github.com/goproxy0/go@v0.0.0-20171111080102-49cc0c489d2c/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 generic CC_FOR_TARGET or the 106 more specific CC_FOR_${GOOS}_${GOARCH} (for example, CC_FOR_linux_arm) 107 environment variable when building the toolchain using make.bash, 108 or you can set the CC environment variable any time you run the go tool. 109 110 The CXX_FOR_TARGET, CXX_FOR_${GOOS}_${GOARCH}, and CXX 111 environment variables work in a similar way for C++ code. 112 113 Go references to C 114 115 Within the Go file, C's struct field names that are keywords in Go 116 can be accessed by prefixing them with an underscore: if x points at a C 117 struct with a field named "type", x._type accesses the field. 118 C struct fields that cannot be expressed in Go, such as bit fields 119 or misaligned data, are omitted in the Go struct, replaced by 120 appropriate padding to reach the next field or the end of the struct. 121 122 The standard C numeric types are available under the names 123 C.char, C.schar (signed char), C.uchar (unsigned char), 124 C.short, C.ushort (unsigned short), C.int, C.uint (unsigned int), 125 C.long, C.ulong (unsigned long), C.longlong (long long), 126 C.ulonglong (unsigned long long), C.float, C.double, 127 C.complexfloat (complex float), and C.complexdouble (complex double). 128 The C type void* is represented by Go's unsafe.Pointer. 129 The C types __int128_t and __uint128_t are represented by [16]byte. 130 131 To access a struct, union, or enum type directly, prefix it with 132 struct_, union_, or enum_, as in C.struct_stat. 133 134 The size of any C type T is available as C.sizeof_T, as in 135 C.sizeof_struct_stat. 136 137 As Go doesn't have support for C's union type in the general case, 138 C's union types are represented as a Go byte array with the same length. 139 140 Go structs cannot embed fields with C types. 141 142 Go code cannot refer to zero-sized fields that occur at the end of 143 non-empty C structs. To get the address of such a field (which is the 144 only operation you can do with a zero-sized field) you must take the 145 address of the struct and add the size of the struct. 146 147 Cgo translates C types into equivalent unexported Go types. 148 Because the translations are unexported, a Go package should not 149 expose C types in its exported API: a C type used in one Go package 150 is different from the same C type used in another. 151 152 Any C function (even void functions) may be called in a multiple 153 assignment context to retrieve both the return value (if any) and the 154 C errno variable as an error (use _ to skip the result value if the 155 function returns void). For example: 156 157 n, err = C.sqrt(-1) 158 _, err := C.voidFunc() 159 var n, err = C.sqrt(1) 160 161 Calling C function pointers is currently not supported, however you can 162 declare Go variables which hold C function pointers and pass them 163 back and forth between Go and C. C code may call function pointers 164 received from Go. For example: 165 166 package main 167 168 // typedef int (*intFunc) (); 169 // 170 // int 171 // bridge_int_func(intFunc f) 172 // { 173 // return f(); 174 // } 175 // 176 // int fortytwo() 177 // { 178 // return 42; 179 // } 180 import "C" 181 import "fmt" 182 183 func main() { 184 f := C.intFunc(C.fortytwo) 185 fmt.Println(int(C.bridge_int_func(f))) 186 // Output: 42 187 } 188 189 In C, a function argument written as a fixed size array 190 actually requires a pointer to the first element of the array. 191 C compilers are aware of this calling convention and adjust 192 the call accordingly, but Go cannot. In Go, you must pass 193 the pointer to the first element explicitly: C.f(&C.x[0]). 194 195 A few special functions convert between Go and C types 196 by making copies of the data. In pseudo-Go definitions: 197 198 // Go string to C string 199 // The C string is allocated in the C heap using malloc. 200 // It is the caller's responsibility to arrange for it to be 201 // freed, such as by calling C.free (be sure to include stdlib.h 202 // if C.free is needed). 203 func C.CString(string) *C.char 204 205 // Go []byte slice to C array 206 // The C array is allocated in the C heap using malloc. 