github.com/fjballest/golang@v0.0.0-20151209143359-e4c5fe594ca8/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 and LDFLAGS may be defined with pseudo #cgo
    35  directives within these comments to tweak the behavior of the C or C++
    36  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  When building, the CGO_CFLAGS, CGO_CPPFLAGS, CGO_CXXFLAGS and
    57  CGO_LDFLAGS environment variables are added to the flags derived from
    58  these directives.  Package-specific flags should be set using the
    59  directives, not the environment variables, so that builds work in
    60  unmodified environments.
    61  
    62  All the cgo CPPFLAGS and CFLAGS directives in a package are concatenated and
    63  used to compile C files in that package.  All the CPPFLAGS and CXXFLAGS
    64  directives in a package are concatenated and used to compile C++ files in that
    65  package.  All the LDFLAGS directives in any package in the program are
    66  concatenated and used at link time.  All the pkg-config directives are
    67  concatenated and sent to pkg-config simultaneously to add to each appropriate
    68  set of command-line flags.
    69  
    70  When the cgo directives are parsed, any occurrence of the string ${SRCDIR}
    71  will be replaced by the absolute path to the directory containing the source
    72  file. This allows pre-compiled static libraries to be included in the package
    73  directory and linked properly.
    74  For example if package foo is in the directory /go/src/foo:
    75  
    76         // #cgo LDFLAGS: -L${SRCDIR}/libs -lfoo
    77  
    78  Will be expanded to:
    79  
    80         // #cgo LDFLAGS: -L/go/src/foo/libs -lfoo
    81  
    82  When the Go tool sees that one or more Go files use the special import
    83  "C", it will look for other non-Go files in the directory and compile
    84  them as part of the Go package.  Any .c, .s, or .S files will be
    85  compiled with the C compiler.  Any .cc, .cpp, or .cxx files will be
    86  compiled with the C++ compiler.  Any .h, .hh, .hpp, or .hxx files will
    87  not be compiled separately, but, if these header files are changed,
    88  the C and C++ files will be recompiled.  The default C and C++
    89  compilers may be changed by the CC and CXX environment variables,
    90  respectively; those environment variables may include command line
    91  options.
    92  
    93  The cgo tool is enabled by default for native builds on systems where
    94  it is expected to work.  It is disabled by default when
    95  cross-compiling.  You can control this by setting the CGO_ENABLED
    96  environment variable when running the go tool: set it to 1 to enable
    97  the use of cgo, and to 0 to disable it.  The go tool will set the
    98  build constraint "cgo" if cgo is enabled.
    99  
   100  When cross-compiling, you must specify a C cross-compiler for cgo to
   101  use.  You can do this by setting the CC_FOR_TARGET environment
   102  variable when building the toolchain using make.bash, or by setting
   103  the CC environment variable any time you run the go tool.  The
   104  CXX_FOR_TARGET and CXX environment variables work in a similar way for
   105  C++ code.
   106  
   107  Go references to C
   108  
   109  Within the Go file, C's struct field names that are keywords in Go
   110  can be accessed by prefixing them with an underscore: if x points at a C
   111  struct with a field named "type", x._type accesses the field.
   112  C struct fields that cannot be expressed in Go, such as bit fields
   113  or misaligned data, are omitted in the Go struct, replaced by
   114  appropriate padding to reach the next field or the end of the struct.
   115  
   116  The standard C numeric types are available under the names
   117  C.char, C.schar (signed char), C.uchar (unsigned char),
   118  C.short, C.ushort (unsigned short), C.int, C.uint (unsigned int),
   119  C.long, C.ulong (unsigned long), C.longlong (long long),
   120  C.ulonglong (unsigned long long), C.float, C.double,
   121  C.complexfloat (complex float), and C.complexdouble (complex double).
   122  The C type void* is represented by Go's unsafe.Pointer.
   123  The C types __int128_t and __uint128_t are represented by [16]byte.
   124  
   125  To access a struct, union, or enum type directly, prefix it with
   126  struct_, union_, or enum_, as in C.struct_stat.
   127  
   128  As Go doesn't have support for C's union type in the general case,
   129  C's union types are represented as a Go byte array with the same length.
   130  
   131  Go structs cannot embed fields with C types.
   132  
   133  Cgo translates C types into equivalent unexported Go types.
   134  Because the translations are unexported, a Go package should not
   135  expose C types in its exported API: a C type used in one Go package
   136  is different from the same C type used in another.
