// Copyright 2009 The Go Authors. All rights reserved. // Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style // license that can be found in the LICENSE file. /* Cgo enables the creation of Go packages that call C code. Using cgo with the go command To use cgo write normal Go code that imports a pseudo-package "C". The Go code can then refer to types such as C.size_t, variables such as C.stdout, or functions such as C.putchar. If the import of "C" is immediately preceded by a comment, that comment, called the preamble, is used as a header when compiling the C parts of the package. For example: // #include // #include import "C" See $GOROOT/misc/cgo/stdio and $GOROOT/misc/cgo/gmp for examples. See "C? Go? Cgo!" for an introduction to using cgo: http://golang.org/doc/articles/c_go_cgo.html. CFLAGS, CPPFLAGS, CXXFLAGS and LDFLAGS may be defined with pseudo #cgo directives within these comments to tweak the behavior of the C or C++ compiler. Values defined in multiple directives are concatenated together. The directive can include a list of build constraints limiting its effect to systems satisfying one of the constraints (see http://golang.org/pkg/go/build/#hdr-Build_Constraints for details about the constraint syntax). For example: // #cgo CFLAGS: -DPNG_DEBUG=1 // #cgo amd64 386 CFLAGS: -DX86=1 // #cgo LDFLAGS: -lpng // #include import "C" Alternatively, CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS may be obtained via the pkg-config tool using a '#cgo pkg-config:' directive followed by the package names. For example: // #cgo pkg-config: png cairo // #include import "C" When building, the CGO_CFLAGS, CGO_CPPFLAGS, CGO_CXXFLAGS and CGO_LDFLAGS environment variables are added to the flags derived from these directives. Package-specific flags should be set using the directives, not the environment variables, so that builds work in unmodified environments. When the Go tool sees that one or more Go files use the special import "C", it will look for other non-Go files in the directory and compile them as part of the Go package. Any .c, .s, or .S files will be compiled with the C compiler. Any .cc, .cpp, or .cxx files will be compiled with the C++ compiler. Any .h, .hh, .hpp, or .hxx files will not be compiled separately, but, if these header files are changed, the C and C++ files will be recompiled. The default C and C++ compilers may be changed by the CC and CXX environment variables, respectively; those environment variables may include command line options. Go references to C Within the Go file, C's struct field names that are keywords in Go can be accessed by prefixing them with an underscore: if x points at a C struct with a field named "type", x._type accesses the field. The standard C numeric types are available under the names C.char, C.schar (signed char), C.uchar (unsigned char), C.short, C.ushort (unsigned short), C.int, C.uint (unsigned int), C.long, C.ulong (unsigned long), C.longlong (long long), C.ulonglong (unsigned long long), C.float, C.double. The C type void* is represented by Go's unsafe.Pointer. To access a struct, union, or enum type directly, prefix it with struct_, union_, or enum_, as in C.struct_stat. As Go doesn't have support for C's union type in the general case, C's union types are represented as a Go byte array with the same length. Go structs cannot embed fields with C types. Any C function (even void functions) may be called in a multiple assignment context to retrieve both the return value (if any) and the C errno variable as an error (use _ to skip the result value if the function returns void). For example: n, err := C.sqrt(-1) _, err := C.voidFunc() Calling C function pointers is currently not supported, however you can declare Go variables which hold C function pointers and pass them back and forth between Go and C. C code may call function pointers received from Go. For example: package main // typedef int (*intFunc) (); // // int // bridge_int_func(intFunc f) // { // return f(); // } // // int fortytwo() // { // return 42; // } import "C" import "fmt" func main() { f := C.intFunc(C.fortytwo) fmt.Println(int(C.bridge_int_func(f))) // Output: 42 } In C, a function argument written as a fixed size array actually requires a pointer to the first element of the array. C compilers are aware of this calling convention and adjust the call accordingly, but Go cannot. In Go, you must pass the pointer to the first element explicitly: C.f(&x[0]). A few special functions convert between Go and C types by making copies of the data. In pseudo-Go definitions: // Go string to C string // The C string is allocated in the C heap using malloc. // It is the caller's responsibility to arrange for it to be // freed, such as by calling C.free (be sure to include stdlib.h // if C.free is needed). func C.CString(string) *C.char // C string to Go string func C.GoString(*C.char) string // C string, length to Go string func C.GoStringN(*C.char, C.int) string // C pointer, length to Go []byte func C.GoBytes(unsafe.Pointer, C.int) []byte C references to Go Go functions can be exported for use by C code in the following way: //export MyFunction func MyFunction(arg1, arg2 int, arg3 string) int64 {...} //export MyFunction2 func MyFunction2(arg1, arg2 int, arg3 string) (int64, *C.char) {...