207 // It is the caller's responsibility to arrange for it to be 208 // freed, such as by calling C.free (be sure to include stdlib.h 209 // if C.free is needed). 210 func C.CBytes([]byte) unsafe.Pointer 211 212 // C string to Go string 213 func C.GoString(*C.char) string 214 215 // C data with explicit length to Go string 216 func C.GoStringN(*C.char, C.int) string 217 218 // C data with explicit length to Go []byte 219 func C.GoBytes(unsafe.Pointer, C.int) []byte 220 221 As a special case, C.malloc does not call the C library malloc directly 222 but instead calls a Go helper function that wraps the C library malloc 223 but guarantees never to return nil. If C's malloc indicates out of memory, 224 the helper function crashes the program, like when Go itself runs out 225 of memory. Because C.malloc cannot fail, it has no two-result form 226 that returns errno. 227 228 C references to Go 229 230 Go functions can be exported for use by C code in the following way: 231 232 //export MyFunction 233 func MyFunction(arg1, arg2 int, arg3 string) int64 {...} 234 235 //export MyFunction2 236 func MyFunction2(arg1, arg2 int, arg3 string) (int64, *C.char) {...} 237 238 They will be available in the C code as: 239 240 extern int64 MyFunction(int arg1, int arg2, GoString arg3); 241 extern struct MyFunction2_return MyFunction2(int arg1, int arg2, GoString arg3); 242 243 found in the _cgo_export.h generated header, after any preambles 244 copied from the cgo input files. Functions with multiple 245 return values are mapped to functions returning a struct. 246 247 Not all Go types can be mapped to C types in a useful way. 248 Go struct types are not supported; use a C struct type. 249 Go array types are not supported; use a C pointer. 250 251 Using //export in a file places a restriction on the preamble: 252 since it is copied into two different C output files, it must not 253 contain any definitions, only declarations. If a file contains both 254 definitions and declarations, then the two output files will produce 255 duplicate symbols and the linker will fail. To avoid this, definitions 256 must be placed in preambles in other files, or in C source files. 257 258 Passing pointers 259 260 Go is a garbage collected language, and the garbage collector needs to 261 know the location of every pointer to Go memory. Because of this, 262 there are restrictions on passing pointers between Go and C. 263 264 In this section the term Go pointer means a pointer to memory 265 allocated by Go (such as by using the & operator or calling the 266 predefined new function) and the term C pointer means a pointer to 267 memory allocated by C (such as by a call to C.malloc). Whether a 268 pointer is a Go pointer or a C pointer is a dynamic property 269 determined by how the memory was allocated; it has nothing to do with 270 the type of the pointer. 271 272 Go code may pass a Go pointer to C provided the Go memory to which it 273 points does not contain any Go pointers. The C code must preserve 274 this property: it must not store any Go pointers in Go memory, even 275 temporarily. When passing a pointer to a field in a struct, the Go 276 memory in question is the memory occupied by the field, not the entire 277 struct. When passing a pointer to an element in an array or slice, 278 the Go memory in question is the entire array or the entire backing 279 array of the slice. 280 281 C code may not keep a copy of a Go pointer after the call returns. 282 283 A Go function called by C code may not return a Go pointer. A Go 284 function called by C code may take C pointers as arguments, and it may 285 store non-pointer or C pointer data through those pointers, but it may 286 not store a Go pointer in memory pointed to by a C pointer. A Go 287 function called by C code may take a Go pointer as an argument, but it 288 must preserve the property that the Go memory to which it points does 289 not contain any Go pointers. 290 291 Go code may not store a Go pointer in C memory. C code may store Go 292 pointers in C memory, subject to the rule above: it must stop storing 293 the Go pointer when the C function returns. 