[Glass] FFI and C subsystems

bruno buzzi brassesco smalltalk at adinet.com.uy
Thu Nov 26 09:36:58 PST 2020 

James,

But all these C files are compiled into one library 
'/usr/lib64/libssh.so.4.8.5'.

If i create one GS wrapper per each "subsystem" (maybe this word is 
confused) all are going to point to:
CLibrary named: '/usr/lib64/libssh.so.4.8.5'.

Also in Windows is only one DLL.

So there is only one shared library binary with all functions. And 
depending of the header used to generate the wrapper you get a subset of 
the available functions to call.

regards,
bruno

On 26/11/2020 14:13, Smalltalk at JGFoster.net wrote:
> Bruno,
>
> Header files describe what is in a library. The “libssh.h” header 
> describes what is in the “libssh” library and the “sftp.h” header 
> describes what is in the “sftp” library. While you can create a new 
> header file that (wrongly) claims that function A is in library B, 
> that doesn’t mean that when we go to look for A in B that it will be 
> found.
>
> Just because I put down Casa Rosada as your address on my contact list 
> doesn’t make it so. I might mail a letter, but you won’t get it. Just 
> because you pretend that a function is in a library (making up a new 
> header) doesn’t make it so. You may be able to create the Smalltalk 
> wrapper, but when you call it the function won’t be found because it 
> isn’t in the library.
>
> The header file is simply a text file that describes what is in a 
> binary file. Changing the text file doesn’t change the binary file.
>
> James
>
>
>> On Nov 26, 2020, at 9:01 AM, bruno buzzi brassesco 
>> <smalltalk at adinet.com.uy <mailto:smalltalk at adinet.com.uy>> wrote:
>>
>> James,
>>
>> The new header files does not have any function declaration only 
>> "#includes" sentences.
>>
>> Actually the entire new header files is:
>> #include "libssh.h"
>> #include "server.h"
>> #include "sftp.h"
>>
>> So i do not see how a lookup will fail. But again maybe I'm missing 
>> something :)
>>
>> regards,
>> bruno
>>
>> On 26/11/2020 13:21, Smalltalk at JGFoster.net wrote:
>>> Bruno,
>>>
>>> If it works, then it may be fine, but I’ll be somewhat surprised if 
>>> that happens. My vague idea of the way a program interacts with a 
>>> shared library is as follows: (1) you ask the OS to load a library 
>>> (such as '/usr/lib64/libssh.so.4.4.0’ and the OS give you back a 
>>> ‘handle’ to that library; (2) you ask the OS to look up a function 
>>> in the library (you pass a string with the function name and you 
>>> pass in the previously returned handle) and the OS give you back a 
>>> pointer to a function in that library; (3) you use the pointer to 
>>> call the function. These are the steps that GemStone handles; you 
>>> will have previously created an object that encapsulates the 
>>> function name, parameter types, and return types.
>>>
>>> If you use the wrong header to generate a list of expected entry 
>>> points in a library, then the Smalltalk code will still be generated 
>>> and you can still load the library (step 1), but when you attempt to 
>>> lookup a function from library A in library B, the OS will fail at 
>>> step 2 since the function does not exist. I think that if you want 
>>> to call functions in two libraries, then you need to load both 
>>> libraries (step 1) and do the name lookup in the proper library 
>>> (step 2).
>>>
>>> But my expertise in this area is several years old and was on the 
>>> Smalltalk side not on the VM side.
>>>
>>> James
>>>
>>>> On Nov 26, 2020, at 4:42 AM, bruno buzzi brassesco via Glass 
>>>> <glass at lists.gemtalksystems.com 
>>>> <mailto:glass at lists.gemtalksystems.com>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> James,
>>>>
>>>> It seems that is possible to create a new header file and includes 
>>>> 2 subsystems in the same GS Library.
>>>>
>>>> For example sftp_server_all.h:
>>>> #include "libssh.h"
>>>> #include "server.h"
>>>> #include "sftp.h"
>>>>
>>>> Then:
>>>> | header wrapperClass wrapper |
>>>> header := CHeader path: 'sftp_server_all.h'.
>>>> wrapperClass := header wrapperForLibraryAt:
>>>> '/usr/lib64/libssh.so.4.4.0'.
>>>> wrapperClass initializeFunctions.
>>>> UserGlobals at: wrapperClass name put: wrapperClass.
>>>>
>>>> Do you see any problem with this approach ?
>>>>
>>>> The new library generated all functions now i going to check if 
>>>> they work.
>>>> It should work i think ... (but again not a C expert -dealing with 
>>>> C again after 15 years-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> regards,
>>>> Bruno
>>>>
>>>> On 9/10/2020 14:53, James Foster via Glass wrote:
>>>>> Bruno,
>>>>>
>>>>> My understanding is that the header parser follows all the 
>>>>> #include directives, so will find everything that could be called 
>>>>> from C code, including abs() in libc. But the process of calling a 
>>>>> dynamic library at runtime involves doing a name lookup of entry 
>>>>> points *for that library,* not for anything visible *to* the 
>>>>> library, so libssh does not have an abs() entry point. For that 
>>>>> you would need a reference to libc.
>>>>>
>>>>> The wrapper generator does not know what is actually in the given 
>>>>> library, just what functions are defined by all included header 
>>>>> files. So you have to do some selection on your own. One wrapper 
>>>>> API has a filter as an argument, and so for a library like 
>>>>> GemStone C Interface where all the functions begin with ‘gci’ we 
>>>>> can filter to only generate wrappers for those functions (it is 
>>>>> unlikely that libc has gci*() functions!).
>>>>>
>>>>> So, yes, you need to have a different library object for each 
>>>>> library so the system can do name lookups properly.
>>>>>
>>>>> James
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Oct 9, 2020, at 5:40 AM, Bruno Buzzi Brassesco via Glass 
>>>>>> <glass at lists.gemtalksystems.com 
>>>>>> <mailto:glass at lists.gemtalksystems.com>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>> Maybe i'm wrong in some concepts here (not a C expert) but ...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If a C library (libssh) has a subsystem (sftp) in order to create 
>>>>>> a GS wrapper i can do:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>     | header wrapperClass wrapper |
>>>>>>     header := CHeader path: '/usr/include/libssh/sftp.h'.
>>>>>>     wrapperClass := header wrapperForLibraryAt:
>>>>>>     '/usr/lib64/libssh.so.4.4.0'.
>>>>>>     wrapperClass initializeFunctions.
>>>>>>     UserGlobals at: wrapperClass name put: wrapperClass.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In this case I got all the functions of Libssh and also SFTP, so 
>>>>>> far so good.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> But what happens when there is more than one C subsystem?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> How can I generate only one GS wrapper for the original C library 
>>>>>> (libssh) and all its subsystems ?
>>>>>> Or I will have to create one wrapper per subsystem ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> regards,
>>>>>> bruno
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>>>>>
>>>>>
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