github.com/ActiveState/go@v0.0.0-20170614201249-0b81c023a722/src/cmd/cgo/doc.go (about)

     1  // Copyright 2009 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
     2  // Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
     3  // license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
     4  
     5  /*
     6  
     7  Cgo enables the creation of Go packages that call C code.
     8  
     9  Using cgo with the go command
    10  
    11  To use cgo write normal Go code that imports a pseudo-package "C".
    12  The Go code can then refer to types such as C.size_t, variables such
    13  as C.stdout, or functions such as C.putchar.
    14  
    15  If the import of "C" is immediately preceded by a comment, that
    16  comment, called the preamble, is used as a header when compiling
    17  the C parts of the package. For example:
    18  
    19  	// #include <stdio.h>
    20  	// #include <errno.h>
    21  	import "C"
    22  
    23  The preamble may contain any C code, including function and variable
    24  declarations and definitions. These may then be referred to from Go
    25  code as though they were defined in the package "C". All names
    26  declared in the preamble may be used, even if they start with a
    27  lower-case letter. Exception: static variables in the preamble may
    28  not be referenced from Go code; static functions are permitted.
    29  
    30  See $GOROOT/misc/cgo/stdio and $GOROOT/misc/cgo/gmp for examples. See
    31  "C? Go? Cgo!" for an introduction to using cgo:
    32  https://golang.org/doc/articles/c_go_cgo.html.
    33  
    34  CFLAGS, CPPFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, FFLAGS and LDFLAGS may be defined with pseudo
    35  #cgo directives within these comments to tweak the behavior of the C, C++
    36  or Fortran compiler. Values defined in multiple directives are concatenated
    37  together. The directive can include a list of build constraints limiting its
    38  effect to systems satisfying one of the constraints
    39  (see https://golang.org/pkg/go/build/#hdr-Build_Constraints for details about the constraint syntax).
    40  For example:
    41  
    42  	// #cgo CFLAGS: -DPNG_DEBUG=1
    43  	// #cgo amd64 386 CFLAGS: -DX86=1
    44  	// #cgo LDFLAGS: -lpng
    45  	// #include <png.h>
    46  	import "C"
    47  
    48  Alternatively, CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS may be obtained via the pkg-config
    49  tool using a '#cgo pkg-config:' directive followed by the package names.
    50  For example:
    51  
    52  	// #cgo pkg-config: png cairo
    53  	// #include <png.h>
    54  	import "C"
    55  
    56  The default pkg-config tool may be changed by setting the PKG_CONFIG environment variable.
    57  
    58  When building, the CGO_CFLAGS, CGO_CPPFLAGS, CGO_CXXFLAGS, CGO_FFLAGS and
    59  CGO_LDFLAGS environment variables are added to the flags derived from
    60  these directives. Package-specific flags should be set using the
    61  directives, not the environment variables, so that builds work in
    62  unmodified environments.
    63  
    64  All the cgo CPPFLAGS and CFLAGS directives in a package are concatenated and
    65  used to compile C files in that package. All the CPPFLAGS and CXXFLAGS
    66  directives in a package are concatenated and used to compile C++ files in that
    67  package. All the CPPFLAGS and FFLAGS directives in a package are concatenated
    68  and used to compile Fortran files in that package. All the LDFLAGS directives
    69  in any package in the program are concatenated and used at link time. All the
    70  pkg-config directives are concatenated and sent to pkg-config simultaneously
    71  to add to each appropriate set of command-line flags.
    72  
    73  When the cgo directives are parsed, any occurrence of the string ${SRCDIR}
    74  will be replaced by the absolute path to the directory containing the source
    75  file. This allows pre-compiled static libraries to be included in the package
    76  directory and linked properly.
    77  For example if package foo is in the directory /go/src/foo:
    78  
    79         // #cgo LDFLAGS: -L${SRCDIR}/libs -lfoo
    80  
    81  Will be expanded to:
    82  
    83         // #cgo LDFLAGS: -L/go/src/foo/libs -lfoo
    84  
    85  When the Go tool sees that one or more Go files use the special import
    86  "C", it will look for other non-Go files in the directory and compile
    87  them as part of the Go package. Any .c, .s, or .S files will be
    88  compiled with the C compiler. Any .cc, .cpp, or .cxx files will be
    89  compiled with the C++ compiler. Any .f, .F, .for or .f90 files will be
    90  compiled with the fortran compiler. Any .h, .hh, .hpp, or .hxx files will
    91  not be compiled separately, but, if these header files are changed,
    92  the C and C++ files will be recompiled. The default C and C++
    93  compilers may be changed by the CC and CXX environment variables,
    94  respectively; those environment variables may include command line
    95  options.