294 295 These rules are checked dynamically at runtime. The checking is 296 controlled by the cgocheck setting of the GODEBUG environment 297 variable. The default setting is GODEBUG=cgocheck=1, which implements 298 reasonably cheap dynamic checks. These checks may be disabled 299 entirely using GODEBUG=cgocheck=0. Complete checking of pointer 300 handling, at some cost in run time, is available via GODEBUG=cgocheck=2. 301 302 It is possible to defeat this enforcement by using the unsafe package, 303 and of course there is nothing stopping the C code from doing anything 304 it likes. However, programs that break these rules are likely to fail 305 in unexpected and unpredictable ways. 306 307 Using cgo directly 308 309 Usage: 310 go tool cgo [cgo options] [-- compiler options] gofiles... 311 312 Cgo transforms the specified input Go source files into several output 313 Go and C source files. 314 315 The compiler options are passed through uninterpreted when 316 invoking the C compiler to compile the C parts of the package. 317 318 The following options are available when running cgo directly: 319 320 -V 321 Print cgo version and exit. 322 -debug-define 323 Debugging option. Print #defines. 324 -debug-gcc 325 Debugging option. Trace C compiler execution and output. 326 -dynimport file 327 Write list of symbols imported by file. Write to 328 -dynout argument or to standard output. Used by go 329 build when building a cgo package. 330 -dynlinker 331 Write dynamic linker as part of -dynimport output. 332 -dynout file 333 Write -dynimport output to file. 334 -dynpackage package 335 Set Go package for -dynimport output. 336 -exportheader file 337 If there are any exported functions, write the 338 generated export declarations to file. 339 C code can #include this to see the declarations. 340 -importpath string 341 The import path for the Go package. Optional; used for 342 nicer comments in the generated files. 343 -import_runtime_cgo 344 If set (which it is by default) import runtime/cgo in 345 generated output. 346 -import_syscall 347 If set (which it is by default) import syscall in 348 generated output. 349 -gccgo 350 Generate output for the gccgo compiler rather than the 351 gc compiler. 352 -gccgoprefix prefix 353 The -fgo-prefix option to be used with gccgo. 354 -gccgopkgpath path 355 The -fgo-pkgpath option to be used with gccgo. 356 -godefs 357 Write out input file in Go syntax replacing C package 358 names with real values. Used to generate files in the 359 syscall package when bootstrapping a new target. 360 -objdir directory 361 Put all generated files in directory. 362 -srcdir directory 363 */ 364 package main 365 366 /* 367 Implementation details. 368 369 Cgo provides a way for Go programs to call C code linked into the same 370 address space. This comment explains the operation of cgo. 371 372 Cgo reads a set of Go source files and looks for statements saying 373 import "C". If the import has a doc comment, that comment is 374 taken as literal C code to be used as a preamble to any C code 375 generated by cgo. A typical preamble #includes necessary definitions: 376 377 // #include <stdio.h> 378 import "C" 379 380 For more details about the usage of cgo, see the documentation 381 comment at the top of this file. 382 383 Understanding C 384 385 Cgo scans the Go source files that import "C" for uses of that 386 package, such as C.puts. It collects all such identifiers. The next 387 step is to determine each kind of name. In C.xxx the xxx might refer 388 to a type, a function, a constant, or a global variable. Cgo must 389 decide which. 390 391 The obvious thing for cgo to do is to process the preamble, expanding 392 #includes and processing the corresponding C code. That would require 393 a full C parser and type checker that was also aware of any extensions 394 known to the system compiler (for example, all the GNU C extensions) as 395 well as the system-specific header locations and system-specific 396 pre-#defined macros. This is certainly possible to do, but it is an 397 enormous amount of work. 398 399 Cgo takes a different approach. It determines the meaning of C 400 identifiers not by parsing C code but by feeding carefully constructed 401 programs into the system C compiler and interpreting the generated 402 error messages, debug information, and object files. In practice, 403 parsing these is significantly less work and more robust than parsing 404 C source. 