   137  
   138  Any C function (even void functions) may be called in a multiple
   139  assignment context to retrieve both the return value (if any) and the
   140  C errno variable as an error (use _ to skip the result value if the
   141  function returns void).  For example:
   142  
   143  	n, err := C.sqrt(-1)
   144  	_, err := C.voidFunc()
   145  
   146  Calling C function pointers is currently not supported, however you can
   147  declare Go variables which hold C function pointers and pass them
   148  back and forth between Go and C. C code may call function pointers
   149  received from Go. For example:
   150  
   151  	package main
   152  
   153  	// typedef int (*intFunc) ();
   154  	//
   155  	// int
   156  	// bridge_int_func(intFunc f)
   157  	// {
   158  	//		return f();
   159  	// }
   160  	//
   161  	// int fortytwo()
   162  	// {
   163  	//	    return 42;
   164  	// }
   165  	import "C"
   166  	import "fmt"
   167  
   168  	func main() {
   169  		f := C.intFunc(C.fortytwo)
   170  		fmt.Println(int(C.bridge_int_func(f)))
   171  		// Output: 42
   172  	}
   173  
   174  In C, a function argument written as a fixed size array
   175  actually requires a pointer to the first element of the array.
   176  C compilers are aware of this calling convention and adjust
   177  the call accordingly, but Go cannot.  In Go, you must pass
   178  the pointer to the first element explicitly: C.f(&C.x[0]).
   179  
   180  A few special functions convert between Go and C types
   181  by making copies of the data.  In pseudo-Go definitions:
   182  
   183  	// Go string to C string
   184  	// The C string is allocated in the C heap using malloc.
   185  	// It is the caller's responsibility to arrange for it to be
   186  	// freed, such as by calling C.free (be sure to include stdlib.h
   187  	// if C.free is needed).
   188  	func C.CString(string) *C.char
   189  
   190  	// C string to Go string
   191  	func C.GoString(*C.char) string
   192  
   193  	// C data with explicit length to Go string
   194  	func C.GoStringN(*C.char, C.int) string
   195  
   196  	// C data with explicit length to Go []byte
   197  	func C.GoBytes(unsafe.Pointer, C.int) []byte
   198  
   199  C references to Go
   200  
   201  Go functions can be exported for use by C code in the following way:
   202  
   203  	//export MyFunction
   204  	func MyFunction(arg1, arg2 int, arg3 string) int64 {...}
   205  
   206  	//export MyFunction2
   207  	func MyFunction2(arg1, arg2 int, arg3 string) (int64, *C.char) {...}
   208  
   209  They will be available in the C code as:
   210  
   211  	extern int64 MyFunction(int arg1, int arg2, GoString arg3);
   212  	extern struct MyFunction2_return MyFunction2(int arg1, int arg2, GoString arg3);
   213  
   214  found in the _cgo_export.h generated header, after any preambles
   215  copied from the cgo input files. Functions with multiple
   216  return values are mapped to functions returning a struct.
   217  Not all Go types can be mapped to C types in a useful way.
   218  
   219  Using //export in a file places a restriction on the preamble:
   220  since it is copied into two different C output files, it must not
   221  contain any definitions, only declarations. If a file contains both
   222  definitions and declarations, then the two output files will produce
   223  duplicate symbols and the linker will fail. To avoid this, definitions
   224  must be placed in preambles in other files, or in C source files.
   225  
   226  Passing pointers
   227  
   228  Go is a garbage collected language, and the garbage collector needs to
   229  know the location of every pointer to Go memory.  Because of this,
   230  there are restrictions on passing pointers between Go and C.
   231  
   232  In this section the term Go pointer means a pointer to memory
   233  allocated by Go (such as by using the & operator or calling the
   234  predefined new function) and the term C pointer means a pointer to
   235  memory allocated by C (such as by a call to C.malloc).  Whether a
   236  pointer is a Go pointer or a C pointer is a dynamic property
   237  determined by how the memory was allocated; it has nothing to do with
   238  the type of the pointer.
