rust-lang/rust-bindgen
Rust Bindgen
Rust-bindgen is a build-time foreign function interface binding generator and C header parser designed to automate cross-language interoperability. It functions as a tool to bridge Rust with C, C++, and Objective-C libraries by producing platform-specific declarations during the compilation process.
The project distinguishes itself through its ability to handle complex C-family language constructs, including C++ inheritance and methods, as well as Objective-C classes and protocols. It ensures binary compatibility across different architectures by calculating target-aware memory layouts and validating that generated structure sizes and alignments match the original source definitions.
The tool provides extensive type mapping for C unions, bitfields, and flexible array members, while mapping untranslatable or complex standard library types to opaque byte blobs. It includes a configuration system for filtering bindings, substituting complex types, and controlling trait derivation or field visibility.
Generated bindings can include extracted documentation from system headers and are processed through a standard formatter to ensure consistent code styling.
Features
- Rust-C++ Bridges - Automates the creation of type-safe bindings to bridge Rust with C++ libraries, including complex types and inheritance.
- Native Library Integrations - Provides a tool to execute external native libraries by mapping C/C++ headers to type-safe Rust bindings.
- FFI Binding CLI Generators - Generates target-specific FFI bindings during the build process to ensure memory layout compatibility across architectures.
- Rust-C++ FFI Generators - Creates type definitions and FFI declarations from C++ headers, supporting inheritance and methods.
- Compile-Time Code Generators - Produces platform-specific FFI glue code during the build process to ensure architecture compatibility.
- Target-Aware Padding & Alignment - Calculates structure padding and alignment by querying the target platform's compiler to ensure binary compatibility.
- C and Objective-C Interface Mapping - Provides foreign function interface definitions for Objective-C headers by mapping classes to structs and protocols to traits.
- Native C Interoperability - Bridges C, C++, and Objective-C libraries with Rust by automating the creation of memory-safe declarations.
- C Function Bindings - Generates bindings that map native C functions to Rust methods for direct execution.
- C Header Binding Generators - Parses C or C++ headers during the build process to automatically generate foreign function interface signatures.
- Objective-C Symbol Binding Generators - Creates FFI definitions from Objective-C headers by mapping classes to structs and protocols to traits.
- Source-To-Source Transpilers - Translates C and C++ language constructs into equivalent foreign function interface signatures in the target language.
- Compiler-Integrated AST Parsing - Uses an integrated compiler frontend like Clang to parse C headers into abstract syntax trees.
- Binding Configurations - Provides settings and builder methods to control how source types are translated into target language structures.
- FFI Declaration Generators - Generates type-safe cross-language interface declarations from both C and C++ header files.
- Binding Filters - Limits the output to specific types, functions, and variables that match defined rules or dependency requirements.
- Byte-Compatible Bitfield Generators - Implements tools that generate memory-compatible bitfield structures with typed accessors for low-level language interoperability.
- Compilation Target Specifications - Specifies a target platform or compiler version to ensure generated bindings match the deployment binary format.
- FFI Opaque Type Handles - Represents untranslatable types as byte blobs with specific size and alignment to maintain binary compatibility.
- Opaque Type Definitions - Defines abstract data types as fixed-size byte arrays to hide internal structure and maintain memory layout compatibility.
- Rust-C++ Type Mappings - Maps complex C++ standard library types to compatible byte blobs with correct size and alignment.
- Union Mappings - Creates representations of C unions using native union types or specialized structs to ensure layout compatibility.
- Layout Verifications - Provides validation that generated structure sizes and alignments match the original source definitions to ensure binary compatibility.
- Target-Aware Binding Generation - Passes specific architecture arguments to the compiler to ensure generated bindings match a non-native target system.
- Foreign Function Interface - Generates Rust bindings for C/C++ libraries.
Star history
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