405 406 Cgo first invokes gcc -E -dM on the preamble, in order to find out 407 about simple #defines for constants and the like. These are recorded 408 for later use. 409 410 Next, cgo needs to identify the kinds for each identifier. For the 411 identifiers C.foo, cgo generates this C program: 412 413 <preamble> 414 #line 1 "not-declared" 415 void __cgo_f_1_1(void) { __typeof__(foo) *__cgo_undefined__1; } 416 #line 1 "not-type" 417 void __cgo_f_1_2(void) { foo *__cgo_undefined__2; } 418 #line 1 "not-int-const" 419 void __cgo_f_1_3(void) { enum { __cgo_undefined__3 = (foo)*1 }; } 420 #line 1 "not-num-const" 421 void __cgo_f_1_4(void) { static const double __cgo_undefined__4 = (foo); } 422 #line 1 "not-str-lit" 423 void __cgo_f_1_5(void) { static const char __cgo_undefined__5[] = (foo); } 424 425 This program will not compile, but cgo can use the presence or absence 426 of an error message on a given line to deduce the information it 427 needs. The program is syntactically valid regardless of whether each 428 name is a type or an ordinary identifier, so there will be no syntax 429 errors that might stop parsing early. 430 431 An error on not-declared:1 indicates that foo is undeclared. 432 An error on not-type:1 indicates that foo is not a type (if declared at all, it is an identifier). 433 An error on not-int-const:1 indicates that foo is not an integer constant. 434 An error on not-num-const:1 indicates that foo is not a number constant. 435 An error on not-str-lit:1 indicates that foo is not a string literal. 436 An error on not-signed-int-const:1 indicates that foo is not a signed integer constant. 437 438 The line number specifies the name involved. In the example, 1 is foo. 439 440 Next, cgo must learn the details of each type, variable, function, or 441 constant. It can do this by reading object files. If cgo has decided 442 that t1 is a type, v2 and v3 are variables or functions, and i4, i5 443 are integer constants, u6 is an unsigned integer constant, and f7 and f8 444 are float constants, and s9 and s10 are string constants, it generates: 445 446 <preamble> 447 __typeof__(t1) *__cgo__1; 448 __typeof__(v2) *__cgo__2; 449 __typeof__(v3) *__cgo__3; 450 __typeof__(i4) *__cgo__4; 451 enum { __cgo_enum__4 = i4 }; 452 __typeof__(i5) *__cgo__5; 453 enum { __cgo_enum__5 = i5 }; 454 __typeof__(u6) *__cgo__6; 455 enum { __cgo_enum__6 = u6 }; 456 __typeof__(f7) *__cgo__7; 457 __typeof__(f8) *__cgo__8; 458 __typeof__(s9) *__cgo__9; 459 __typeof__(s10) *__cgo__10; 460 461 long long __cgodebug_ints[] = { 462 0, // t1 463 0, // v2 464 0, // v3 465 i4, 466 i5, 467 u6, 468 0, // f7 469 0, // f8 470 0, // s9 471 0, // s10 472 1 473 }; 474 475 double __cgodebug_floats[] = { 476 0, // t1 477 0, // v2 478 0, // v3 479 0, // i4 480 0, // i5 481 0, // u6 482 f7, 483 f8, 484 0, // s9 485 0, // s10 486 1 487 }; 488 489 const char __cgodebug_str__9[] = s9; 490 const unsigned long long __cgodebug_strlen__9 = sizeof(s9)-1; 491 const char __cgodebug_str__10[] = s10; 492 const unsigned long long __cgodebug_strlen__10 = sizeof(s10)-1; 493 494 and again invokes the system C compiler, to produce an object file 495 containing debug information. Cgo parses the DWARF debug information 496 for __cgo__N to learn the type of each identifier. (The types also 497 distinguish functions from global variables.) Cgo reads the constant 498 values from the __cgodebug_* from the object file's data segment. 499 500 At this point cgo knows the meaning of each C.xxx well enough to start 501 the translation process. 