interoperability.portability.md

C++ links: interoperability - portability: libraries, ABI, name mangling

Contents

• General: Readings, Software, Talks
• ABI: Readings, Software, Talks
• Name Mangling: Readings, Software, Talks

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General

General: Readings

• Beautiful Native Libraries
  • http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2013/8/18/beautiful-native-libraries/
• C++ compiler support - http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/compiler_support
• Compiler Dependencies - https://isocpp.org/wiki/faq/compiler-dependencies
• Creating and using shared libraries with different compilers on different operating systems
  • http://gernotklingler.com/blog/creating-using-shared-libraries-different-compilers-different-operating-systems/
• GotW #100: Compilation Firewalls - https://herbsutter.com/gotw/_100/
• GotW #101: Compilation Firewalls, Part 2 - https://herbsutter.com/gotw/_101/
• How to Write Shared Libraries - Ulrich Drepper - http://www.akkadia.org/drepper/dsohowto.pdf
• Interoperability of Libraries Created by Different Compiler Brands
  • http://www.mingw.org/wiki/Interoperability_of_Libraries_Created_by_Different_Compiler_Brands
• libabc
  • http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/libabc
  • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kay/libabc.git/about/
• PImpl - http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/pimpl
• Program Library HOWTO
  • This HOWTO for programmers discusses how to create and use program libraries on Linux. This includes static libraries, shared libraries, and dynamically loaded libraries.
  • http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Program-Library-HOWTO/
• SEI CERT C Coding Standard
  • MSC14-C. Do not introduce unnecessary platform dependencies
  • MSC15-C. Do not depend on undefined behavior
  • MSC23-C. Beware of vendor-specific library and language differences
• Understanding GCC Builtins to Develop Better Tools
  • ESEC/FSE 2019
  • Manuel Rigger, Stefan Marr, Bram Adams, Hanspeter Mössenböck
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.00863
  • https://github.com/jku-ssw/gcc-builtin-study

General: Software

• Hedley
  • a single C/C++ header you can include in your project to enable compiler-specific features while retaining compatibility with all compilers. It contains dozens of macros to help make your code easier to use, harder to misuse, safer, faster, and more portable.
  • https://nemequ.github.io/hedley/
  • https://github.com/nemequ/hedley
• Portable Snippets
  • a collection of public domain (CC0) code snippets written in C for performing various common tasks which are typically OS, architecture, and/or compiler-dependent.
  • https://github.com/nemequ/portable-snippets

General: Talks

• Making a Language Cross Platform: Libraries and Tooling
  • 2019 LLVM Developers’ Meeting; Gwen Mittertreiner
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdiQM0IPMio
  • http://llvm.org/devmtg/2019-10/slides/Mittertreiner-MakingALanguageCrossPlatform.pdf
• Naivety of Creating Cross-Platform, Modern C++ Libraries: A Tour Of Our Challenges and Successes
  • CppCon 2017; Jonathan Henson
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPdohAomZD8
• Intro to the C++ Object Model
  • CppCon 2015; Richard Powell
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLiDezv_Frk&list=PLgpRclL8uN4xjpYqslYJlX2H1hRukN_Qr

