goffi

goffi - Zero-CGO FFI for Go

Pure Go Foreign Function Interface (FFI) for calling C libraries without CGO. Primary use case: WebGPU bindings for GPU computing in pure Go.

// Call C functions directly from Go - no CGO required!
handle, _ := ffi.LoadLibrary("wgpu_native.dll")
wgpuCreateInstance := ffi.GetSymbol(handle, "wgpuCreateInstance")
ffi.CallFunction(&cif, wgpuCreateInstance, &result, args)

✨ Features

• 🚫 Zero CGO - Pure Go, no C compiler needed
• ⚡ Fast - ~100ns FFI overhead (benchmarks)
• 🌐 Cross-platform - Windows + Linux + macOS (AMD64 + ARM64)
• 🔄 Callbacks - C-to-Go function calls for async APIs (v0.2.0)
• 🔒 Type-safe - Runtime type validation with detailed errors
• 📦 Production-ready - 87% test coverage, comprehensive error handling
• 🎯 WebGPU-optimized - Designed for wgpu-native bindings

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

go get github.com/go-webgpu/goffi

Basic Example

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"runtime"
	"unsafe"

	"github.com/go-webgpu/goffi/ffi"
	"github.com/go-webgpu/goffi/types"
)

func main() {
	// Load standard library
	var libName, funcName string
	switch runtime.GOOS {
	case "linux":
		libName, funcName = "libc.so.6", "strlen"
	case "windows":
		libName, funcName = "msvcrt.dll", "strlen"
	default:
		panic("Unsupported OS")
	}

	handle, err := ffi.LoadLibrary(libName)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer ffi.FreeLibrary(handle)

	strlen, err := ffi.GetSymbol(handle, funcName)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	// Prepare call interface (reuse for multiple calls!)
	cif := &types.CallInterface{}
	err = ffi.PrepareCallInterface(
		cif,
		types.DefaultCall,                // Auto-detects platform
		types.UInt64TypeDescriptor,       // size_t return
		[]*types.TypeDescriptor{types.PointerTypeDescriptor}, // const char* arg
	)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	// Call strlen("Hello, goffi!")
	testStr := "Hello, goffi!\x00"
	strPtr := unsafe.Pointer(unsafe.StringData(testStr))
	var length uint64

	err = ffi.CallFunction(cif, strlen, unsafe.Pointer(&length), []unsafe.Pointer{strPtr})
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	fmt.Printf("strlen(%q) = %d\n", testStr[:len(testStr)-1], length)
	// Output: strlen("Hello, goffi!") = 13
}

📊 Performance

FFI Overhead: ~88-114 ns/op (Windows AMD64, Intel i7-1255U)

Verdict: ✅ Excellent for WebGPU (GPU calls are 1-100µs, FFI is 0.1µs = 0.1-10% overhead)

See docs/PERFORMANCE.md for comprehensive analysis, optimization strategies, and when NOT to use goffi.

⚠️ Known Limitations

Critical

Windows: C++ exceptions crash the program (Go issue #12516)

• Libraries using C++ exceptions (including Rust with panic=unwind) will crash
• This is a Go runtime limitation, not goffi-specific - affects CGO too
• Workaround: Build native libraries with panic=abort or use Linux/macOS
• Fix planned: Go 1.26 (#58542)

Variadic functions NOT supported (printf, sprintf, etc.)

• Workaround: Use non-variadic wrappers (puts instead of printf)
• Planned: v0.5.0 (Q2 2025)

Struct packing follows System V ABI only

• Windows #pragma pack directives NOT honored
• Workaround: Manually specify Size/Alignment in TypeDescriptor
• Planned: v0.5.0 (platform-specific rules)

Architectural

• Composite types (structs) require manual initialization
• Cannot interrupt C functions mid-execution (use CallFunctionContext for timeouts)
• ARM64 - Tested on Apple Silicon (M3 Pro), Linux ARM64 cross-compile verified
• No bitfields in structs

See CHANGELOG.md for full details.