502 503 Translating Go 504 505 Given the input Go files x.go and y.go, cgo generates these source 506 files: 507 508 x.cgo1.go # for gc (cmd/compile) 509 y.cgo1.go # for gc 510 _cgo_gotypes.go # for gc 511 _cgo_import.go # for gc (if -dynout _cgo_import.go) 512 x.cgo2.c # for gcc 513 y.cgo2.c # for gcc 514 _cgo_defun.c # for gcc (if -gccgo) 515 _cgo_export.c # for gcc 516 _cgo_export.h # for gcc 517 _cgo_main.c # for gcc 518 _cgo_flags # for alternative build tools 519 520 The file x.cgo1.go is a copy of x.go with the import "C" removed and 521 references to C.xxx replaced with names like _Cfunc_xxx or _Ctype_xxx. 522 The definitions of those identifiers, written as Go functions, types, 523 or variables, are provided in _cgo_gotypes.go. 524 525 Here is a _cgo_gotypes.go containing definitions for needed C types: 526 527 type _Ctype_char int8 528 type _Ctype_int int32 529 type _Ctype_void [0]byte 530 531 The _cgo_gotypes.go file also contains the definitions of the 532 functions. They all have similar bodies that invoke runtime·cgocall 533 to make a switch from the Go runtime world to the system C (GCC-based) 534 world. 535 536 For example, here is the definition of _Cfunc_puts: 537 538 //go:cgo_import_static _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts 539 //go:linkname __cgofn__cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts 540 var __cgofn__cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts byte 541 var _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts = unsafe.Pointer(&__cgofn__cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts) 542 543 func _Cfunc_puts(p0 *_Ctype_char) (r1 _Ctype_int) { 544 _cgo_runtime_cgocall(_cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts, uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&p0))) 545 return 546 } 547 548 The hexadecimal number is a hash of cgo's input, chosen to be 549 deterministic yet unlikely to collide with other uses. The actual 550 function _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts is implemented in a C source 551 file compiled by gcc, the file x.cgo2.c: 552 553 void 554 _cgo_be59f0f25121_Cfunc_puts(void *v) 555 { 556 struct { 557 char* p0; 558 int r; 559 char __pad12[4]; 560 } __attribute__((__packed__, __gcc_struct__)) *a = v; 561 a->r = puts((void*)a->p0); 562 } 563 564 It extracts the arguments from the pointer to _Cfunc_puts's argument 565 frame, invokes the system C function (in this case, puts), stores the 566 result in the frame, and returns. 567 568 Linking 569 570 Once the _cgo_export.c and *.cgo2.c files have been compiled with gcc, 571 they need to be linked into the final binary, along with the libraries 572 they might depend on (in the case of puts, stdio). cmd/link has been 573 extended to understand basic ELF files, but it does not understand ELF 574 in the full complexity that modern C libraries embrace, so it cannot 575 in general generate direct references to the system libraries. 576 577 Instead, the build process generates an object file using dynamic 578 linkage to the desired libraries. The main function is provided by 579 _cgo_main.c: 580 581 int main() { return 0; } 582 void crosscall2(void(*fn)(void*, int, uintptr_t), void *a, int c, uintptr_t ctxt) { } 583 uintptr_t _cgo_wait_runtime_init_done() { return 0; } 584 void _cgo_release_context(uintptr_t ctxt) { } 585 char* _cgo_topofstack(void) { return (char*)0; } 586 void _cgo_allocate(void *a, int c) { } 587 void _cgo_panic(void *a, int c) { } 588 void _cgo_reginit(void) { } 589 590 The extra functions here are stubs to satisfy the references in the C 591 code generated for gcc. The build process links this stub, along with 592 _cgo_export.c and *.cgo2.c, into a dynamic executable and then lets 593 cgo examine the executable. Cgo records the list of shared library 594 references and resolved names and writes them into a new file 595 _cgo_import.go, which looks like: 596 597 //go:cgo_dynamic_linker "/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2" 598 //go:cgo_import_dynamic puts puts#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6" 599 //go:cgo_import_dynamic __libc_start_main __libc_start_main#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6" 600 //go:cgo_import_dynamic stdout stdout#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6" 601 //go:cgo_import_dynamic fflush fflush#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6" 602 //go:cgo_import_dynamic _ _ "libpthread.so.0" 603 //go:cgo_import_dynamic _ _ "libc.so.6" 604 605 In the end, the compiled Go package, which will eventually be 606 presented to cmd/link as part of a larger program, contains: 