ffiber

ffiber generates C bindings from Rust libraries with Rust-y function interfaces.

When calling C from Rust, the more common direction, it is recommended to write a safe wrapping module around low-level C bindings to ensure memory safety and security invariants at the Rust level. When calling Rust from C, Rust library developers should first write their libraries with a safe, Rust-y interface. They can then use ffiber to programmatically generate low-level extern C functions, and a tool like cbindgen to generate the C header file.

How to Use

ffiber is currently only available as a library (such as in your build.rs).

1. Initialize a CDylibCompiler.
2. Use add_dependency() to add crate dependencies, including the library you are trying to bind.
3. Use import() to import the necessary crates, structs, traits, functions etc. to the generated src/lib.rs.
4. Finally, use add_extern_c_function() to generate wrappers around library functions based on their specifications.

If necessary, you can also use the inner SerializationCompiler to manually generate code. This may be helpful, for example, to create intermediate wrapper functions for unimplemented features such as tuple arguments.

Executing this code will generate a crate at your specified path. This crate has cbindgen as a build dependency by default. Build this crate to generate a C header file at its root.

Example

See examples/.

cargo r --release cornflakes
cd mlx5-datapath-c
cargo b  # mlx5_datapath.h

Codebases that use ffiber:

• Cornflakes

Roadmap

Several features are planned. Comment on an issue if you'd like to help.