   239  
   240  Go code may pass a Go pointer to C provided the Go memory to which it
   241  points does not contain any Go pointers.  The C code must preserve
   242  this property: it must not store any Go pointers in Go memory, even
   243  temporarily.  When passing a pointer to a field in a struct, the Go
   244  memory in question is the memory occupied by the field, not the entire
   245  struct.  When passing a pointer to an element in an array or slice,
   246  the Go memory in question is the entire array or the entire backing
   247  array of the slice.
   248  
   249  C code may not keep a copy of a Go pointer after the call returns.
   250  
   251  A Go function called by C code may not return a Go pointer.  A Go
   252  function called by C code may take C pointers as arguments, and it may
   253  store non-pointer or C pointer data through those pointers, but it may
   254  not store a Go pointer in memory pointed to by a C pointer.  A Go
   255  function called by C code may take a Go pointer as an argument, but it
   256  must preserve the property that the Go memory to which it points does
   257  not contain any Go pointers.
   258  
   259  Go code may not store a Go pointer in C memory.  C code may store Go
   260  pointers in C memory, subject to the rule above: it must stop storing
   261  the Go pointer when the C function returns.
   262  
   263  These rules are checked dynamically at runtime.  The checking is
   264  controlled by the cgocheck setting of the GODEBUG environment
   265  variable.  The default setting is GODEBUG=cgocheck=1, which implements
   266  reasonably cheap dynamic checks.  These checks may be disabled
   267  entirely using GODEBUG=cgocheck=0.  Complete checking of pointer
   268  handling, at some cost in run time, is available via GODEBUG=cgocheck=2.
   269  
   270  It is possible to defeat this enforcement by using the unsafe package,
   271  and of course there is nothing stopping the C code from doing anything
   272  it likes.  However, programs that break these rules are likely to fail
   273  in unexpected and unpredictable ways.
   274  
   275  Using cgo directly
   276  
   277  Usage:
   278  	go tool cgo [cgo options] [-- compiler options] gofiles...
   279  
   280  Cgo transforms the specified input Go source files into several output
   281  Go and C source files.
   282  
   283  The compiler options are passed through uninterpreted when
   284  invoking the C compiler to compile the C parts of the package.
   285  
   286  The following options are available when running cgo directly:
   287  
   288  	-dynimport file
   289  		Write list of symbols imported by file. Write to
   290  		-dynout argument or to standard output. Used by go
   291  		build when building a cgo package.
   292  	-dynout file
   293  		Write -dynimport output to file.
   294  	-dynpackage package
   295  		Set Go package for -dynimport output.
   296  	-dynlinker
   297  		Write dynamic linker as part of -dynimport output.
   298  	-godefs
   299  		Write out input file in Go syntax replacing C package
   300  		names with real values. Used to generate files in the
   301  		syscall package when bootstrapping a new target.
   302  	-objdir directory
   303  		Put all generated files in directory.
   304  	-importpath string
   305  		The import path for the Go package. Optional; used for
   306  		nicer comments in the generated files.
   307  	-exportheader file
   308  		If there are any exported functions, write the
   309  		generated export declarations to file.
   310  		C code can #include this to see the declarations.
   311  	-gccgo
   312  		Generate output for the gccgo compiler rather than the
   313  		gc compiler.
   314  	-gccgoprefix prefix
   315  		The -fgo-prefix option to be used with gccgo.
   316  	-gccgopkgpath path
   317  		The -fgo-pkgpath option to be used with gccgo.
   318  	-import_runtime_cgo
   319  		If set (which it is by default) import runtime/cgo in
   320  		generated output.
   321  	-import_syscall
   322  		If set (which it is by default) import syscall in
   323  		generated output.
   324  	-debug-define
   325  		Debugging option. Print #defines.
   326  	-debug-gcc
   327  		Debugging option. Trace C compiler execution and output.
   328  */
   329  package main
   330  
   331  /*
   332  Implementation details.
   333  
   334  Cgo provides a way for Go programs to call C code linked into the same
   335  address space. This comment explains the operation of cgo.
   336  
   337  Cgo reads a set of Go source files and looks for statements saying
   338  import "C". If the import has a doc comment, that comment is
   339  taken as literal C code to be used as a preamble to any C code
   340  generated by cgo. A typical preamble #includes necessary definitions:
   341  
   342  	// #include <stdio.h>
   343  	import "C"
   344  
   345  For more details about the usage of cgo, see the documentation
   346  comment at the top of this file.