607 608 _go_.o # gc-compiled object for _cgo_gotypes.go, _cgo_import.go, *.cgo1.go 609 _all.o # gcc-compiled object for _cgo_export.c, *.cgo2.c 610 611 The final program will be a dynamic executable, so that cmd/link can avoid 612 needing to process arbitrary .o files. It only needs to process the .o 613 files generated from C files that cgo writes, and those are much more 614 limited in the ELF or other features that they use. 615 616 In essence, the _cgo_import.o file includes the extra linking 617 directives that cmd/link is not sophisticated enough to derive from _all.o 618 on its own. Similarly, the _all.o uses dynamic references to real 619 system object code because cmd/link is not sophisticated enough to process 620 the real code. 621 622 The main benefits of this system are that cmd/link remains relatively simple 623 (it does not need to implement a complete ELF and Mach-O linker) and 624 that gcc is not needed after the package is compiled. For example, 625 package net uses cgo for access to name resolution functions provided 626 by libc. Although gcc is needed to compile package net, gcc is not 627 needed to link programs that import package net. 628 629 Runtime 630 631 When using cgo, Go must not assume that it owns all details of the 632 process. In particular it needs to coordinate with C in the use of 633 threads and thread-local storage. The runtime package declares a few 634 variables: 635 636 var ( 637 iscgo bool 638 _cgo_init unsafe.Pointer 639 _cgo_thread_start unsafe.Pointer 640 ) 641 642 Any package using cgo imports "runtime/cgo", which provides 643 initializations for these variables. It sets iscgo to true, _cgo_init 644 to a gcc-compiled function that can be called early during program 645 startup, and _cgo_thread_start to a gcc-compiled function that can be 646 used to create a new thread, in place of the runtime's usual direct 647 system calls. 648 649 Internal and External Linking 650 651 The text above describes "internal" linking, in which cmd/link parses and 652 links host object files (ELF, Mach-O, PE, and so on) into the final 653 executable itself. Keeping cmd/link simple means we cannot possibly 654 implement the full semantics of the host linker, so the kinds of 655 objects that can be linked directly into the binary is limited (other 656 code can only be used as a dynamic library). On the other hand, when 657 using internal linking, cmd/link can generate Go binaries by itself. 658 659 In order to allow linking arbitrary object files without requiring 660 dynamic libraries, cgo supports an "external" linking mode too. In 661 external linking mode, cmd/link does not process any host object files. 662 Instead, it collects all the Go code and writes a single go.o object 663 file containing it. Then it invokes the host linker (usually gcc) to 664 combine the go.o object file and any supporting non-Go code into a 665 final executable. External linking avoids the dynamic library 666 requirement but introduces a requirement that the host linker be 667 present to create such a binary. 668 669 Most builds both compile source code and invoke the linker to create a 670 binary. When cgo is involved, the compile step already requires gcc, so 671 it is not problematic for the link step to require gcc too. 672 673 An important exception is builds using a pre-compiled copy of the 674 standard library. In particular, package net uses cgo on most systems, 675 and we want to preserve the ability to compile pure Go code that 676 imports net without requiring gcc to be present at link time. (In this 677 case, the dynamic library requirement is less significant, because the 678 only library involved is libc.so, which can usually be assumed 679 present.) 680 681 This conflict between functionality and the gcc requirement means we 682 must support both internal and external linking, depending on the 683 circumstances: if net is the only cgo-using package, then internal 684 linking is probably fine, but if other packages are involved, so that there 685 are dependencies on libraries beyond libc, external linking is likely 686 to work better. The compilation of a package records the relevant 687 information to support both linking modes, leaving the decision 688 to be made when linking the final binary. 