Ruby FFI::Utilities

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Utilities for the FFI (Foreign Function Interface) library for Ruby

Description

The FFI library is fantastic in many ways. Sometimes we wish to have some extra features to be added upon request. We put these features in this FFI::Utilities library.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'ruby-FFI-utilities'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install ruby-FFI-utilities

Implemented Utilities

Currently implemented utility functions are:

  • set_args(array_of_string_arguments) - transforms a ruby string array into an array suitable to be passed to a C function that accepts a char *[] argument
  • set_string(const char *string) - transforms a ruby string into a string pointer suitable to be passed to a C function that accepts a const char * or a char * argument

There are also two wrappers for FFI::Struct and FFI::ManagedStruct, respectively called FFI::Utilities::Struct and `FFI::Utilities::ManagedStruct. These two wrappers implement some features, such as:

  • attribute accessors
  • attribute char accessors, which implement single char type access to data structures (separated from usual attribute accessors because ruby does not make a difference between single-char and multiple-char Strings
  • private new method
  • public create(*args) [{ |this, *args| ... }] method, which substitutes new
  • struct_initialize(*args) private function which mimicks the functionality of initialize but gets called by create

Development

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release to create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

Contributing

  1. Fork it ( https://github.com/[my-github-username]/ruby-FFI-utilities/fork )
  2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
  5. Create a new Pull Request

License

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2, June 1991

Ruby FFI Utilities Copyright (C) 2015 Nicola Bernardini

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.