   347  
   348  Understanding C
   349  
   350  Cgo scans the Go source files that import "C" for uses of that
   351  package, such as C.puts. It collects all such identifiers. The next
   352  step is to determine each kind of name. In C.xxx the xxx might refer
   353  to a type, a function, a constant, or a global variable. Cgo must
   354  decide which.
   355  
   356  The obvious thing for cgo to do is to process the preamble, expanding
   357  #includes and processing the corresponding C code. That would require
   358  a full C parser and type checker that was also aware of any extensions
   359  known to the system compiler (for example, all the GNU C extensions) as
   360  well as the system-specific header locations and system-specific
   361  pre-#defined macros. This is certainly possible to do, but it is an
   362  enormous amount of work.
   363  
   364  Cgo takes a different approach. It determines the meaning of C
   365  identifiers not by parsing C code but by feeding carefully constructed
   366  programs into the system C compiler and interpreting the generated
   367  error messages, debug information, and object files. In practice,
   368  parsing these is significantly less work and more robust than parsing
   369  C source.
   370  
   371  Cgo first invokes gcc -E -dM on the preamble, in order to find out
   372  about simple #defines for constants and the like. These are recorded
   373  for later use.
   374  
   375  Next, cgo needs to identify the kinds for each identifier. For the
   376  identifiers C.foo and C.bar, cgo generates this C program:
   377  
   378  	<preamble>
   379  	#line 1 "not-declared"
   380  	void __cgo_f_xxx_1(void) { __typeof__(foo) *__cgo_undefined__; }
   381  	#line 1 "not-type"
   382  	void __cgo_f_xxx_2(void) { foo *__cgo_undefined__; }
   383  	#line 1 "not-const"
   384  	void __cgo_f_xxx_3(void) { enum { __cgo_undefined__ = (foo)*1 }; }
   385  	#line 2 "not-declared"
   386  	void __cgo_f_xxx_1(void) { __typeof__(bar) *__cgo_undefined__; }
   387  	#line 2 "not-type"
   388  	void __cgo_f_xxx_2(void) { bar *__cgo_undefined__; }
   389  	#line 2 "not-const"
   390  	void __cgo_f_xxx_3(void) { enum { __cgo_undefined__ = (bar)*1 }; }
   391  
   392  This program will not compile, but cgo can use the presence or absence
   393  of an error message on a given line to deduce the information it
   394  needs. The program is syntactically valid regardless of whether each
   395  name is a type or an ordinary identifier, so there will be no syntax
   396  errors that might stop parsing early.
   397  
   398  An error on not-declared:1 indicates that foo is undeclared.
   399  An error on not-type:1 indicates that foo is not a type (if declared at all, it is an identifier).
   400  An error on not-const:1 indicates that foo is not an integer constant.
   401  
   402  The line number specifies the name involved. In the example, 1 is foo and 2 is bar.
   403  
   404  Next, cgo must learn the details of each type, variable, function, or
   405  constant. It can do this by reading object files. If cgo has decided
   406  that t1 is a type, v2 and v3 are variables or functions, and c4, c5,
   407  and c6 are constants, it generates:
   408  
   409  	<preamble>
   410  	__typeof__(t1) *__cgo__1;
   411  	__typeof__(v2) *__cgo__2;
   412  	__typeof__(v3) *__cgo__3;
   413  	__typeof__(c4) *__cgo__4;
   414  	enum { __cgo_enum__4 = c4 };
   415  	__typeof__(c5) *__cgo__5;
   416  	enum { __cgo_enum__5 = c5 };
   417  	__typeof__(c6) *__cgo__6;
   418  	enum { __cgo_enum__6 = c6 };
   419  
   420  	long long __cgo_debug_data[] = {
   421  		0, // t1
   422  		0, // v2
   423  		0, // v3
   424  		c4,
   425  		c5,
   426  		c6,
   427  		1
   428  	};
   429  
   430  and again invokes the system C compiler, to produce an object file
   431  containing debug information. Cgo parses the DWARF debug information
   432  for __cgo__N to learn the type of each identifier. (The types also
   433  distinguish functions from global variables.) If using a standard gcc,
   434  cgo can parse the DWARF debug information for the __cgo_enum__N to
   435  learn the identifier's value. The LLVM-based gcc on OS X emits
   436  incomplete DWARF information for enums; in that case cgo reads the
   437  constant values from the __cgo_debug_data from the object file's data
   438  segment.
