C Interface¶

ccall((symbol, library) or fptr, RetType, (ArgType1, ...), ArgVar1, ...)¶

Call function in C-exported shared library, specified by (function name, library) tuple, where each component is a String or :Symbol. Alternatively, ccall may be used to call a function pointer returned by dlsym, but note that this usage is generally discouraged to facilitate future static compilation. Note that the argument type tuple must be a literal tuple, and not a tuple-valued variable or expression.

cglobal((symbol, library) or ptr[, Type=Void])¶

Obtain a pointer to a global variable in a C-exported shared library, specified exactly as in ccall. Returns a Ptr{Type}, defaulting to Ptr{Void} if no Type argument is supplied. The values can be read or written by unsafe_load or unsafe_store!, respectively.

cfunction(fun::Function, RetType::Type, (ArgTypes...))¶

Generate C-callable function pointer from Julia function. Type annotation of the return value in the callback function is a must for situations where Julia cannot infer the return type automatically.

For example:

function foo()
    # body

    retval::Float64
end

bar = cfunction(foo, Float64, ())

dlopen(libfile::String[, flags::Integer])¶

Load a shared library, returning an opaque handle.

The optional flags argument is a bitwise-or of zero or more of RTLD_LOCAL, RTLD_GLOBAL, RTLD_LAZY, RTLD_NOW, RTLD_NODELETE, RTLD_NOLOAD, RTLD_DEEPBIND, and RTLD_FIRST. These are converted to the corresponding flags of the POSIX (and/or GNU libc and/or MacOS) dlopen command, if possible, or are ignored if the specified functionality is not available on the current platform. The default is RTLD_LAZY|RTLD_DEEPBIND|RTLD_LOCAL. An important usage of these flags, on POSIX platforms, is to specify RTLD_LAZY|RTLD_DEEPBIND|RTLD_GLOBAL in order for the library’s symbols to be available for usage in other shared libraries, in situations where there are dependencies between shared libraries.

dlopen_e(libfile::String[, flags::Integer])¶

Similar to dlopen(), except returns a NULL pointer instead of raising errors.

RTLD_DEEPBIND¶

Enum constant for dlopen(). See your platform man page for details, if applicable.

RTLD_FIRST¶

Enum constant for dlopen(). See your platform man page for details, if applicable.

RTLD_GLOBAL¶

Enum constant for dlopen(). See your platform man page for details, if applicable.

RTLD_LAZY¶

Enum constant for dlopen(). See your platform man page for details, if applicable.

RTLD_LOCAL¶

Enum constant for dlopen(). See your platform man page for details, if applicable.

RTLD_NODELETE¶

Enum constant for dlopen(). See your platform man page for details, if applicable.

RTLD_NOLOAD¶

Enum constant for dlopen(). See your platform man page for details, if applicable.

RTLD_NOW¶

Enum constant for dlopen(). See your platform man page for details, if applicable.

dlsym(handle, sym)¶

Look up a symbol from a shared library handle, return callable function pointer on success.

dlsym_e(handle, sym)¶

Look up a symbol from a shared library handle, silently return NULL pointer on lookup failure.

dlclose(handle)¶

Close shared library referenced by handle.

find_library(names, locations)¶

Searches for the first library in names in the paths in the locations list, DL_LOAD_PATH, or system library paths (in that order) which can successfully be dlopen’d. On success, the return value will be one of the names (potentially prefixed by one of the paths in locations). This string can be assigned to a global const and used as the library name in future ccall‘s. On failure, it returns the empty string.

