| libffi | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Anthony Green |
| Initial release | October 7, 1996 |
| Stable release | 3.5.1[1] 
/ 10 June 2025 |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C, Assembly language |
| Operating system | Unix-like, Microsoft Windows, OS X, iOS, bare metal |
| Type | Runtime library |
| License | MIT License[2] |
| Website | sourceware |
libffi is a foreign function interface library. It provides a C programming language interface for calling natively compiled functions given information about the target function at run time instead of compile time. It also implements the opposite functionality: libffi can produce a pointer to a function that can accept and decode any combination of arguments defined at run time.
libffi is most often used as a bridging technology between compiled and interpreted language implementations. libffi may also be used to implement plug-ins, where the plug-in's function signatures are not known at the time of creating the host application.
Notable users include Python, Haskell, Dalvik, F-Script, PyPy, PyObjC, RubyCocoa, JRuby, Rubinius, MacRuby, gcj, GNU Smalltalk, IcedTea, Cycript, Pawn, Java Native Access, Common Lisp (via CFFI), Racket,[3] Embeddable Common Lisp and Mozilla.[4]
On Mac OS X, libffi is commonly used with BridgeSupport, which provides programming language neutral descriptions of framework interfaces, and Nu which binds direct Objective-C access from Lisp.
libffi has been widely ported and is released under a MIT license.
- ^ "Release 3.5.1". 10 June 2025. Retrieved 23 June 2025.
- ^ "Status". GitHub. 25 April 2022.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-09-02. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Mozilla-central @ 2dc00d4b379a files manifest".
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