    96  
    97  The cgo tool is enabled by default for native builds on systems where
    98  it is expected to work. It is disabled by default when
    99  cross-compiling. You can control this by setting the CGO_ENABLED
   100  environment variable when running the go tool: set it to 1 to enable
   101  the use of cgo, and to 0 to disable it. The go tool will set the
   102  build constraint "cgo" if cgo is enabled.
   103  
   104  When cross-compiling, you must specify a C cross-compiler for cgo to
   105  use. You can do this by setting the CC_FOR_TARGET environment
   106  variable when building the toolchain using make.bash, or by setting
   107  the CC environment variable any time you run the go tool. The
   108  CXX_FOR_TARGET and CXX environment variables work in a similar way for
   109  C++ code.
   110  
   111  Go references to C
   112  
   113  Within the Go file, C's struct field names that are keywords in Go
   114  can be accessed by prefixing them with an underscore: if x points at a C
   115  struct with a field named "type", x._type accesses the field.
   116  C struct fields that cannot be expressed in Go, such as bit fields
   117  or misaligned data, are omitted in the Go struct, replaced by
   118  appropriate padding to reach the next field or the end of the struct.
   119  
   120  The standard C numeric types are available under the names
   121  C.char, C.schar (signed char), C.uchar (unsigned char),
   122  C.short, C.ushort (unsigned short), C.int, C.uint (unsigned int),
   123  C.long, C.ulong (unsigned long), C.longlong (long long),
   124  C.ulonglong (unsigned long long), C.float, C.double,
   125  C.complexfloat (complex float), and C.complexdouble (complex double).
   126  The C type void* is represented by Go's unsafe.Pointer.
   127  The C types __int128_t and __uint128_t are represented by [16]byte.
   128  
   129  To access a struct, union, or enum type directly, prefix it with
   130  struct_, union_, or enum_, as in C.struct_stat.
   131  
   132  The size of any C type T is available as C.sizeof_T, as in
   133  C.sizeof_struct_stat.
   134  
   135  As Go doesn't have support for C's union type in the general case,
   136  C's union types are represented as a Go byte array with the same length.
   137  
   138  Go structs cannot embed fields with C types.
   139  
   140  Go code cannot refer to zero-sized fields that occur at the end of
   141  non-empty C structs. To get the address of such a field (which is the
   142  only operation you can do with a zero-sized field) you must take the
   143  address of the struct and add the size of the struct.
   144  
   145  Cgo translates C types into equivalent unexported Go types.
   146  Because the translations are unexported, a Go package should not
   147  expose C types in its exported API: a C type used in one Go package
   148  is different from the same C type used in another.
   149  
   150  Any C function (even void functions) may be called in a multiple
   151  assignment context to retrieve both the return value (if any) and the
   152  C errno variable as an error (use _ to skip the result value if the
   153  function returns void). For example:
   154  
   155  	n, err = C.sqrt(-1)
   156  	_, err := C.voidFunc()
   157  	var n, err = C.sqrt(1)
   158  
   159  Calling C function pointers is currently not supported, however you can
   160  declare Go variables which hold C function pointers and pass them
   161  back and forth between Go and C. C code may call function pointers
   162  received from Go. For example:
   163  
   164  	package main
   165  
   166  	// typedef int (*intFunc) ();
   167  	//
   168  	// int
   169  	// bridge_int_func(intFunc f)
   170  	// {
   171  	//		return f();
   172  	// }
   173  	//
   174  	// int fortytwo()
   175  	// {
   176  	//	    return 42;
   177  	// }
   178  	import "C"
   179  	import "fmt"
   180  
   181  	func main() {
   182  		f := C.intFunc(C.fortytwo)
   183  		fmt.Println(int(C.bridge_int_func(f)))
   184  		// Output: 42
   185  	}
   186  
   187  In C, a function argument written as a fixed size array
   188  actually requires a pointer to the first element of the array.
   189  C compilers are aware of this calling convention and adjust
   190  the call accordingly, but Go cannot. In Go, you must pass
   191  the pointer to the first element explicitly: C.f(&C.x[0]).
   192  
   193  A few special functions convert between Go and C types
   194  by making copies of the data. In pseudo-Go definitions:
   195  
   196  	// Go string to C string
   197  	// The C string is allocated in the C heap using malloc.
   198  	// It is the caller's responsibility to arrange for it to be
   199  	// freed, such as by calling C.free (be sure to include stdlib.h
   200  	// if C.free is needed).
   201  	func C.CString(string) *C.char
   202  
   203  	// Go []byte slice to C array
   204  	// The C array is allocated in the C heap using malloc.
   205  	// It is the caller's responsibility to arrange for it to be
   206  	// freed, such as by calling C.free (be sure to include stdlib.h
   207  	// if C.free is needed).