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ABI

ABI: Readings

• [[trivial_abi]] 101
  • https://quuxplusone.github.io/blog/2018/05/02/trivial-abi-101/
• ABI Breaks: Not just about rebuilding
  • https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/fc2qqv/abi_breaks_not_just_about_rebuilding/
• ABI Policy and Guidelines - The GNU C++ Library Manual
  • https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/libstdc++/manual/abi.html
• ABIs, linkers and other animals - Stephen Kell (2014)
  • https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~srk31/research/talks/kell14abis-slides.pdf
• Big List of ABI Resources
  • https://github.com/lenary/abis
• Binary Banshees and Digital Demons
  • 2021; JeanHeyd “ThePhD” Meneide
  • https://thephd.dev/binary-banshees-digital-demons-abi-c-c++-help-me-god-please
• Binary Compatibility Examples
  • https://community.kde.org/Policies/Binary_Compatibility_Examples
• Binary Compatibility Issues With C++
  • https://community.kde.org/Policies/Binary_Compatibility_Issues_With_C%2B%2B
• Binary Compatibility of Shared Libraries Implemented in C++ on GNU/Linux Systems
  • SYRCoSE 2009; Pavel Shved, Denis Silakov
  • http://syrcose.ispras.ru/2009/files/02_paper.pdf
  • http://static.coldattic.info/restricted/science/syrcose09/cppbincomp.pdf
• Binary-compatible C++ Interfaces - https://chadaustin.me/cppinterface.html
• C++ standard library ABI compatibility
  • 2023; MaskRay (Fangrui Song)
  • https://maskray.me/blog/2023-06-25-c++-standard-library-abi-compatibility
• C++ Standards Committee Papers
  • ABI breakage - summary of initial comments
    • 2019; Roger Orr
    • http://wg21.link/P1654
  • What is ABI, and What Should WG21 Do About It?
    • 2020; Titus Winters
    • http://wg21.link/P2028
  • Extending the Type System to Provide API and ABI Flexibility
    • P2123R0; 2020-03-04; Hal Finkel, Tom Scogland
    • http://wg21.link/p2123
• C++: Under the Hood (March 1994) by Jan Gray
  • http://files.rsdn.org/4539/cud94.htm
  • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/xiangfan/2012/02/06/c-under-the-hood/
  • https://www.openrce.org/articles/files/jangrayhood.pdf
• Calling conventions for different C++ compilers and operating systems
  • http://www.agner.org/optimize/calling_conventions.pdf
• Describing the MSVC ABI for Structure Return Types
  • http://blog.aaronballman.com/2012/02/describing-the-msvc-abi-for-structure-return-types/
• How C array sizes become part of the binary interface of a library
  • https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2019/05/06/how-c-array-sizes-become-part-of-the-binary-interface-of-a-library/
• How the GNU C Library handles backward compatibility
  • https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2019/08/01/how-the-gnu-c-library-handles-backward-compatibility
• Itanium C++ ABI
  • https://itanium-cxx-abi.github.io/cxx-abi/
  • https://github.com/itanium-cxx-abi/cxx-abi
• Lessons from the Unix stdio ABI: 40 Years Later
  • https://fingolfin.org/blog/20200327/stdio-abi.html
• Removing an empty base class can break ABI
  • https://quuxplusone.github.io/blog/2021/05/07/std-iterator-as-a-base-class/
• Some thoughts on binary compatibility - http://blog.qt.io/blog/2009/08/12/some-thoughts-on-binary-compatibility/
• Some thoughts on calling convention - http://blog.qt.io/blog/2009/08/15/some-thoughts-on-calling-convention/
• The Importance of Calling Conventions - http://blog.aaronballman.com/2011/04/the-importance-of-calling-conventions/
• The value of passing by value - https://www.macieira.org/blog/2012/02/the-value-of-passing-by-value/
• X86-64 System V Application Binary Interface
  • https://github.com/hjl-tools/x86-psABI/wiki/X86-psABI

ABI: Software

• ABI Compliance Checker (ABICC)
  • A tool for checking backward API/ABI compatibility of a C/C++ library
  • https://lvc.github.io/abi-compliance-checker/
  • https://github.com/lvc/abi-compliance-checker
  • http://ispras.linuxbase.org/index.php/ABI_compliance_checker
  • How to check for ABI changes with abi compliance checker - https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_check_for_ABI_changes_with_abi_compliance_checker
• ABI Dumper
  • A tool to dump ABI of an ELF object containing DWARF debug info
  • https://github.com/lvc/abi-dumper
• abi-cafe
  • A tool to help automate testing that two languages/compilers agree on ABIs for the purposes of FFI
  • https://github.com/Gankra/abi-cafe
• ABIGAIL: Application Binary Interface Generic Analysis and Instrumentation Library
  • abidiff - compares the Application Binary Interfaces (ABI) of two shared libraries in ELF format
    • https://sourceware.org/libabigail/manual/abidiff.html
  • abidw - reads a shared library in ELF format and emits an XML representation of its ABI to standard output
    • https://sourceware.org/libabigail/manual/abidw.html
  • abicompat - checks that an application that links against a given shared library is still ABI compatible with a subsequent version of that library
    • https://sourceware.org/libabigail/manual/abicompat.html
  • Comparing ABIs for Compatibility with libabigail – Part 1 - https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2014/10/23/comparing-abis-for-compatibility-with-libabigail-part-1/
  • Comparing ABIs for Compatibility with libabigail – Part 2 - https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2014/10/28/comparing-abis-for-compatibility-libabigail-part-2/
  • Pruning Dynamic Rebuilds With libabigail
    • https://engineering.mongodb.com/post/pruning-dynamic-rebuilds-with-libabigail
    • https://github.com/acmorrow/abilink-demo
  • Talk: Libabigail: How semantic analysis of C and C++ ELF binaries can be used to analyze ABI changes (openSUSE Conference 2017)
    • https://media.ccc.de/v/1234-libabigail-how-semantic-analysis-of-c-and-c-elf-binaries-can-be-used-to-analyze-abi-changes
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxVBuZK8Dl0
• abimap: A helper for library maintainers to use symbol versioning
  • https://github.com/ansasaki/abimap
  • Don't break your users: keep your API/ABI stable!
    • DevConf.CZ 2020; Anderson Sasaki
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFuFO_bDke0
• Component Interface Binder (CIB)
  • Allows you to publish ABI stable C++ library that can be used across different compilers
  • https://github.com/satya-das/cib
  • CIB - ABI stable architecture for a C++ SDK
    • Meeting C++ online 2021; Satya Das
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp-MtGe-f6M
• Itanium Demangler: Pure Python Itanium C++ ABI demangler
  • https://github.com/whitequark/python-itanium_demangler
• pexcheck: Pexcheck is a command-line tool for checking the binary compatibility of public interfaces.
  • https://github.com/AVGTechnologies/pexcheck

