FFI::TinyCC

Tiny C Compiler for FFI

SYNOPSIS

use FFI::TinyCC;
use FFI::Platypus;

my $tcc = FFI::TinyCC->new;

$tcc->compile_string(q{
  int
  find_square(int value)
  {
    return value*value;
  }
});

my $address = $tcc->get_symbol('find_square');
my $ffi = FFI::Platypus->new;
$ffi->attach([$address => 'find_square'] => ['int'] => 'int');

print find_square(4), "\n"; # prints 16

For code that requires system headers:

use FFI::TinyCC;
use FFI::Platypus;

my $tcc = FFI::TinyCC->new;

# this will throw an exception if the system
# include paths cannot be detected.
$tcc->detect_sysinclude_path;

$tcc->compile_string(q{
  #include <stdio.h>
  
  void print_hello()
  {
    puts("hello world");
  }
});

my $address = $tcc->get_symbol('print_hello');
my $ffi = FFI::Platypus->new;
$ffi->attach([$address => 'print_hello'] => [] => 'void');
print_hello();

DESCRIPTION

This module provides an interface to a very small C compiler known as TinyCC. It does almost no optimizations, so gcc or clang will probably generate faster code, but it is very small and is very fast and thus may be useful for some Just In Time (JIT) or Foreign Function Interface (FFI) situations.

For a simpler, but less powerful interface see FFI::TinyCC::Inline.

CONSTRUCTOR

new

my $tcc = FFI::TinyCC->new;

Create a new TinyCC instance.

METHODS

Methods will generally throw an exception on failure.

Compile

set_options

$tcc->set_options($options);

Set compiler and linker options, as you would on the command line, for example:

$tcc->set_options('-I/foo/include -L/foo/lib -DFOO=22');

add_file

$tcc->add_file('foo.c');
$tcc->add_file('foo.o');
$tcc->add_file('foo.so'); # or dll on windows

Add a file, DLL, shared object or object file.

On windows adding a DLL is not supported via this interface.

compile_string

$tcc->compile_string($c_code);

Compile a string containing C source code.

add_symbol

$tcc->add_symbol($name, $callback);
$tcc->add_symbol($name, $pointer);

Add the given given symbol name / callback or pointer combination. See example below for how to use this to call Perl from Tiny C code.

If you are using FFI::Platypus you can use FFI::Platypus#cast to get a pointer to a closure:

use FFI::Platypus;
my $ffi = FFI::Platypus;
my $closure = $ffi->closure(sub { return $_[0]+1 });
my $pointer = $ffi->cast('(int)->int' => 'opaque', $closure);

$tcc->add_symbol('foo' => $pointer);

Preprocessor options

detect_sysinclude_path

[version 0.18]

$tcc->detect_sysinclude_path;

Attempt to find and configure the appropriate system include directories. If the platform that you are on does not (yet?) support this functionality then this method will throw an exception.

[version 0.19]

Returns the list of directories added to the system include directories.

add_include_path

$tcc->add_include_path($path);

Add the given path to the list of paths used to search for include files.

add_sysinclude_path

$tcc->add_sysinclude_path($path);

Add the given path to the list of paths used to search for system include files.

set_lib_path

$tcc->set_lib_path($path);

Set the lib path

define_symbol

$tcc->define_symbol($name => $value);
$tcc->define_symbol($name);

Define the given symbol, optionally with the specified value.

undefine_symbol

$tcc->undefine_symbol($name);

Undefine the given symbol.

Link / run

set_output_type

$tcc->set_output_type('memory');
$tcc->set_output_type('exe');
$tcc->set_output_type('dll');
$tcc->set_output_type('obj');

Set the output type. This must be called before any compilation.

Output formats may not be supported on your platform. exe is NOT supported on *BSD or OS X. It may NOT be supported on Linux.

As a basic baseline at least memory should be supported.

add_library

$tcc->add_library($libname);

Add the given library when linking. Example:

$tcc->add_library('m'); # equivalent to -lm (math library)

add_library_path

$tcc->add_library_path($pathname);

Add the given directory to the search path used to find libraries.

run

my $exit_value = $tcc->run(@arguments);

get_symbol

my $pointer = $tcc->get_symbol($symbol_name);

Return symbol address or undef if not found. This can be passed into the FFI::Platypus#function method, FFI::Platypus#attach method, or similar interface that takes a pointer to a C function.

output_file

$tcc->output_file($filename);

Output the generated code (either executable, object or DLL) to the given filename. The type of output is specified by the set_output_type method.

EXAMPLES

Calling Tiny C code from Perl

use FFI::TinyCC;

my $tcc = FFI::TinyCC->new;

$tcc->compile_string(<<EOF);
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  puts("hello world");
}
EOF

my $r = $tcc->run;

exit $r;

Calling Perl from Tiny C code

use FFI::TinyCC;
use FFI::Platypus;

my $ffi = FFI::Platypus->new;
my $say = $ffi->closure(sub { print $_[0], "\n" });
my $ptr = $ffi->cast('(string)->void' => 'opaque' => $say);

my $tcc = FFI::TinyCC->new;
$tcc->add_symbol(say => $ptr);

$tcc->compile_string(<<EOF);
extern void say(const char *);

int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  int i;
  for(i=0; i<argc; i++)
  {
    say(argv[i]);
  }
}
EOF

my $r = $tcc->run($0, @ARGV);

exit $r;

Attaching as a FFI::Platypus function from a Tiny C function

use FFI::TinyCC;
use FFI::Platypus;

my $tcc = FFI::TinyCC->new;

$tcc->compile_string(q{
  int
  calculate_square(int value)
  {
    return value*value;
  }
});

my $value = shift @ARGV;
$value = 4 unless defined $value;

my $address = $tcc->get_symbol('calculate_square');

my $ffi = FFI::Platypus->new;
$ffi->attach([$address => 'square'] => ['int'] => 'int');

print square($value), "\n";

CAVEATS

Tiny C is only supported on platforms with ARM or Intel processors. All features may not be fully supported on all operating systems.

Tiny C is no longer supported by its original author, though various forks seem to have varying levels of support. We use the fork that comes with Alien::TinyCC.

SEE ALSO

• FFI::TinyCC::Inline
• Tiny C
• Tiny C Compiler Reference Documentation
• FFI::Platypus
• C::Blocks
• Alien::TinyCC
• C::TinyCompiler

BUNDLED SOFTWARE

This package also comes with a parser that was shamelessly stolen from XS::TCC, which I strongly suspect was itself shamelessly "borrowed" from Inline::C::Parser::RegExp

The license details for the parser are:

Copyright 2002 Brian Ingerson
Copyright 2008, 2010-2012 Sisyphus
Copyright 2013 Steffen Muellero

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

AUTHOR

Author: Graham Ollis plicease@cpan.org

Contributors:

aero

Dylan Cali (calid)

pipcet

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.