   208  	func C.CBytes([]byte) unsafe.Pointer
   209  
   210  	// C string to Go string
   211  	func C.GoString(*C.char) string
   212  
   213  	// C data with explicit length to Go string
   214  	func C.GoStringN(*C.char, C.int) string
   215  
   216  	// C data with explicit length to Go []byte
   217  	func C.GoBytes(unsafe.Pointer, C.int) []byte
   218  
   219  As a special case, C.malloc does not call the C library malloc directly
   220  but instead calls a Go helper function that wraps the C library malloc
   221  but guarantees never to return nil. If C's malloc indicates out of memory,
   222  the helper function crashes the program, like when Go itself runs out
   223  of memory. Because C.malloc cannot fail, it has no two-result form
   224  that returns errno.
   225  
   226  C references to Go
   227  
   228  Go functions can be exported for use by C code in the following way:
   229  
   230  	//export MyFunction
   231  	func MyFunction(arg1, arg2 int, arg3 string) int64 {...}
   232  
   233  	//export MyFunction2
   234  	func MyFunction2(arg1, arg2 int, arg3 string) (int64, *C.char) {...}
   235  
   236  They will be available in the C code as:
   237  
   238  	extern int64 MyFunction(int arg1, int arg2, GoString arg3);
   239  	extern struct MyFunction2_return MyFunction2(int arg1, int arg2, GoString arg3);
   240  
   241  found in the _cgo_export.h generated header, after any preambles
   242  copied from the cgo input files. Functions with multiple
   243  return values are mapped to functions returning a struct.
   244  Not all Go types can be mapped to C types in a useful way.
   245  
   246  Using //export in a file places a restriction on the preamble:
   247  since it is copied into two different C output files, it must not
   248  contain any definitions, only declarations. If a file contains both
   249  definitions and declarations, then the two output files will produce
   250  duplicate symbols and the linker will fail. To avoid this, definitions
   251  must be placed in preambles in other files, or in C source files.
   252  
   253  Passing pointers
   254  
   255  Go is a garbage collected language, and the garbage collector needs to
   256  know the location of every pointer to Go memory. Because of this,
   257  there are restrictions on passing pointers between Go and C.
   258  
   259  In this section the term Go pointer means a pointer to memory
   260  allocated by Go (such as by using the & operator or calling the
   261  predefined new function) and the term C pointer means a pointer to
   262  memory allocated by C (such as by a call to C.malloc). Whether a
   263  pointer is a Go pointer or a C pointer is a dynamic property
   264  determined by how the memory was allocated; it has nothing to do with
   265  the type of the pointer.
   266  
   267  Go code may pass a Go pointer to C provided the Go memory to which it
   268  points does not contain any Go pointers. The C code must preserve
   269  this property: it must not store any Go pointers in Go memory, even
   270  temporarily. When passing a pointer to a field in a struct, the Go
   271  memory in question is the memory occupied by the field, not the entire
   272  struct. When passing a pointer to an element in an array or slice,
   273  the Go memory in question is the entire array or the entire backing
   274  array of the slice.
   275  
   276  C code may not keep a copy of a Go pointer after the call returns.
   277  
   278  A Go function called by C code may not return a Go pointer. A Go
   279  function called by C code may take C pointers as arguments, and it may
   280  store non-pointer or C pointer data through those pointers, but it may
   281  not store a Go pointer in memory pointed to by a C pointer. A Go
   282  function called by C code may take a Go pointer as an argument, but it
   283  must preserve the property that the Go memory to which it points does
   284  not contain any Go pointers.
   285  
   286  Go code may not store a Go pointer in C memory. C code may store Go
   287  pointers in C memory, subject to the rule above: it must stop storing
   288  the Go pointer when the C function returns.
   289  
   290  These rules are checked dynamically at runtime. The checking is
   291  controlled by the cgocheck setting of the GODEBUG environment
   292  variable. The default setting is GODEBUG=cgocheck=1, which implements
   293  reasonably cheap dynamic checks. These checks may be disabled
   294  entirely using GODEBUG=cgocheck=0. Complete checking of pointer
   295  handling, at some cost in run time, is available via GODEBUG=cgocheck=2.
   296  
   297  It is possible to defeat this enforcement by using the unsafe package,
   298  and of course there is nothing stopping the C code from doing anything
   299  it likes. However, programs that break these rules are likely to fail
   300  in unexpected and unpredictable ways.
   301  
   302  Using cgo directly
   303  
   304  Usage:
   305  	go tool cgo [cgo options] [-- compiler options] gofiles...
   306  
   307  Cgo transforms the specified input Go source files into several output
   308  Go and C source files.
   309  
   310  The compiler options are passed through uninterpreted when
   311  invoking the C compiler to compile the C parts of the package.