   439  
   440  At this point cgo knows the meaning of each C.xxx well enough to start
   441  the translation process.
   442  
   443  Translating Go
   444  
   445  Given the input Go files x.go and y.go, cgo generates these source
   446  files:
   447  
   448  	x.cgo1.go       # for gc (cmd/compile)
   449  	y.cgo1.go       # for gc
   450  	_cgo_gotypes.go # for gc
   451  	_cgo_import.go  # for gc (if -dynout _cgo_import.go)
   452  	x.cgo2.c        # for gcc
   453  	y.cgo2.c        # for gcc
   454  	_cgo_defun.c    # for gcc (if -gccgo)
   455  	_cgo_export.c   # for gcc
   456  	_cgo_export.h   # for gcc
   457  	_cgo_main.c     # for gcc
   458  	_cgo_flags      # for alternative build tools
   459  
   460  The file x.cgo1.go is a copy of x.go with the import "C" removed and
   461  references to C.xxx replaced with names like _Cfunc_xxx or _Ctype_xxx.
   462  The definitions of those identifiers, written as Go functions, types,
   463  or variables, are provided in _cgo_gotypes.go.
   464  
   465  Here is a _cgo_gotypes.go containing definitions for needed C types:
   466  
   467  	type _Ctype_char int8
   468  	type _Ctype_int int32
   469  	type _Ctype_void [0]byte
   470  
   471  The _cgo_gotypes.go file also contains the definitions of the
   472  functions.  They all have similar bodies that invoke runtime·cgocall
   473  to make a switch from the Go runtime world to the system C (GCC-based)
   474  world.
   475  
   476  For example, here is the definition of _Cfunc_puts:
   477  
   478  	//go:cgo_import_static _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts
   479  	//go:linkname __cgofn__cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts
   480  	var __cgofn__cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts byte
   481  	var _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts = unsafe.Pointer(&__cgofn__cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts)
   482  
   483  	func _Cfunc_puts(p0 *_Ctype_char) (r1 _Ctype_int) {
   484  		_cgo_runtime_cgocall(_cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts, uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&p0)))
   485  		return
   486  	}
   487  
   488  The hexadecimal number is a hash of cgo's input, chosen to be
   489  deterministic yet unlikely to collide with other uses. The actual
   490  function _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts is implemented in a C source
   491  file compiled by gcc, the file x.cgo2.c:
   492  
   493  	void
   494  	_cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts(void *v)
   495  	{
   496  		_cgo_wait_runtime_init_done();
   497  		struct {
   498  			char* p0;
   499  			int r;
   500  			char __pad12[4];
   501  		} __attribute__((__packed__, __gcc_struct__)) *a = v;
   502  		a->r = puts((void*)a->p0);
   503  	}
   504  
   505  It waits for Go runtime to be initialized (required for shared libraries),
   506  extracts the arguments from the pointer to _Cfunc_puts's argument
   507  frame, invokes the system C function (in this case, puts), stores the
   508  result in the frame, and returns.
   509  
   510  Linking
   511  
   512  Once the _cgo_export.c and *.cgo2.c files have been compiled with gcc,
   513  they need to be linked into the final binary, along with the libraries
   514  they might depend on (in the case of puts, stdio). cmd/link has been
   515  extended to understand basic ELF files, but it does not understand ELF
   516  in the full complexity that modern C libraries embrace, so it cannot
   517  in general generate direct references to the system libraries.
