developers could
> -include_lib("kernel/include/ffi_hardcodes.hrl") [7] and obtain a
> set of faster and easier-to-use macros, for each supported FFI type:
> 
>     FFI_HARDCODED_SIZEOF_<TYPE>
>         The type size in bytes
> 
>     FFI_HARDCODED_<TYPE>_BITS
>         The type size in bits
> 
> The size in bits is precomputed in order to simplify binary
> matching, since expressions like (?FFI_HARDCODED_SIZEOF_LONG * 8)
> are not allowed in patterns.
> 
> 
> ===========================
> 4. Other minor enhancements
> ===========================
> 
> The following enhancements have never been discussed so far, but
> they are very small and extremely trivial to implement:
> 
>     * a new erl_ddll:load_library/2 function could be added, that
>       can be used instead of calling erl_ddll:load_library/3 with an
>       empty list of options (i.e. when no preloads are requested);
> 
>     * when used with a library instead of a linked-in driver,
>       erlang:open_port/2 calls are quite noisy (the 'spawn' and the
>       list of options are redundant).  A new erlang:open_port/1
>       function could be added:
> 
>           erlang:open_port(Library) -> port()
>               Library = string()
> 
>       Under the hoods, it could just call something like the
>       existing erlang:open_port({spawn, Library}, [binary]).
> 
> 
> =============
> 5. That's all
> =============
> 
> Please tell your opinion about the proposals above, and complain if
> something is missing.  Everything will be implemented depending on
> your feedback.  Thanks!
> 
> 
> =====
> Notes
> =====
> 
> [0] Home page of the FFI for Erlang/OTP
> http://muvara.org/crs4/erlang/ffi
> 
> [1] EEP-0007: Foreign Function Interface (FFI)
> http://www.erlang.org/eeps/eep-0007.html
> 
> [2] Thread about the Erlang FFI on the erlang-questions mailing list
> http://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/2007-September/029121.html
> 
> [3] Proposal for type-tagged FFI calls
> http://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/2007-September/029174.html
> 
> [4] FFI tagging vs. call performance
> http://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/2007-September/029179.html
> 
> [5] First proposal for turning C strings/buffers into binaries
> http://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/2007-September/029141.html
> 
> [6] First proposal about a ffi:sizeof/1 BIF:
> http://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/2007-September/029146.html
> 
> [7] From the implementation point of view, the ffi_hardcodes.hrl
>     header file could be autogenerated by GNU Autoconf from
>     ffi_hardcodes.hrl.in.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> alceste




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