   312  
   313  The following options are available when running cgo directly:
   314  
   315  	-dynimport file
   316  		Write list of symbols imported by file. Write to
   317  		-dynout argument or to standard output. Used by go
   318  		build when building a cgo package.
   319  	-dynout file
   320  		Write -dynimport output to file.
   321  	-dynpackage package
   322  		Set Go package for -dynimport output.
   323  	-dynlinker
   324  		Write dynamic linker as part of -dynimport output.
   325  	-godefs
   326  		Write out input file in Go syntax replacing C package
   327  		names with real values. Used to generate files in the
   328  		syscall package when bootstrapping a new target.
   329  	-srcdir directory
   330  		Find the Go input files, listed on the command line,
   331  		in directory.
   332  	-objdir directory
   333  		Put all generated files in directory.
   334  	-importpath string
   335  		The import path for the Go package. Optional; used for
   336  		nicer comments in the generated files.
   337  	-exportheader file
   338  		If there are any exported functions, write the
   339  		generated export declarations to file.
   340  		C code can #include this to see the declarations.
   341  	-gccgo
   342  		Generate output for the gccgo compiler rather than the
   343  		gc compiler.
   344  	-gccgoprefix prefix
   345  		The -fgo-prefix option to be used with gccgo.
   346  	-gccgopkgpath path
   347  		The -fgo-pkgpath option to be used with gccgo.
   348  	-import_runtime_cgo
   349  		If set (which it is by default) import runtime/cgo in
   350  		generated output.
   351  	-import_syscall
   352  		If set (which it is by default) import syscall in
   353  		generated output.
   354  	-debug-define
   355  		Debugging option. Print #defines.
   356  	-debug-gcc
   357  		Debugging option. Trace C compiler execution and output.
   358  */
   359  package main
   360  
   361  /*
   362  Implementation details.
   363  
   364  Cgo provides a way for Go programs to call C code linked into the same
   365  address space. This comment explains the operation of cgo.
   366  
   367  Cgo reads a set of Go source files and looks for statements saying
   368  import "C". If the import has a doc comment, that comment is
   369  taken as literal C code to be used as a preamble to any C code
   370  generated by cgo. A typical preamble #includes necessary definitions:
   371  
   372  	// #include <stdio.h>
   373  	import "C"
   374  
   375  For more details about the usage of cgo, see the documentation
   376  comment at the top of this file.
   377  
   378  Understanding C
   379  
   380  Cgo scans the Go source files that import "C" for uses of that
   381  package, such as C.puts. It collects all such identifiers. The next
   382  step is to determine each kind of name. In C.xxx the xxx might refer
   383  to a type, a function, a constant, or a global variable. Cgo must
   384  decide which.
   385  
   386  The obvious thing for cgo to do is to process the preamble, expanding
   387  #includes and processing the corresponding C code. That would require
   388  a full C parser and type checker that was also aware of any extensions
   389  known to the system compiler (for example, all the GNU C extensions) as
   390  well as the system-specific header locations and system-specific
   391  pre-#defined macros. This is certainly possible to do, but it is an
   392  enormous amount of work.
   393  
   394  Cgo takes a different approach. It determines the meaning of C
   395  identifiers not by parsing C code but by feeding carefully constructed
   396  programs into the system C compiler and interpreting the generated
   397  error messages, debug information, and object files. In practice,
   398  parsing these is significantly less work and more robust than parsing
   399  C source.
   400  
   401  Cgo first invokes gcc -E -dM on the preamble, in order to find out
   402  about simple #defines for constants and the like. These are recorded
   403  for later use.
   404  
   405  Next, cgo needs to identify the kinds for each identifier. For the
   406  identifiers C.foo and C.bar, cgo generates this C program:
   407  
   408  	<preamble>
   409  	#line 1 "not-declared"
   410  	void __cgo_f_xxx_1(void) { __typeof__(foo) *__cgo_undefined__; }
   411  	#line 1 "not-type"
   412  	void __cgo_f_xxx_2(void) { foo *__cgo_undefined__; }
   413  	#line 1 "not-const"
   414  	void __cgo_f_xxx_3(void) { enum { __cgo_undefined__ = (foo)*1 }; }
   415  	#line 2 "not-declared"
   416  	void __cgo_f_xxx_1(void) { __typeof__(bar) *__cgo_undefined__; }
   417  	#line 2 "not-type"
   418  	void __cgo_f_xxx_2(void) { bar *__cgo_undefined__; }
   419  	#line 2 "not-const"
   420  	void __cgo_f_xxx_3(void) { enum { __cgo_undefined__ = (bar)*1 }; }
   421  
   422  This program will not compile, but cgo can use the presence or absence
   423  of an error message on a given line to deduce the information it
   424  needs. The program is syntactically valid regardless of whether each
   425  name is a type or an ordinary identifier, so there will be no syntax
   426  errors that might stop parsing early.