   518  
   519  Instead, the build process generates an object file using dynamic
   520  linkage to the desired libraries. The main function is provided by
   521  _cgo_main.c:
   522  
   523  	int main() { return 0; }
   524  	void crosscall2(void(*fn)(void*, int), void *a, int c) { }
   525  	void _cgo_wait_runtime_init_done() { }
   526  	void _cgo_allocate(void *a, int c) { }
   527  	void _cgo_panic(void *a, int c) { }
   528  
   529  The extra functions here are stubs to satisfy the references in the C
   530  code generated for gcc. The build process links this stub, along with
   531  _cgo_export.c and *.cgo2.c, into a dynamic executable and then lets
   532  cgo examine the executable. Cgo records the list of shared library
   533  references and resolved names and writes them into a new file
   534  _cgo_import.go, which looks like:
   535  
   536  	//go:cgo_dynamic_linker "/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2"
   537  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic puts puts#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6"
   538  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic __libc_start_main __libc_start_main#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6"
   539  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic stdout stdout#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6"
   540  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic fflush fflush#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6"
   541  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic _ _ "libpthread.so.0"
   542  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic _ _ "libc.so.6"
   543  
   544  In the end, the compiled Go package, which will eventually be
   545  presented to cmd/link as part of a larger program, contains:
   546  
   547  	_go_.o        # gc-compiled object for _cgo_gotypes.go, _cgo_import.go, *.cgo1.go
   548  	_all.o        # gcc-compiled object for _cgo_export.c, *.cgo2.c
   549  
   550  The final program will be a dynamic executable, so that cmd/link can avoid
   551  needing to process arbitrary .o files. It only needs to process the .o
   552  files generated from C files that cgo writes, and those are much more
   553  limited in the ELF or other features that they use.
   554  
   555  In essence, the _cgo_import.o file includes the extra linking
   556  directives that cmd/link is not sophisticated enough to derive from _all.o
   557  on its own. Similarly, the _all.o uses dynamic references to real
   558  system object code because cmd/link is not sophisticated enough to process
   559  the real code.
   560  
   561  The main benefits of this system are that cmd/link remains relatively simple
   562  (it does not need to implement a complete ELF and Mach-O linker) and
   563  that gcc is not needed after the package is compiled. For example,
   564  package net uses cgo for access to name resolution functions provided
   565  by libc. Although gcc is needed to compile package net, gcc is not
   566  needed to link programs that import package net.
   567  
   568  Runtime
   569  
   570  When using cgo, Go must not assume that it owns all details of the
   571  process. In particular it needs to coordinate with C in the use of
   572  threads and thread-local storage. The runtime package declares a few
   573  variables:
   574  
   575  	var (
   576  		iscgo             bool
   577  		_cgo_init         unsafe.Pointer
   578  		_cgo_thread_start unsafe.Pointer
   579  	)
   580  
   581  Any package using cgo imports "runtime/cgo", which provides
   582  initializations for these variables. It sets iscgo to true, _cgo_init
   583  to a gcc-compiled function that can be called early during program
   584  startup, and _cgo_thread_start to a gcc-compiled function that can be
   585  used to create a new thread, in place of the runtime's usual direct
   586  system calls.
   587  
   588  Internal and External Linking
   589  
   590  The text above describes "internal" linking, in which cmd/link parses and
   591  links host object files (ELF, Mach-O, PE, and so on) into the final
   592  executable itself. Keeping cmd/link simple means we cannot possibly
   593  implement the full semantics of the host linker, so the kinds of
   594  objects that can be linked directly into the binary is limited (other
   595  code can only be used as a dynamic library). On the other hand, when
   596  using internal linking, cmd/link can generate Go binaries by itself.
   597  
   598  In order to allow linking arbitrary object files without requiring
   599  dynamic libraries, cgo supports an "external" linking mode too. In
   600  external linking mode, cmd/link does not process any host object files.
   601  Instead, it collects all the Go code and writes a single go.o object
   602  file containing it. Then it invokes the host linker (usually gcc) to
   603  combine the go.o object file and any supporting non-Go code into a
   604  final executable. External linking avoids the dynamic library
   605  requirement but introduces a requirement that the host linker be
   606  present to create such a binary.
   607  
   608  Most builds both compile source code and invoke the linker to create a
   609  binary. When cgo is involved, the compile step already requires gcc, so
   610  it is not problematic for the link step to require gcc too.
   611  
   612  An important exception is builds using a pre-compiled copy of the
   613  standard library. In particular, package net uses cgo on most systems,
   614  and we want to preserve the ability to compile pure Go code that
   615  imports net without requiring gcc to be present at link time. (In this
   616  case, the dynamic library requirement is less significant, because the
   617  only library involved is libc.so, which can usually be assumed
   618  present.)