ABI: Talks

• Analyzing changes to the binary interface exposed by the Kernel to its modules
  • Kernel Recipes 2019; Dodji Seketeli, Matthias Männich, Jessica Yu
  • https://kernel-recipes.org/en/2019/talks/analyzing-changes-to-the-binary-interface-exposed-by-the-kernel-to-its-modules/
• API & ABI versioning
  • Meeting C++ 2017; Mathieu Ropert
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9PLRAnnEmE
• Binary compatibility for library developers
  • C++Now 2013; Thiago Macieira
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHrXGHDd9no
  • https://github.com/boostcon/cppnow_presentations_2013/blob/master/tue/binary_compat_for_cpp_devs.pdf?raw=true
• Easy Binary Compatible C++ Interfaces Across Compilers
  • C++Now 2013; John Bandela
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbbqBJ94-_E
  • PDF: https://github.com/boostcon/cppnow_presentations_2013/blob/master/tue/easy_binary_compat.pdf?raw=true
  • PPT: https://github.com/boostcon/cppnow_presentations_2013/blob/master/tue/easy_binary_compat.ppt?raw=true
  • https://jrb-programming.blogspot.com/2012/12/easy-binary-compatible-interfaces.html
  • https://github.com/jbandela/cppcomponents
  • https://github.com/jbandela/cross_compiler_call
• How Can Package Managers Handle ABI (In)compatibility in C++?
  • CppCon 2021; Todd Gamblin
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWe2K_oCp6A
• How to break an ABI and keep your users happy
  • CppCon 2017; Gennadiy Rozental
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzaYUlAw93k
  • https://abseil.io/blog/20171023-cppcon-breaking-abi
• Linux User/Kernel ABI: the realities of how C and C++ programs really talk to the OS
  • ACCU 2018; Greg Law
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CdmGxc5BpU
• Reversing C++
  • Black Hat USA 2007; Paul Vincent Sabanal, Mark Vincent Yason
  • https://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bh-dc-07/Sabanal_Yason/Presentation/bh-dc-07-Sabanal_Yason.pdf
  • https://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bh-dc-07/Sabanal_Yason/Paper/bh-dc-07-Sabanal_Yason-WP.pdf
  • Videos:
    • https://archive.org/details/2007_BlackHat_Vegas-V72-Yason-Sabanal-Reversing_C
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ3mOzD7rC8
    • 00: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy0z1baCh8s
    • 01: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wZ615YlMFs
    • 02: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcoNjUn_ACI
    • 03: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ8_QM-XM1k
• The ABI challenge
  • C++Now 2019; Arvid Norberg
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncyQAjTyPwU
• The C++ ABI From the Ground Up
  • CppCon 2019; Louis Dionne
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ93lP1I7wU
• What's an ABI and why is it so complicated?
  • ACCU 2015; Jonathan Wakely
  • https://kayari.org/tmp/abi.html
  • https://accu.org/conf-docs/PDFs_2015/JonathanWakely-What%20Is%20An%20ABI%20And%20Why%20Is%20It%20So%20Complicated.pdf
• What is an ABI, and Why is Breaking it Bad?
  • Marshall Clow
  • CppCon 2020
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RoTDjLLXJQ
  • CppNow 2021
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XjUiLgJE2Y
    • https://cppnow.digital-medium.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Slides.pdf

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Name Mangling

Name Mangling: Readings

• Measuring Mangled Name Ambiguity in Large C / C++ Projects
  • SQAMIA 2017
  • Richárd Szalay, Zoltán Porkoláb, Dániel Krupp
  • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320923382_Measuring_Mangled_Name_Ambiguity_in_Large_C_C_Projects
  • http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1938/paper-sza.pdf
• Towards Better Symbol Resolution for C/C++ Programs: A Cluster-Based Solution
  • Source Code Analysis and Manipulation (SCAM) 2017
  • Richárd Szalay, Zoltán Porkoláb, Dániel Krupp
  • http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8090143/
  • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320832497_Towards_Better_Symbol_Resolution_for_CC_Programs_A_Cluster-Based_Solution

Name Mangling: Software

• c++filtjs: c++filt in JavaScript with Emscripten
  • https://d.fuqu.jp/c++filtjs/
  • https://github.com/nattofriends/c-filtjs
• C++ Itanium ABI demangler: C++ demangler in Python that converts the mangled name into an AST
  • https://github.com/whitequark/binja_itanium_cxx_abi/tree/master/itanium_demangler
• cppmangle: A library for demangling and mangling Visual Studio C++ names
  • https://github.com/AVGTechnologies/cppmangle
• cpp_demangle: A crate for demangling C++ symbols
  • https://github.com/gimli-rs/cpp_demangle
• Demangler: A C++ library and tools for demangling mangled C++ names
  • https://github.com/avast-tl/retdec/tree/master/src/demangler
  • https://github.com/avast-tl/retdec/tree/master/tests/demangler
• demumble: A better c++filt and a better undname.exe, in one binary.
  • demumble demangles both POSIX and Visual Studio symbols. It runs on both POSIX and Windows.
  • https://github.com/nico/demumble
• GCC and MSVC C++ Demangler - http://demangler.com/

Name Mangling: Talks

• C++ Weekly - Ep 8 C++ Name Demangling - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX99t7GmuDc