   427  
   428  An error on not-declared:1 indicates that foo is undeclared.
   429  An error on not-type:1 indicates that foo is not a type (if declared at all, it is an identifier).
   430  An error on not-const:1 indicates that foo is not an integer constant.
   431  
   432  The line number specifies the name involved. In the example, 1 is foo and 2 is bar.
   433  
   434  Next, cgo must learn the details of each type, variable, function, or
   435  constant. It can do this by reading object files. If cgo has decided
   436  that t1 is a type, v2 and v3 are variables or functions, and c4, c5,
   437  and c6 are constants, it generates:
   438  
   439  	<preamble>
   440  	__typeof__(t1) *__cgo__1;
   441  	__typeof__(v2) *__cgo__2;
   442  	__typeof__(v3) *__cgo__3;
   443  	__typeof__(c4) *__cgo__4;
   444  	enum { __cgo_enum__4 = c4 };
   445  	__typeof__(c5) *__cgo__5;
   446  	enum { __cgo_enum__5 = c5 };
   447  	__typeof__(c6) *__cgo__6;
   448  	enum { __cgo_enum__6 = c6 };
   449  
   450  	long long __cgo_debug_data[] = {
   451  		0, // t1
   452  		0, // v2
   453  		0, // v3
   454  		c4,
   455  		c5,
   456  		c6,
   457  		1
   458  	};
   459  
   460  and again invokes the system C compiler, to produce an object file
   461  containing debug information. Cgo parses the DWARF debug information
   462  for __cgo__N to learn the type of each identifier. (The types also
   463  distinguish functions from global variables.) If using a standard gcc,
   464  cgo can parse the DWARF debug information for the __cgo_enum__N to
   465  learn the identifier's value. The LLVM-based gcc on OS X emits
   466  incomplete DWARF information for enums; in that case cgo reads the
   467  constant values from the __cgo_debug_data from the object file's data
   468  segment.
   469  
   470  At this point cgo knows the meaning of each C.xxx well enough to start
   471  the translation process.
   472  
   473  Translating Go
   474  
   475  Given the input Go files x.go and y.go, cgo generates these source
   476  files:
   477  
   478  	x.cgo1.go       # for gc (cmd/compile)
   479  	y.cgo1.go       # for gc
   480  	_cgo_gotypes.go # for gc
   481  	_cgo_import.go  # for gc (if -dynout _cgo_import.go)
   482  	x.cgo2.c        # for gcc
   483  	y.cgo2.c        # for gcc
   484  	_cgo_defun.c    # for gcc (if -gccgo)
   485  	_cgo_export.c   # for gcc
   486  	_cgo_export.h   # for gcc
   487  	_cgo_main.c     # for gcc
   488  	_cgo_flags      # for alternative build tools
   489  
   490  The file x.cgo1.go is a copy of x.go with the import "C" removed and
   491  references to C.xxx replaced with names like _Cfunc_xxx or _Ctype_xxx.
   492  The definitions of those identifiers, written as Go functions, types,
   493  or variables, are provided in _cgo_gotypes.go.
   494  
   495  Here is a _cgo_gotypes.go containing definitions for needed C types:
   496  
   497  	type _Ctype_char int8
   498  	type _Ctype_int int32
   499  	type _Ctype_void [0]byte
   500  
   501  The _cgo_gotypes.go file also contains the definitions of the
   502  functions. They all have similar bodies that invoke runtime·cgocall
   503  to make a switch from the Go runtime world to the system C (GCC-based)
   504  world.
   505  
   506  For example, here is the definition of _Cfunc_puts:
   507  
   508  	//go:cgo_import_static _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts
   509  	//go:linkname __cgofn__cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts
   510  	var __cgofn__cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts byte
   511  	var _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts = unsafe.Pointer(&__cgofn__cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts)
   512  
   513  	func _Cfunc_puts(p0 *_Ctype_char) (r1 _Ctype_int) {
   514  		_cgo_runtime_cgocall(_cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts, uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&p0)))
   515  		return
   516  	}
   517  
   518  The hexadecimal number is a hash of cgo's input, chosen to be
   519  deterministic yet unlikely to collide with other uses. The actual
   520  function _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts is implemented in a C source
   521  file compiled by gcc, the file x.cgo2.c:
   522  
   523  	void
   524  	_cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts(void *v)
   525  	{
   526  		struct {
   527  			char* p0;
   528  			int r;
   529  			char __pad12[4];
   530  		} __attribute__((__packed__, __gcc_struct__)) *a = v;
   531  		a->r = puts((void*)a->p0);
   532  	}
   533  
   534  It extracts the arguments from the pointer to _Cfunc_puts's argument
   535  frame, invokes the system C function (in this case, puts), stores the
   536  result in the frame, and returns.