   619  
   620  This conflict between functionality and the gcc requirement means we
   621  must support both internal and external linking, depending on the
   622  circumstances: if net is the only cgo-using package, then internal
   623  linking is probably fine, but if other packages are involved, so that there
   624  are dependencies on libraries beyond libc, external linking is likely
   625  to work better. The compilation of a package records the relevant
   626  information to support both linking modes, leaving the decision
   627  to be made when linking the final binary.
   628  
   629  Linking Directives
   630  
   631  In either linking mode, package-specific directives must be passed
   632  through to cmd/link. These are communicated by writing //go: directives in a
   633  Go source file compiled by gc. The directives are copied into the .o
   634  object file and then processed by the linker.
   635  
   636  The directives are:
   637  
   638  //go:cgo_import_dynamic <local> [<remote> ["<library>"]]
   639  
   640  	In internal linking mode, allow an unresolved reference to
   641  	<local>, assuming it will be resolved by a dynamic library
   642  	symbol. The optional <remote> specifies the symbol's name and
   643  	possibly version in the dynamic library, and the optional "<library>"
   644  	names the specific library where the symbol should be found.
   645  
   646  	In the <remote>, # or @ can be used to introduce a symbol version.
   647  
   648  	Examples:
   649  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic puts
   650  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic puts puts#GLIBC_2.2.5
   651  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic puts puts#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6"
   652  
   653  	A side effect of the cgo_import_dynamic directive with a
   654  	library is to make the final binary depend on that dynamic
   655  	library. To get the dependency without importing any specific
   656  	symbols, use _ for local and remote.
   657  
   658  	Example:
   659  	//go:cgo_import_dynamic _ _ "libc.so.6"
   660  
   661  	For compatibility with current versions of SWIG,
   662  	#pragma dynimport is an alias for //go:cgo_import_dynamic.
   663  
   664  //go:cgo_dynamic_linker "<path>"
   665  
   666  	In internal linking mode, use "<path>" as the dynamic linker
   667  	in the final binary. This directive is only needed from one
   668  	package when constructing a binary; by convention it is
   669  	supplied by runtime/cgo.
   670  
   671  	Example:
   672  	//go:cgo_dynamic_linker "/lib/ld-linux.so.2"
   673  
   674  //go:cgo_export_dynamic <local> <remote>
   675  
   676  	In internal linking mode, put the Go symbol
   677  	named <local> into the program's exported symbol table as
   678  	<remote>, so that C code can refer to it by that name. This
   679  	mechanism makes it possible for C code to call back into Go or
   680  	to share Go's data.
   681  
   682  	For compatibility with current versions of SWIG,
   683  	#pragma dynexport is an alias for //go:cgo_export_dynamic.
   684  
   685  //go:cgo_import_static <local>
   686  
   687  	In external linking mode, allow unresolved references to
   688  	<local> in the go.o object file prepared for the host linker,
   689  	under the assumption that <local> will be supplied by the
   690  	other object files that will be linked with go.o.
   691  
   692  	Example:
   693  	//go:cgo_import_static puts_wrapper
   694  
   695  //go:cgo_export_static <local> <remote>
   696  
   697  	In external linking mode, put the Go symbol
   698  	named <local> into the program's exported symbol table as
   699  	<remote>, so that C code can refer to it by that name. This
   700  	mechanism makes it possible for C code to call back into Go or
   701  	to share Go's data.
   702  
   703  //go:cgo_ldflag "<arg>"
   704  
   705  	In external linking mode, invoke the host linker (usually gcc)
   706  	with "<arg>" as a command-line argument following the .o files.
   707  	Note that the arguments are for "gcc", not "ld".
   708  
   709  	Example:
   710  	//go:cgo_ldflag "-lpthread"
   711  	//go:cgo_ldflag "-L/usr/local/sqlite3/lib"
   712  
   713  A package compiled with cgo will include directives for both
   714  internal and external linking; the linker will select the appropriate
   715  subset for the chosen linking mode.