} They will be available in the C code as: extern int64 MyFunction(int arg1, int arg2, GoString arg3); extern struct MyFunction2_return MyFunction2(int arg1, int arg2, GoString arg3); found in the _cgo_export.h generated header, after any preambles copied from the cgo input files. Functions with multiple return values are mapped to functions returning a struct. Not all Go types can be mapped to C types in a useful way. Using //export in a file places a restriction on the preamble: since it is copied into two different C output files, it must not contain any definitions, only declarations. Definitions must be placed in preambles in other files, or in C source files. Using cgo directly Usage: go tool cgo [cgo options] [-- compiler options] file.go Cgo transforms the input file.go into four output files: two Go source files, a C file for 6c (or 8c or 5c), and a C file for gcc. The compiler options are passed through uninterpreted when invoking the C compiler to compile the C parts of the package. The following options are available when running cgo directly: -dynimport file Write list of symbols imported by file. Write to -dynout argument or to standard output. Used by go build when building a cgo package. -dynout file Write -dynimport output to file. -dynlinker Write dynamic linker as part of -dynimport output. -godefs Write out input file in Go syntax replacing C package names with real values. Used to generate files in the syscall package when bootstrapping a new target. -cdefs Like -godefs, but write file in C syntax. Used to generate files in the runtime package when bootstrapping a new target. -objdir directory Put all generated files in directory. -gccgo Generate output for the gccgo compiler rather than the gc compiler. -gccgoprefix prefix The -fgo-prefix option to be used with gccgo. -gccgopkgpath path The -fgo-pkgpath option to be used with gccgo. -import_runtime_cgo If set (which it is by default) import runtime/cgo in generated output. -import_syscall If set (which it is by default) import syscall in generated output. -debug-define Debugging option. Print #defines. -debug-gcc Debugging option. Trace C compiler execution and output. */ package main /* Implementation details. Cgo provides a way for Go programs to call C code linked into the same address space. This comment explains the operation of cgo. Cgo reads a set of Go source files and looks for statements saying import "C". If the import has a doc comment, that comment is taken as literal C code to be used as a preamble to any C code generated by cgo. A typical preamble #includes necessary definitions: // #include import "C" For more details about the usage of cgo, see the documentation comment at the top of this file. Understanding C Cgo scans the Go source files that import "C" for uses of that package, such as C.puts. It collects all such identifiers. The next step is to determine each kind of name. In C.xxx the xxx might refer to a type, a function, a constant, or a global variable. Cgo must decide which. The obvious thing for cgo to do is to process the preamble, expanding #includes and processing the corresponding C code. That would require a full C parser and type checker that was also aware of any extensions known to the system compiler (for example, all the GNU C extensions) as well as the system-specific header locations and system-specific pre-#defined macros. This is certainly possible to do, but it is an enormous amount of work. Cgo takes a different approach. It determines the meaning of C identifiers not by parsing C code but by feeding carefully constructed programs into the system C compiler and interpreting the generated error messages, debug information, and object files. In practice, parsing these is significantly less work and more robust than parsing C source. Cgo first invokes gcc -E -dM on the preamble, in order to find out about simple #defines for constants and the like. These are recorded for later use. Next, cgo needs to identify the kinds for each identifier. For the identifiers C.foo and C.bar, cgo generates this C program: #line 1 "not-declared" void __cgo_f_xxx_1(void) { __typeof__(foo) *__cgo_undefined__; } #line 1 "not-type" void __cgo_f_xxx_2(void) { foo *__cgo_undefined__; } #line 1 "not-const" void __cgo_f_xxx_3(void) { enum { __cgo_undefined__ = (foo)*1 }; } #line 2 "not-declared" void __cgo_f_xxx_1(void) { __typeof__(bar) *__cgo_undefined__; } #line 2 "not-type" void __cgo_f_xxx_2(void) { bar *__cgo_undefined__; } #line 2 "not-const" void __cgo_f_xxx_3(void) { enum { __cgo_undefined__ = (bar)*1 }; } This program will not compile, but cgo can use the presence or absence of an error message on a given line to deduce the information it needs. The program is syntactically valid regardless of whether each name is a type or an ordinary identifier, so there will be no syntax errors that might stop parsing early. An error on not-declared:1 indicates that foo is undeclared. An error on not-type:1 indicates that foo is not a type (if declared at all, it is an identifier). An error on not-const:1 indicates that foo is not an integer constant. The line number specifies the name involved. In the example, 1 is foo and 2 is bar. Next, cgo must learn the details of each type, variable, function, or constant. It can do this by reading object files. If cgo has decided that t1 is a type, v2 and v3 are variables or functions, and c4, c5, and c6 are constants, it generates: __typeof__(t1) *__cgo__1; __typeof__(v2) *__cgo__2; __typeof__(v3) *__cgo__3; __typeof__(c4) *__cgo__4; enum { __cgo_enum__4 = c4 }; __typeof__(c5) *__cgo__5; enum { __cgo_enum__5 = c5 }; __typeof__(c6) *__cgo__6; enum { __cgo_enum__6 = c6 }; long long __cgo_debug_data[] = { 0, // t1 0, // v2 0, // v3 c4, c5, c6, 1 }; and again invokes the system C compiler, to produce an object file containing debug information. Cgo parses the DWARF debug information for __cgo__N to learn the type of each identifier. (The types also distinguish functions from global variables.) If using a standard gcc, cgo can parse the DWARF debug information for the __cgo_enum__N to learn the identifier's value. The LLVM-based gcc on OS X emits incomplete DWARF information for enums; in that case cgo reads the constant values from the __cgo_debug_data from the object file's data segment. At this point cgo knows the meaning of each C.xxx well enough to start the translation process. Translating Go [The rest of this comment refers to 6g and 6c, the Go and C compilers that are part of the amd64 port of the gc Go toolchain. Everything here applies to another architecture's compilers as well.] Given the input Go files x.go and y.go, cgo generates these source files: x.cgo1.go # for 6g y.cgo1.go # for 6g _cgo_gotypes.go # for 6g _cgo_defun.c # for 6c x.cgo2.c # for gcc y.cgo2.c # for gcc _cgo_export.c # for gcc _cgo_main.c # for gcc The file x.cgo1.go is a copy of x.go with the import "C" removed and references to C.xxx replaced with names like _Cfunc_xxx or _Ctype_xxx. The definitions of those identifiers, written as Go functions, types, or variables, are provided in _cgo_gotypes.go. Here is a _cgo_gotypes.go containing definitions for C.flush (provided in the preamble) and C.puts (from stdio): type _Ctype_char int8 type _Ctype_int int32 type _Ctype_void [0]byte func _Cfunc_CString(string) *_Ctype_char func _Cfunc_flush() _Ctype_void func _Cfunc_puts(*_Ctype_char) _Ctype_int For functions, cgo only writes an external declaration in the Go output. The implementation is in a combination of C for 6c (meaning any gc-toolchain compiler) and C for gcc. The 6c file contains the definitions of the functions. They all have similar bodies that invoke runtime·cgocall to make a switch from the Go runtime world to the system C (GCC-based) world. For example, here is the definition of _Cfunc_puts: void _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts(void*); void ·_Cfunc_puts(struct{uint8 x[1];}p) { runtime·cgocall(_cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts, &p); } The hexadecimal number is a hash of cgo's input, chosen to be deterministic yet unlikely to collide with other uses. The actual function _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts is implemented in a C source file compiled by gcc, the file x.cgo2.c: void _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts(void *v) { struct { char* p0; int r; char __pad12[4]; } __attribute__((__packed__, __gcc_struct__)) *a = v; a->r = puts((void*)a->p0); } It extracts the arguments from the pointer to _Cfunc_puts's argument frame, invokes the system C function (in this case, puts), stores the result in the frame, and returns. Linking Once the _cgo_export.c and *.cgo2.c files have been compiled with gcc, they need to be linked into the final binary, along with the libraries they might depend on (in the case of puts, stdio). 6l has been extended to understand basic ELF files, but it does not understand ELF in the full complexity that modern C libraries embrace, so it cannot in general generate direct references to the system libraries. Instead, the build process generates an object file using dynamic linkage to the desired libraries. The main function is provided by _cgo_main.c: int main() { return 0; } void crosscall2(void(*fn)(void*, int), void *a, int c) { } void _cgo_allocate(void *a, int c) { } void _cgo_panic(void *a, int c) { } The extra functions here are stubs to satisfy the references in the C code generated for gcc. The build process links this stub, along with _cgo_export.c and *.cgo2.c, into a dynamic executable and then lets cgo examine the executable. Cgo records the list of shared library references and resolved names and writes them into a new file _cgo_import.c, which looks like: #pragma cgo_dynamic_linker "/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2" #pragma cgo_import_dynamic puts puts#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6" #pragma cgo_import_dynamic __libc_start_main __libc_start_main#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6" #pragma cgo_import_dynamic stdout stdout#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6" #pragma cgo_import_dynamic fflush fflush#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6" #pragma cgo_import_dynamic _ _ "libpthread.so.0" #pragma cgo_import_dynamic _ _ "libc.so.6" In the end, the compiled Go package, which will eventually be presented to 6l as part of a larger program, contains: _go_.6 # 6g-compiled object for _cgo_gotypes.go *.cgo1.go _cgo_defun.6 # 6c-compiled object for _cgo_defun.c _all.o # gcc-compiled object for _cgo_export.c, *.cgo2.c _cgo_import.6 # 6c-compiled object for _cgo_import.c The final program will be a dynamic executable, so that 6l can avoid needing to process arbitrary .o files. It only needs to process the .o files generated from C files that cgo writes, and those are much more limited in the ELF or other features that they use. In essence, the _cgo_import.6 