   537  
   538  Linking
   539  
   540  Once the _cgo_export.c and *.cgo2.c files have been compiled with gcc,
   541  they need to be linked into the final binary, along with the libraries
   542  they might depend on (in the case of puts, stdio). cmd/link has been
   543  extended to understand basic ELF files, but it does not understand ELF
   544  in the full complexity that modern C libraries embrace, so it cannot
   545  in general generate direct references to the system libraries.
   546  
   547  Instead, the build process generates an object file using dynamic
   548  linkage to the desired libraries. The main function is provided by
   549  _cgo_main.c:
   550  
   551  	int main() { return 0; }
   552  	void crosscall2(void(*fn)(void*, int, uintptr_t), void *a, int c, uintptr_t ctxt) { }
   553  	uintptr_t _cgo_wait_runtime_init_done() { }
   554  	void _cgo_allocate(void *a, int c) { }
   555  	void _cgo_panic(void *a, int c) { }
   556  
   557  The extra functions here are stubs to satisfy the references in the C
   558  code generated for gcc. The build process links this stub, along with
   559  _cgo_export.c and *.cgo2.c, into a dynamic executable and then lets
   560  cgo examine the executable. Cgo records the list of shared library
   561  references and resolved names and writes them into a new file
   562  _cgo_import.go, which looks like:
   563  
   564  	//go:cgo_dynamic_linker "/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2"
   565  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic puts puts#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6"
   566  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic __libc_start_main __libc_start_main#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6"
   567  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic stdout stdout#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6"
   568  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic fflush fflush#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6"
   569  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic _ _ "libpthread.so.0"
   570  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic _ _ "libc.so.6"
   571  
   572  In the end, the compiled Go package, which will eventually be
   573  presented to cmd/link as part of a larger program, contains:
   574  
   575  	_go_.o        # gc-compiled object for _cgo_gotypes.go, _cgo_import.go, *.cgo1.go
   576  	_all.o        # gcc-compiled object for _cgo_export.c, *.cgo2.c
   577  
   578  The final program will be a dynamic executable, so that cmd/link can avoid
   579  needing to process arbitrary .o files. It only needs to process the .o
   580  files generated from C files that cgo writes, and those are much more
   581  limited in the ELF or other features that they use.
   582  
   583  In essence, the _cgo_import.o file includes the extra linking
   584  directives that cmd/link is not sophisticated enough to derive from _all.o
   585  on its own. Similarly, the _all.o uses dynamic references to real
   586  system object code because cmd/link is not sophisticated enough to process
   587  the real code.
   588  
   589  The main benefits of this system are that cmd/link remains relatively simple
   590  (it does not need to implement a complete ELF and Mach-O linker) and
   591  that gcc is not needed after the package is compiled. For example,
   592  package net uses cgo for access to name resolution functions provided
   593  by libc. Although gcc is needed to compile package net, gcc is not
   594  needed to link programs that import package net.
   595  
   596  Runtime
   597  
   598  When using cgo, Go must not assume that it owns all details of the
   599  process. In particular it needs to coordinate with C in the use of
   600  threads and thread-local storage. The runtime package declares a few
   601  variables:
   602  
   603  	var (
   604  		iscgo             bool
   605  		_cgo_init         unsafe.Pointer
   606  		_cgo_thread_start unsafe.Pointer
   607  	)
   608  
   609  Any package using cgo imports "runtime/cgo", which provides
   610  initializations for these variables. It sets iscgo to true, _cgo_init
   611  to a gcc-compiled function that can be called early during program
   612  startup, and _cgo_thread_start to a gcc-compiled function that can be
   613  used to create a new thread, in place of the runtime's usual direct
   614  system calls.
   615  
   616  Internal and External Linking
   617  
   618  The text above describes "internal" linking, in which cmd/link parses and
   619  links host object files (ELF, Mach-O, PE, and so on) into the final
   620  executable itself. Keeping cmd/link simple means we cannot possibly
   621  implement the full semantics of the host linker, so the kinds of
   622  objects that can be linked directly into the binary is limited (other
   623  code can only be used as a dynamic library). On the other hand, when
   624  using internal linking, cmd/link can generate Go binaries by itself.
   625  
   626  In order to allow linking arbitrary object files without requiring
   627  dynamic libraries, cgo supports an "external" linking mode too. In
   628  external linking mode, cmd/link does not process any host object files.