📖 Documentation

• CHANGELOG.md - Version history, migration guides
• ROADMAP.md - Development roadmap to v1.0
• docs/PERFORMANCE.md - Comprehensive performance analysis
• CONTRIBUTING.md - Contribution guidelines
• SECURITY.md - Security policy and best practices
• CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md - Community standards
• examples/ - Working code examples

🛠️ Advanced Usage

Typed Error Handling

import "errors"

handle, err := ffi.LoadLibrary("nonexistent.dll")
if err != nil {
	var libErr *ffi.LibraryError
	if errors.As(err, &libErr) {
		fmt.Printf("Failed to %s %q: %v\n", libErr.Operation, libErr.Name, libErr.Err)
		// Output: Failed to load "nonexistent.dll": The specified module could not be found
	}
}

goffi provides 5 typed error types for precise error handling:

• InvalidCallInterfaceError - CIF preparation failures
• LibraryError - Library loading/symbol lookup
• CallingConventionError - Unsupported calling conventions
• TypeValidationError - Type descriptor validation
• UnsupportedPlatformError - Platform not supported

Context Support (Timeouts/Cancellation)

import (
	"context"
	"time"
)

ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 100*time.Millisecond)
defer cancel()

err := ffi.CallFunctionContext(ctx, cif, funcPtr, &result, args)
if err == context.DeadlineExceeded {
	fmt.Println("Function call timed out!")
}

Cross-Platform Calling Conventions

// Auto-detect platform (recommended)
convention := types.DefaultCall

// Or explicit:
switch runtime.GOOS {
case "windows":
	convention = types.WindowsCallingConvention // Win64 ABI
case "linux", "freebsd":
	convention = types.UnixCallingConvention   // System V AMD64
}

ffi.PrepareCallInterface(cif, convention, returnType, argTypes)

🏗️ Architecture

goffi uses a 4-layer architecture for safe Go→C transitions:

Go Code (User Application)
    ↓ ffi.CallFunction()
runtime.cgocall (Go Runtime)
    ↓ System stack switch + GC coordination
Assembly Wrapper (Platform-specific)
    ↓ Register loading (RDI/RCX + XMM0-7)
JMP Stub (Function pointer indirection)
    ↓ Indirect jump
C Function (External Library)

Key technologies:

• runtime.cgocall for GC-safe stack switching
• Hand-written assembly for System V AMD64 (Linux) and Win64 (Windows) ABIs
• Runtime type validation (no codegen/reflection)

See docs/dev/TECHNICAL_ARCHITECTURE.md for deep dive (internal docs).

🗺️ Roadmap

v0.2.0 - Callback Support ✅ RELEASED!

• Callback API (NewCallback) for C-to-Go function calls
• 2000-entry trampoline table for async operations
• WebGPU async APIs now fully supported

v0.3.x - ARM64 Support ✅ RELEASED!

• ARM64 support (Linux + macOS AAPCS64 ABI)
• AAPCS64 calling convention with X0-X7, D0-D7 registers
• HFA (Homogeneous Floating-point Aggregate) returns
• Nested struct and mixed int/float struct support
• 2000-entry callback trampolines for ARM64
• Tested on Apple Silicon M3 Pro

v0.5.0 - Usability + Variadic (Q2 2025)

• Builder pattern API: lib.Call("func").Arg(...).ReturnInt()
• Variadic function support (printf, sprintf, etc.)
• Platform-specific struct alignment (Windows #pragma pack)
• Windows ARM64 (experimental)

v1.0.0 - Stable Release (Q1 2026)

• API stability guarantee (SemVer 2.0)
• Security audit
• Reference implementations (WebGPU, Vulkan, SQLite bindings)
• Performance benchmarks vs CGO/purego published

See CHANGELOG.md for detailed roadmap.

🧪 Testing

# Run all tests
go test ./...

# Run with coverage
go test -cover ./...
# Current coverage: 89.1%

# Run benchmarks
go test -bench=. -benchmem ./ffi

# Platform-specific tests
go test -v ./ffi  # Auto-detects Windows/Linux

🌍 Platform Support

🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Quick checklist:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create feature branch (git checkout -b feat/amazing-feature)
3. Write tests (maintain 80%+ coverage)
4. Run linters (golangci-lint run)
5. Commit with conventional commits (feat:, fix:, docs:)
6. Open pull request

📜 License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• purego - Inspiration for CGO-free FFI approach
• libffi - Reference for FFI architecture patterns
• Go runtime - runtime.cgocall for safe stack switching

🔗 Related Projects

• go-webgpu - WebGPU bindings using goffi (coming soon!)
• wgpu-native - Native WebGPU implementation

Made with ❤️ for GPU computing in pure Go

Last updated: 2026-01-03 | goffi v0.3.7