file includes the extra linking directives that 6l is not sophisticated enough to derive from _all.o on its own. Similarly, the _all.o uses dynamic references to real system object code because 6l is not sophisticated enough to process the real code. The main benefits of this system are that 6l remains relatively simple (it does not need to implement a complete ELF and Mach-O linker) and that gcc is not needed after the package is compiled. For example, package net uses cgo for access to name resolution functions provided by libc. Although gcc is needed to compile package net, gcc is not needed to link programs that import package net. Runtime When using cgo, Go must not assume that it owns all details of the process. In particular it needs to coordinate with C in the use of threads and thread-local storage. The runtime package, in its own (6c-compiled) C code, declares a few uninitialized (default bss) variables: bool runtime·iscgo; void (*libcgo_thread_start)(void*); void (*initcgo)(G*); Any package using cgo imports "runtime/cgo", which provides initializations for these variables. It sets iscgo to 1, initcgo to a gcc-compiled function that can be called early during program startup, and libcgo_thread_start to a gcc-compiled function that can be used to create a new thread, in place of the runtime's usual direct system calls. Internal and External Linking The text above describes "internal" linking, in which 6l parses and links host object files (ELF, Mach-O, PE, and so on) into the final executable itself. Keeping 6l simple means we cannot possibly implement the full semantics of the host linker, so the kinds of objects that can be linked directly into the binary is limited (other code can only be used as a dynamic library). On the other hand, when using internal linking, 6l can generate Go binaries by itself. In order to allow linking arbitrary object files without requiring dynamic libraries, cgo will soon support an "external" linking mode too. In external linking mode, 6l does not process any host object files. Instead, it collects all the Go code and writes a single go.o object file containing it. Then it invokes the host linker (usually gcc) to combine the go.o object file and any supporting non-Go code into a final executable. External linking avoids the dynamic library requirement but introduces a requirement that the host linker be present to create such a binary. Most builds both compile source code and invoke the linker to create a binary. When cgo is involved, the compile step already requires gcc, so it is not problematic for the link step to require gcc too. An important exception is builds using a pre-compiled copy of the standard library. In particular, package net uses cgo on most systems, and we want to preserve the ability to compile pure Go code that imports net without requiring gcc to be present at link time. (In this case, the dynamic library requirement is less significant, because the only library involved is libc.so, which can usually be assumed present.) This conflict between functionality and the gcc requirement means we must support both internal and external linking, depending on the circumstances: if net is the only cgo-using package, then internal linking is probably fine, but if other packages are involved, so that there are dependencies on libraries beyond libc, external linking is likely to work better. The compilation of a package records the relevant information to support both linking modes, leaving the decision to be made when linking the final binary. Linking Directives In either linking mode, package-specific directives must be passed through to 6l. These are communicated by writing #pragma directives in a C source file compiled by 6c. The directives are copied into the .6 object file and then processed by the linker. The directives are: #pragma cgo_import_dynamic [ [""]] In internal linking mode, allow an unresolved reference to , assuming it will be resolved by a dynamic library symbol. The optional specifies the symbol's name and possibly version in the dynamic library, and the optional "" names the specific library where the symbol should be found. In the , # or @ can be used to introduce a symbol version. Examples: #pragma cgo_import_dynamic puts #pragma cgo_import_dynamic puts puts#GLIBC_2.2.5 #pragma cgo_import_dynamic puts puts#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6" A side effect of the cgo_import_dynamic directive with a library is to make the final binary depend on that dynamic library. To get the dependency without importing any specific symbols, use _ for local and remote. Example: #pragma cgo_import_dynamic _ _ "libc.so.6" For compatibility with current versions of SWIG, #pragma dynimport is an alias for #pragma cgo_import_dynamic. #pragma cgo_dynamic_linker "" In internal linking mode, use "" as the dynamic linker in the final binary. This directive is only needed from one package when constructing a binary; by convention it is supplied by runtime/cgo. Example: #pragma cgo_dynamic_linker "/lib/ld-linux.so.2" #pragma cgo_export_dynamic In internal linking mode, put the Go symbol named into the program's exported symbol table as , so that C code can refer to it by that name. This mechanism makes it possible for C code to call back into Go or to share Go's data. For compatibility with current versions of SWIG, #pragma dynexport is an alias for #pragma