   629  Instead, it collects all the Go code and writes a single go.o object
   630  file containing it. Then it invokes the host linker (usually gcc) to
   631  combine the go.o object file and any supporting non-Go code into a
   632  final executable. External linking avoids the dynamic library
   633  requirement but introduces a requirement that the host linker be
   634  present to create such a binary.
   635  
   636  Most builds both compile source code and invoke the linker to create a
   637  binary. When cgo is involved, the compile step already requires gcc, so
   638  it is not problematic for the link step to require gcc too.
   639  
   640  An important exception is builds using a pre-compiled copy of the
   641  standard library. In particular, package net uses cgo on most systems,
   642  and we want to preserve the ability to compile pure Go code that
   643  imports net without requiring gcc to be present at link time. (In this
   644  case, the dynamic library requirement is less significant, because the
   645  only library involved is libc.so, which can usually be assumed
   646  present.)
   647  
   648  This conflict between functionality and the gcc requirement means we
   649  must support both internal and external linking, depending on the
   650  circumstances: if net is the only cgo-using package, then internal
   651  linking is probably fine, but if other packages are involved, so that there
   652  are dependencies on libraries beyond libc, external linking is likely
   653  to work better. The compilation of a package records the relevant
   654  information to support both linking modes, leaving the decision
   655  to be made when linking the final binary.
   656  
   657  Linking Directives
   658  
   659  In either linking mode, package-specific directives must be passed
   660  through to cmd/link. These are communicated by writing //go: directives in a
   661  Go source file compiled by gc. The directives are copied into the .o
   662  object file and then processed by the linker.
   663  
   664  The directives are:
   665  
   666  //go:cgo_import_dynamic <local> [<remote> ["<library>"]]
   667  
   668  	In internal linking mode, allow an unresolved reference to
   669  	<local>, assuming it will be resolved by a dynamic library
   670  	symbol. The optional <remote> specifies the symbol's name and
   671  	possibly version in the dynamic library, and the optional "<library>"
   672  	names the specific library where the symbol should be found.
   673  
   674  	In the <remote>, # or @ can be used to introduce a symbol version.
   675  
   676  	Examples:
   677  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic puts
   678  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic puts puts#GLIBC_2.2.5
   679  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic puts puts#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6"
   680  
   681  	A side effect of the cgo_import_dynamic directive with a
   682  	library is to make the final binary depend on that dynamic
   683  	library. To get the dependency without importing any specific
   684  	symbols, use _ for local and remote.
   685  
   686  	Example:
   687  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic _ _ "libc.so.6"
   688  
   689  	For compatibility with current versions of SWIG,
   690  	#pragma dynimport is an alias for //go:cgo_import_dynamic.
   691  
   692  //go:cgo_dynamic_linker "<path>"
   693  
   694  	In internal linking mode, use "<path>" as the dynamic linker
   695  	in the final binary. This directive is only needed from one
   696  	package when constructing a binary; by convention it is
   697  	supplied by runtime/cgo.
   698  
   699  	Example:
   700  	//go:cgo_dynamic_linker "/lib/ld-linux.so.2"
   701  
   702  //go:cgo_export_dynamic <local> <remote>
   703  
   704  	In internal linking mode, put the Go symbol
   705  	named <local> into the program's exported symbol table as
   706  	<remote>, so that C code can refer to it by that name. This
   707  	mechanism makes it possible for C code to call back into Go or
   708  	to share Go's data.
   709  
   710  	For compatibility with current versions of SWIG,
   711  	#pragma dynexport is an alias for //go:cgo_export_dynamic.
   712  
   713  //go:cgo_import_static <local>
   714  
   715  	In external linking mode, allow unresolved references to
   716  	<local> in the go.o object file prepared for the host linker,
   717  	under the assumption that <local> will be supplied by the
   718  	other object files that will be linked with go.o.
   719  
   720  	Example:
   721  	//go:cgo_import_static puts_wrapper
   722  
   723  //go:cgo_export_static <local> <remote>
   724  
   725  	In external linking mode, put the Go symbol
   726  	named <local> into the program's exported symbol table as
   727  	<remote>, so that C code can refer to it by that name. This
   728  	mechanism makes it possible for C code to call back into Go or
   729  	to share Go's data.
   730  
   731  //go:cgo_ldflag "<arg>"
   732  
   733  	In external linking mode, invoke the host linker (usually gcc)
   734  	with "<arg>" as a command-line argument following the .o files.
   735  	Note that the arguments are for "gcc", not "ld".
   736  
   737  	Example:
   738  	//go:cgo_ldflag "-lpthread"
   739  	//go:cgo_ldflag "-L/usr/local/sqlite3/lib"
   740  
   741  A package compiled with cgo will include directives for both
   742  internal and external linking; the linker will select the appropriate
   743  subset for the chosen linking mode.
