php-doc-en/reference/ffi/book.xml
Christoph Michael Becker 4a86f6e16d Add basic ext/ffi documentation
git-svn-id: https://svn.php.net/repository/phpdoc/en/trunk@347385 c90b9560-bf6c-de11-be94-00142212c4b1
2019-05-05 16:06:46 +00:00

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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<book xml:id="book.ffi" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
<title>Foreign Function Interface</title>
<titleabbrev>FFI</titleabbrev>
<preface xml:id="intro.ffi">
&reftitle.intro;
&warn.experimental;
<para>
This extension allows the loading of shared libraries (<filename>.DLL</filename> or
<filename>.so</filename>), calling of C functions and accessing of C data structures
in pure PHP, without having to have deep knowledge of the Zend extension API, and
without having to learn a third “intermediate” language.
The public API is implemented as a single class <classname>FFI</classname> with
several static methods (some of them may be called dynamically), and overloaded object
methods, which perform the actual interaction with C data.
</para>
<caution>
<para>
FFI is dangerous, since it allows to interface with the system on a very low level.
The FFI extension should only be used by developers having a working knowledge of C
and the used C APIs. To minimize the risk, the FFI API usage may be restricted
with the <link linkend="ini.ffi.enable">ffi.enable</link> &php.ini; directive.
</para>
</caution>
<note>
<para>
The FFI extension does not render the classic PHP extension API obsolete; it is merely
provided for ad-hoc interfacing with C functions and data structures.
</para>
</note>
<tip>
<para>
Currently, accessing FFI data structures is significantly (about 2 times) slower
than accessing native PHP arrays and objects. Therefore, it makes no sense to use
the FFI extension for speed; however, it may make sense to use it to reduce memory
consumption.
</para>
</tip>
</preface>
&reference.ffi.setup;
&reference.ffi.constants;
&reference.ffi.examples;
&reference.ffi.ffi;
&reference.ffi.ffi.cdata;
&reference.ffi.ffi.ctype;
&reference.ffi.ffi.exception;
&reference.ffi.ffi.parserexception;
</book>
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