   716  
   717  Example
   718  
   719  As a simple example, consider a package that uses cgo to call C.sin.
   720  The following code will be generated by cgo:
   721  
   722  	// compiled by gc
   723  
   724  	//go:cgo_ldflag "-lm"
   725  
   726  	type _Ctype_double float64
   727  
   728  	//go:cgo_import_static _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin
   729  	//go:linkname __cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin
   730  	var __cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin byte
   731  	var _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin = unsafe.Pointer(&__cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin)
   732  
   733  	func _Cfunc_sin(p0 _Ctype_double) (r1 _Ctype_double) {
   734  		_cgo_runtime_cgocall(_cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin, uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&p0)))
   735  		return
   736  	}
   737  
   738  	// compiled by gcc, into foo.cgo2.o
   739  
   740  	void
   741  	_cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin(void *v)
   742  	{
   743  		struct {
   744  			double p0;
   745  			double r;
   746  		} __attribute__((__packed__)) *a = v;
   747  		a->r = sin(a->p0);
   748  	}
   749  
   750  What happens at link time depends on whether the final binary is linked
   751  using the internal or external mode. If other packages are compiled in
   752  "external only" mode, then the final link will be an external one.
   753  Otherwise the link will be an internal one.
   754  
   755  The linking directives are used according to the kind of final link
   756  used.
   757  
   758  In internal mode, cmd/link itself processes all the host object files, in
   759  particular foo.cgo2.o. To do so, it uses the cgo_import_dynamic and
   760  cgo_dynamic_linker directives to learn that the otherwise undefined
   761  reference to sin in foo.cgo2.o should be rewritten to refer to the
   762  symbol sin with version GLIBC_2.2.5 from the dynamic library
   763  "libm.so.6", and the binary should request "/lib/ld-linux.so.2" as its
   764  runtime dynamic linker.
   765  
   766  In external mode, cmd/link does not process any host object files, in
   767  particular foo.cgo2.o. It links together the gc-generated object
   768  files, along with any other Go code, into a go.o file. While doing
   769  that, cmd/link will discover that there is no definition for
   770  _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin, referred to by the gc-compiled source file. This
   771  is okay, because cmd/link also processes the cgo_import_static directive and
   772  knows that _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin is expected to be supplied by a host
   773  object file, so cmd/link does not treat the missing symbol as an error when
   774  creating go.o. Indeed, the definition for _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin will be
   775  provided to the host linker by foo2.cgo.o, which in turn will need the
   776  symbol 'sin'. cmd/link also processes the cgo_ldflag directives, so that it
   777  knows that the eventual host link command must include the -lm
   778  argument, so that the host linker will be able to find 'sin' in the
   779  math library.
   780  
   781  cmd/link Command Line Interface
   782  
   783  The go command and any other Go-aware build systems invoke cmd/link
   784  to link a collection of packages into a single binary. By default, cmd/link will
   785  present the same interface it does today:
   786  
   787  	cmd/link main.a
   788  
   789  produces a file named a.out, even if cmd/link does so by invoking the host
   790  linker in external linking mode.
   791  
   792  By default, cmd/link will decide the linking mode as follows: if the only
   793  packages using cgo are those on a whitelist of standard library
   794  packages (net, os/user, runtime/cgo), cmd/link will use internal linking
   795  mode. Otherwise, there are non-standard cgo packages involved, and cmd/link
   796  will use external linking mode. The first rule means that a build of
   797  the godoc binary, which uses net but no other cgo, can run without
   798  needing gcc available. The second rule means that a build of a
   799  cgo-wrapped library like sqlite3 can generate a standalone executable
   800  instead of needing to refer to a dynamic library. The specific choice
   801  can be overridden using a command line flag: cmd/link -linkmode=internal or
   802  cmd/link -linkmode=external.
   803  
   804  In an external link, cmd/link will create a temporary directory, write any
   805  host object files found in package archives to that directory (renamed
   806  to avoid conflicts), write the go.o file to that directory, and invoke
   807  the host linker. The default value for the host linker is $CC, split
   808  into fields, or else "gcc". The specific host linker command line can
   809  be overridden using command line flags: cmd/link -extld=clang
   810  -extldflags='-ggdb -O3'.  If any package in a build includes a .cc or
   811  other file compiled by the C++ compiler, the go tool will use the
   812  -extld option to set the host linker to the C++ compiler.
   813  
   814  These defaults mean that Go-aware build systems can ignore the linking
   815  changes and keep running plain 'cmd/link' and get reasonable results, but
   816  they can also control the linking details if desired.
   817  
   818  */