Main interface to C code and data

(PHP 7 >= 7.4.0)

Introduction

Objects of this class are created by the factory methods FFI::cdef(), FFI::load() or FFI::scope(). Defined C variables are made available as properties of the FFI instance, and defined C functions are made available as methods of the FFI instance. Declared C types can be used to create new C data structures using FFI::new() and FFI::type().

FFI definition parsing and shared library loading may take significant time. It is not useful to do it on each HTTP request in a Web environment. However, it is possible to preload FFI definitions and libraries at PHP startup, and to instantiate FFI objects when necessary. Header files may be extended with special FFI_SCOPE defines (e.g. #define FFI_SCOPE "foo"”"; the default scope is "C") and then loaded by FFI::load() during preloading. This leads to the creation of a persistent binding, that will be available to all the following requests through FFI::scope(). Refer to the complete PHP/FFI/preloading example for details.

It is possible to preload more than one C header file into the same scope.

Class synopsis

FFI {
/* Methods */
public static addr ( FFI\CData &$ptr ) : FFI\CData
public static alignof ( mixed &$ptr ) : int
public static arrayType ( FFI\CType $type , array $dims ) : FFI\CType
public static cast ( mixed $type , FFI\CData &$ptr ) : FFI\CData
public cast ( mixed $type , FFI\CData &$ptr ) : FFI\CData
public static cdef ([ string $code = "" [, string $lib ]] ) : FFI
public static free ( FFI\CData &$ptr ) : void
public static isNull ( FFI\CData &$ptr ) : bool
public static load ( string $filename ) : FFI
public static memcmp ( mixed &$ptr1 , mixed &$ptr2 , int $size ) : int
public static memcpy ( FFI\CData &$dst , mixed &$src , int $size ) : void
public static memset ( FFI\CData &$ptr , int $ch , int $size ) : void
public static new ( mixed $type [, bool $owned = TRUE [, bool $persistent = FALSE ]] ) : FFI\CData
public new ( mixed $type [, bool $owned = TRUE [, bool $persistent = FALSE ]] ) : FFI\CData
public static scope ( string $scope_name ) : FFI
public static sizeof ( mixed &$ptr ) : int
public static string ( FFI\CData &$ptr [, int $size ] ) : string
public static type ( mixed $type ) : FFI\CType
public type ( mixed $type ) : FFI\CType
public static typeof ( FFI\CData &$ptr ) : FFI\CType
}

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