DL_LOAD_PATH¶

When calling dlopen, the paths in this list will be searched first, in order, before searching the system locations for a valid library handle.

c_malloc(size::Integer) → Ptr{Void}¶

Call malloc from the C standard library.

c_calloc(num::Integer, size::Integer) → Ptr{Void}¶

Call calloc from the C standard library.

c_realloc(addr::Ptr, size::Integer) → Ptr{Void}¶

Call realloc from the C standard library.

c_free(addr::Ptr)¶

Call free from the C standard library.

unsafe_load(p::Ptr{T}, i::Integer)¶

Load a value of type T from the address of the ith element (1-indexed) starting at p. This is equivalent to the C expression p[i-1].

unsafe_store!(p::Ptr{T}, x, i::Integer)¶

Store a value of type T to the address of the ith element (1-indexed) starting at p. This is equivalent to the C expression p[i-1] = x.

unsafe_copy!(dest::Ptr{T}, src::Ptr{T}, N)¶

Copy N elements from a source pointer to a destination, with no checking. The size of an element is determined by the type of the pointers.

unsafe_copy!(dest::Array, do, src::Array, so, N)

Copy N elements from a source array to a destination, starting at offset so in the source and do in the destination (1-indexed).

copy!(dest, src)¶

Copy all elements from collection src to array dest. Returns dest.

copy!(dest, do, src, so, N)

Copy N elements from collection src starting at offset so, to array dest starting at offset do. Returns dest.

pointer(a[, index])¶

Get the native address of an array or string element. Be careful to ensure that a julia reference to a exists as long as this pointer will be used.

pointer(type, int)

Convert an integer to a pointer of the specified element type.

pointer_to_array(p, dims[, own])¶

Wrap a native pointer as a Julia Array object. The pointer element type determines the array element type. own optionally specifies whether Julia should take ownership of the memory, calling free on the pointer when the array is no longer referenced.

pointer_from_objref(obj)¶

Get the memory address of a Julia object as a Ptr. The existence of the resulting Ptr will not protect the object from garbage collection, so you must ensure that the object remains referenced for the whole time that the Ptr will be used.

unsafe_pointer_to_objref(p::Ptr)¶

Convert a Ptr to an object reference. Assumes the pointer refers to a valid heap-allocated Julia object. If this is not the case, undefined behavior results, hence this function is considered “unsafe” and should be used with care.

disable_sigint(f::Function)¶

Disable Ctrl-C handler during execution of a function, for calling external code that is not interrupt safe. Intended to be called using do block syntax as follows:

disable_sigint() do
    # interrupt-unsafe code
    ...
end

reenable_sigint(f::Function)¶

Re-enable Ctrl-C handler during execution of a function. Temporarily reverses the effect of disable_sigint.

errno([code])¶

Get the value of the C library’s errno. If an argument is specified, it is used to set the value of errno.

The value of errno is only valid immediately after a ccall to a C library routine that sets it. Specifically, you cannot call errno at the next prompt in a REPL, because lots of code is executed between prompts.

systemerror(sysfunc, iftrue)¶

Raises a SystemError for errno with the descriptive string sysfunc if bool is true

strerror(n)¶

Convert a system call error code to a descriptive string

Cchar¶

Equivalent to the native char c-type

Cuchar¶

Equivalent to the native unsigned char c-type (Uint8)

Cshort¶

Equivalent to the native signed short c-type (Int16)

Cushort¶

Equivalent to the native unsigned short c-type (Uint16)

Cint¶

Equivalent to the native signed int c-type (Int32)

Cuint¶

Equivalent to the native unsigned int c-type (Uint32)

Clong¶

Equivalent to the native signed long c-type

Culong¶

Equivalent to the native unsigned long c-type

Clonglong¶

Equivalent to the native signed long long c-type (Int64)

Culonglong¶

Equivalent to the native unsigned long long c-type (Uint64)

Csize_t¶

Equivalent to the native size_t c-type (Uint)

Cssize_t¶

Equivalent to the native ssize_t c-type

Cptrdiff_t¶

Equivalent to the native ptrdiff_t c-type (Int)

Coff_t¶

Equivalent to the native off_t c-type

Cwchar_t¶

Equivalent to the native wchar_t c-type (Int32)

Cfloat¶

Equivalent to the native float c-type (Float32)

Cdouble¶

Equivalent to the native double c-type (Float64)