cgo_export_dynamic. #pragma cgo_import_static In external linking mode, allow unresolved references to in the go.o object file prepared for the host linker, under the assumption that will be supplied by the other object files that will be linked with go.o. Example: #pragma cgo_import_static puts_wrapper #pragma cgo_export_static In external linking mode, put the Go symbol named into the program's exported symbol table as , so that C code can refer to it by that name. This mechanism makes it possible for C code to call back into Go or to share Go's data. #pragma cgo_ldflag "" In external linking mode, invoke the host linker (usually gcc) with "" as a command-line argument following the .o files. Note that the arguments are for "gcc", not "ld". Example: #pragma cgo_ldflag "-lpthread" #pragma cgo_ldflag "-L/usr/local/sqlite3/lib" A package compiled with cgo will include directives for both internal and external linking; the linker will select the appropriate subset for the chosen linking mode. Example As a simple example, consider a package that uses cgo to call C.sin. The following code will be generated by cgo: // compiled by 6g type _Ctype_double float64 func _Cfunc_sin(_Ctype_double) _Ctype_double // compiled by 6c #pragma cgo_import_dynamic sin sin#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libm.so.6" #pragma cgo_import_static _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin #pragma cgo_ldflag "-lm" void _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin(void*); void ·_Cfunc_sin(struct{uint8 x[16];}p) { runtime·cgocall(_cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin, &p); } // compiled by gcc, into foo.cgo2.o void _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin(void *v) { struct { double p0; double r; } __attribute__((__packed__)) *a = v; a->r = sin(a->p0); } What happens at link time depends on whether the final binary is linked using the internal or external mode. If other packages are compiled in "external only" mode, then the final link will be an external one. Otherwise the link will be an internal one. The directives in the 6c-compiled file are used according to the kind of final link used. In internal mode, 6l itself processes all the host object files, in particular foo.cgo2.o. To do so, it uses the cgo_import_dynamic and cgo_dynamic_linker directives to learn that the otherwise undefined reference to sin in foo.cgo2.o should be rewritten to refer to the symbol sin with version GLIBC_2.2.5 from the dynamic library "libm.so.6", and the binary should request "/lib/ld-linux.so.2" as its runtime dynamic linker. In external mode, 6l does not process any host object files, in particular foo.cgo2.o. It links together the 6g- and 6c-generated object files, along with any other Go code, into a go.o file. While doing that, 6l will discover that there is no definition for _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin, referred to by the 6c-compiled source file. This is okay, because 6l also processes the cgo_import_static directive and knows that _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin is expected to be supplied by a host object file, so 6l does not treat the missing symbol as an error when creating go.o. Indeed, the definition for _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin will be provided to the host linker by foo2.cgo.o, which in turn will need the symbol 'sin'. 6l also processes the cgo_ldflag directives, so that it knows that the eventual host link command must include the -lm argument, so that the host linker will be able to find 'sin' in the math library. 6l Command Line Interface The go command and any other Go-aware build systems invoke 6l to link a collection of packages into a single binary. By default, 6l will present the same interface it does today: 6l main.a produces a file named 6.out, even if 6l does so by invoking the host linker in external linking mode. By default, 6l will decide the linking mode as follows: if the only packages using cgo are those on a whitelist of standard library packages (net, os/user, runtime/cgo), 6l will use internal linking mode. Otherwise, there are non-standard cgo packages involved, and 6l will use external linking mode. The first rule means that a build of the godoc binary, which uses net but no other cgo, can run without needing gcc available. The second rule means that a build of a cgo-wrapped library like sqlite3 can generate a standalone executable instead of needing to refer to a dynamic library. The specific choice can be overridden using a command line flag: 6l -linkmode=internal or 6l -linkmode=external. In an external link, 6l will create a temporary directory, write any host object files found in package archives to that directory (renamed to avoid conflicts), write the go.o file to that directory, and invoke the host linker. The default value for the host linker is $CC, split into fields, or else "gcc". The specific host linker command line can be overridden using command line flags: 6l -extld=clang -extldflags='-ggdb -O3'. If any package in a build includes a .cc or other file compiled by the C++ compiler, the go tool will use the -extld option to set the host linker to the C++ compiler. These defaults mean that Go-aware build systems can ignore the linking changes and keep running plain '6l' and get reasonable results, but they can also control the linking details if desired. */