   744  
   745  Example
   746  
   747  As a simple example, consider a package that uses cgo to call C.sin.
   748  The following code will be generated by cgo:
   749  
   750  	// compiled by gc
   751  
   752  	//go:cgo_ldflag "-lm"
   753  
   754  	type _Ctype_double float64
   755  
   756  	//go:cgo_import_static _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin
   757  	//go:linkname __cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin
   758  	var __cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin byte
   759  	var _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin = unsafe.Pointer(&__cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin)
   760  
   761  	func _Cfunc_sin(p0 _Ctype_double) (r1 _Ctype_double) {
   762  		_cgo_runtime_cgocall(_cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin, uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&p0)))
   763  		return
   764  	}
   765  
   766  	// compiled by gcc, into foo.cgo2.o
   767  
   768  	void
   769  	_cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin(void *v)
   770  	{
   771  		struct {
   772  			double p0;
   773  			double r;
   774  		} __attribute__((__packed__)) *a = v;
   775  		a->r = sin(a->p0);
   776  	}
   777  
   778  What happens at link time depends on whether the final binary is linked
   779  using the internal or external mode. If other packages are compiled in
   780  "external only" mode, then the final link will be an external one.
   781  Otherwise the link will be an internal one.
   782  
   783  The linking directives are used according to the kind of final link
   784  used.
   785  
   786  In internal mode, cmd/link itself processes all the host object files, in
   787  particular foo.cgo2.o. To do so, it uses the cgo_import_dynamic and
   788  cgo_dynamic_linker directives to learn that the otherwise undefined
   789  reference to sin in foo.cgo2.o should be rewritten to refer to the
   790  symbol sin with version GLIBC_2.2.5 from the dynamic library
   791  "libm.so.6", and the binary should request "/lib/ld-linux.so.2" as its
   792  runtime dynamic linker.
   793  
   794  In external mode, cmd/link does not process any host object files, in
   795  particular foo.cgo2.o. It links together the gc-generated object
   796  files, along with any other Go code, into a go.o file. While doing
   797  that, cmd/link will discover that there is no definition for
   798  _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin, referred to by the gc-compiled source file. This
   799  is okay, because cmd/link also processes the cgo_import_static directive and
   800  knows that _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin is expected to be supplied by a host
   801  object file, so cmd/link does not treat the missing symbol as an error when
   802  creating go.o. Indeed, the definition for _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin will be
   803  provided to the host linker by foo2.cgo.o, which in turn will need the
   804  symbol 'sin'. cmd/link also processes the cgo_ldflag directives, so that it
   805  knows that the eventual host link command must include the -lm
   806  argument, so that the host linker will be able to find 'sin' in the
   807  math library.
   808  
   809  cmd/link Command Line Interface
   810  
   811  The go command and any other Go-aware build systems invoke cmd/link
   812  to link a collection of packages into a single binary. By default, cmd/link will
   813  present the same interface it does today:
   814  
   815  	cmd/link main.a
   816  
   817  produces a file named a.out, even if cmd/link does so by invoking the host
   818  linker in external linking mode.
   819  
   820  By default, cmd/link will decide the linking mode as follows: if the only
   821  packages using cgo are those on a whitelist of standard library
   822  packages (net, os/user, runtime/cgo), cmd/link will use internal linking
   823  mode. Otherwise, there are non-standard cgo packages involved, and cmd/link
   824  will use external linking mode. The first rule means that a build of
   825  the godoc binary, which uses net but no other cgo, can run without
   826  needing gcc available. The second rule means that a build of a
   827  cgo-wrapped library like sqlite3 can generate a standalone executable
   828  instead of needing to refer to a dynamic library. The specific choice
   829  can be overridden using a command line flag: cmd/link -linkmode=internal or
   830  cmd/link -linkmode=external.
   831  
   832  In an external link, cmd/link will create a temporary directory, write any
   833  host object files found in package archives to that directory (renamed
   834  to avoid conflicts), write the go.o file to that directory, and invoke
   835  the host linker. The default value for the host linker is $CC, split
   836  into fields, or else "gcc". The specific host linker command line can
   837  be overridden using command line flags: cmd/link -extld=clang
   838  -extldflags='-ggdb -O3'. If any package in a build includes a .cc or
   839  other file compiled by the C++ compiler, the go tool will use the
   840  -extld option to set the host linker to the C++ compiler.
   841  
   842  These defaults mean that Go-aware build systems can ignore the linking
   843  changes and keep running plain 'cmd/link' and get reasonable results, but
   844  they can also control the linking details if desired.
   845  
   846  */