689 690 Linking Directives 691 692 In either linking mode, package-specific directives must be passed 693 through to cmd/link. These are communicated by writing //go: directives in a 694 Go source file compiled by gc. The directives are copied into the .o 695 object file and then processed by the linker. 696 697 The directives are: 698 699 //go:cgo_import_dynamic <local> [<remote> ["<library>"]] 700 701 In internal linking mode, allow an unresolved reference to 702 <local>, assuming it will be resolved by a dynamic library 703 symbol. The optional <remote> specifies the symbol's name and 704 possibly version in the dynamic library, and the optional "<library>" 705 names the specific library where the symbol should be found. 706 707 In the <remote>, # or @ can be used to introduce a symbol version. 708 709 Examples: 710 //go:cgo_import_dynamic puts 711 //go:cgo_import_dynamic puts puts#GLIBC_2.2.5 712 //go:cgo_import_dynamic puts puts#GLIBC_2.2.5 "libc.so.6" 713 714 A side effect of the cgo_import_dynamic directive with a 715 library is to make the final binary depend on that dynamic 716 library. To get the dependency without importing any specific 717 symbols, use _ for local and remote. 718 719 Example: 720 //go:cgo_import_dynamic _ _ "libc.so.6" 721 722 For compatibility with current versions of SWIG, 723 #pragma dynimport is an alias for //go:cgo_import_dynamic. 724 725 //go:cgo_dynamic_linker "<path>" 726 727 In internal linking mode, use "<path>" as the dynamic linker 728 in the final binary. This directive is only needed from one 729 package when constructing a binary; by convention it is 730 supplied by runtime/cgo. 731 732 Example: 733 //go:cgo_dynamic_linker "/lib/ld-linux.so.2" 734 735 //go:cgo_export_dynamic <local> <remote> 736 737 In internal linking mode, put the Go symbol 738 named <local> into the program's exported symbol table as 739 <remote>, so that C code can refer to it by that name. This 740 mechanism makes it possible for C code to call back into Go or 741 to share Go's data. 742 743 For compatibility with current versions of SWIG, 744 #pragma dynexport is an alias for //go:cgo_export_dynamic. 745 746 //go:cgo_import_static <local> 747 748 In external linking mode, allow unresolved references to 749 <local> in the go.o object file prepared for the host linker, 750 under the assumption that <local> will be supplied by the 751 other object files that will be linked with go.o. 752 753 Example: 754 //go:cgo_import_static puts_wrapper 755 756 //go:cgo_export_static <local> <remote> 757 758 In external linking mode, put the Go symbol 759 named <local> into the program's exported symbol table as 760 <remote>, so that C code can refer to it by that name. This 761 mechanism makes it possible for C code to call back into Go or 762 to share Go's data. 763 764 //go:cgo_ldflag "<arg>" 765 766 In external linking mode, invoke the host linker (usually gcc) 767 with "<arg>" as a command-line argument following the .o files. 768 Note that the arguments are for "gcc", not "ld". 769 770 Example: 771 //go:cgo_ldflag "-lpthread" 772 //go:cgo_ldflag "-L/usr/local/sqlite3/lib" 773 774 A package compiled with cgo will include directives for both 775 internal and external linking; the linker will select the appropriate 776 subset for the chosen linking mode. 777 778 Example 779 780 As a simple example, consider a package that uses cgo to call C.sin. 781 The following code will be generated by cgo: 782 783 // compiled by gc 784 785 //go:cgo_ldflag "-lm" 786 787 type _Ctype_double float64 788 789 //go:cgo_import_static _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin 790 //go:linkname __cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin 791 var __cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin byte 792 var _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin = unsafe.Pointer(&__cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin) 793 794 func _Cfunc_sin(p0 _Ctype_double) (r1 _Ctype_double) { 795 _cgo_runtime_cgocall(_cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin, uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&p0))) 796 return 797 } 798 799 // compiled by gcc, into foo.cgo2.o 800 801 void 802 _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin(void *v) 803 { 804 struct { 805 double p0; 806 double r; 807 } __attribute__((__packed__)) *a = v; 808 a->r = sin(a->p0); 809 } 810 811 What happens at link time depends on whether the final binary is linked 812 using the internal or external mode. If other packages are compiled in 813 "external only" mode, then the final link will be an external one. 814 Otherwise the link will be an internal one. 815 816 The linking directives are used according to the kind of final link 817 used. 818 819 In internal mode, cmd/link itself processes all the host object files, in 820 particular foo.cgo2.o. To do so, it uses the cgo_import_dynamic and 821 cgo_dynamic_linker directives to learn that the otherwise undefined 822 reference to sin in foo.cgo2.o should be rewritten to refer to the 823 symbol sin with version GLIBC_2.2.5 from the dynamic library 824 "libm.so.6", and the binary should request "/lib/ld-linux.so.2" as its 825 runtime dynamic linker. 826 827 In external mode, cmd/link does not process any host object files, in 828 particular foo.cgo2.o. It links together the gc-generated object 829 files, along with any other Go code, into a go.o file. While doing 830 that, cmd/link will discover that there is no definition for 831 _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin, referred to by the gc-compiled source file. This 832 is okay, because cmd/link also processes the cgo_import_static directive and 833 knows that _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin is expected to be supplied by a host 834 object file, so cmd/link does not treat the missing symbol as an error when 835 creating go.o. Indeed, the definition for _cgo_gcc_Cfunc_sin will be 836 provided to the host linker by foo2.cgo.o, which in turn will need the 837 symbol 'sin'. cmd/link also processes the cgo_ldflag directives, so that it 838 knows that the eventual host link command must include the -lm 839 argument, so that the host linker will be able to find 'sin' in the 840 math library. 841 842 cmd/link Command Line Interface 843 844 The go command and any other Go-aware build systems invoke cmd/link 845 to link a collection of packages into a single binary. By default, cmd/link will 846 present the same interface it does today: 847 848 cmd/link main.a 849 850 produces a file named a.out, even if cmd/link does so by invoking the host 851 linker in external linking mode. 852 853 By default, cmd/link will decide the linking mode as follows: if the only 854 packages using cgo are those on a whitelist of standard library 855 packages (net, os/user, runtime/cgo), cmd/link will use internal linking 856 mode. Otherwise, there are non-standard cgo packages involved, and cmd/link 857 will use external linking mode. The first rule means that a build of 858 the godoc binary, which uses net but no other cgo, can run without 859 needing gcc available. The second rule means that a build of a 860 cgo-wrapped library like sqlite3 can generate a standalone executable 861 instead of needing to refer to a dynamic library. The specific choice 862 can be overridden using a command line flag: cmd/link -linkmode=internal or 863 cmd/link -linkmode=external. 864 865 In an external link, cmd/link will create a temporary directory, write any 866 host object files found in package archives to that directory (renamed 867 to avoid conflicts), write the go.o file to that directory, and invoke 868 the host linker. The default value for the host linker is $CC, split 869 into fields, or else "gcc". The specific host linker command line can 870 be overridden using command line flags: cmd/link -extld=clang 871 -extldflags='-ggdb -O3'. If any package in a build includes a .cc or 872 other file compiled by the C++ compiler, the go tool will use the 873 -extld option to set the host linker to the C++ compiler. 874 875 These defaults mean that Go-aware build systems can ignore the linking 876 changes and keep running plain 'cmd/link' and get reasonable results, but 877 they can also control the linking details if desired. 878 879 */