"token" was overloaded (auth tokens, cgo handles, lexer tokens) and didn't say
what it is — a per-call correlation id linking an outgoing {.ffiHost.} call to
the answer that arrives later (possibly from another thread). Renamed across the
runtime (ffi_host / ffi_context), the macro, the exported C ABI (FFIHostFn,
<lib>_host_complete), the Go trampoline, and the tests; regenerated bindings.
The unrelated request-path cgo.Handle result-slot (also informally called a
"token" in go.nim comments) is left as-is — different mechanism.
16 host unit tests + the examples/host_demo Go round-trip stay green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
5a: record {.ffiHost.} procs in a compile-time registry (FFIHostMeta /
ffiHostRegistry), populated by the macro, so generators can see host fns.
5b: the Go generator emits an idiomatic wrapper over the host C ABI:
- a single //export cgo trampoline backs every host fn; a cgo.Handle in
userData selects the Go closure;
- the closure runs on a fresh GOROUTINE so the FFI thread is never blocked
(the non-blocking contract), then answers via <lib>_host_complete by token;
- a per-host `Set<Name>(func(string) (string, error))` method registers it.
Validated end to end with `go run` (examples/host_demo): Go UseToken -> Nim
{.ffi.} handler -> await fetchToken {.ffiHost.} -> Go trampoline -> goroutine
runs the closure -> host_complete -> future resolves on the loop thread ->
"token[TOK-session]" back in Go. Timer's Go output is unchanged (no host fns);
its regenerated .h just gains the always-exported host ABI decls.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Increment 4: the exported C surface for host callbacks, plus an end-to-end
test that the host can answer from a different thread than the FFI loop.
- declareLibrary now emits two exportc/cdecl procs on every library's
FFIContext (like the event ABI):
<lib>_register_host_fn(ctx, name, fn, userData)
<lib>_host_complete(ctx, token, ret, msg, len)
(the `name` param is spelled `hostFnName` to dodge the macros.name capture
under quote, same class as the existing id/ret collisions.)
- c.nim emits the FFIHostFn typedef + both declarations into <lib>.h
(guarded, format-agnostic), and the timer header is regenerated.
- Verified: the built timer lib exports both symbols.
The e2e (test_ffi_host_e2e) drives the real bridge: a {.ffi.} handler awaits a
{.ffiHost.} call; the host fn (invoked on the FFI thread, non-blocking) hands
the work to a worker thread, which answers via the completion path. The result
resolves on the loop thread and round-trips correctly (orc+refc). It calls the
underlying registerHostFn/completeHostCall directly, since the exported shims
need an --app:lib build; those shims are verified by the symbol check.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Increment 3: the {.ffiHost.} pragma. A bodyless
proc fetchToken(key: string): Future[Result[string, string]] {.ffiHost.}
expands into an async proc that resolves the thread-local host registry +
pending table, looks the fn up by snake_case wire name, allocates a token,
invokes the host with the raw request bytes, and awaits the answer.
This is the inverse of {.ffi.} and the first end-to-end use of the registry
(increment 1) + completion bridge (increment 2). First slice is deliberately
narrow — raw ABI, one string param, Future[Result[string, string]] — to prove
the round-trip with zero serialization; struct params/returns and the
{.ffiHost: cbor.} format arg are follow-ups.
The body reads two new threadvars (ffiCurrentHostRegistry / ffiCurrentPendingTable)
set by ffiThreadBody alongside ffiCurrentEventRegistry, so the user's signature
stays ctx-free. The host fn is invoked synchronously before the await, while the
string arg is still alive (honouring the "req valid only for the call" contract).
5 macro tests pass under orc+refc; host + ffi_context suites stay green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A `{.ffi.}` proc that returns a registered struct now delivers it natively
instead of CBOR-encoding it. The FFI-thread handler builds the return's
`<T>Pod` mirror on the heap (`nimToPod`) and stashes it on the request; the
callback receives it as a typed `const <T>*` (msg = pointer, len = sizeof), and
handleRes deep-frees it the instant the callback returns — callback-lifetime
ownership, the caller frees nothing.
Mechanics: FFIThreadRequest gains respPod/respPodLen/respPodFree fields that
handleRes honors ahead of the byte payload; the macro emits a per-proc
cdecl freer (`freePod` + `ffiCFree`) for the response POD. String and
seq[byte] returns still travel as raw bytes; the CBOR path (`<name>_cbor`) is a
separate handler and is unchanged. The C header documents the new return shape.
Validated end-to-end from C (EchoResponse, ComplexResponse with nested
seq/option graphs) including under ASAN — no UAF or double-free.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The native (zero-serialization) path previously handed `{.ffi.}` struct
params to the FFI thread using the Nim object layout (GC'd `string` fields),
which does not match the C-POD layout the generated header declares — an ABI
mismatch that left struct-param procs uncallable from C and skipped by the Go
codegen.
Wire the generated POD machinery into both the `{.ffi.}` and `{.ffiCtor.}`
native paths: a registered `{.ffi.}` struct now travels as its `<T>Pod`
mirror — `clonePod` deep-copies it off the caller's buffers into shared
(`c_malloc`) memory on the caller thread, `podToNim` rebuilds the Nim value on
the FFI thread, and `freePod` releases it from the CArgs free proc. `string`
collapses to `cstring` (alloc/ffiCFree); scalars copy direct. New classifiers
(`nativeWireType` / `nativeArgCopyStmt` / `nativeArgUnpackStmt`) keep both
paths and the CArgs alloc/free in lockstep so ownership can't drift.
The load-bearing invariant: the `<T>Pod` `{.bycopy.}` layout is identical to
the C struct emitted by `codegen/c.emitCStructs`, so the `exportc` symbol's
ABI matches the header even though Nim's own struct name differs. Keep the two
emitters in sync.
Validated end-to-end from C (TimerConfig, EchoRequest, and a nested
ComplexRequest with seq-of-structs, seq-of-strings and two Options) and clean
under ASAN. Struct *returns* still travel as CBOR on the native path; that is
left for a follow-up.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A single {.ffi.} definition now produces BOTH interfaces, chosen by the
caller at link time rather than by a global compile flag:
- `<name>` — native typed-arg C export. Args travel to the FFI thread in
a c_malloc'd C-POD struct passed by pointer (no CBOR), and the
result is delivered to the callback as raw bytes. This is the
preferred path for same-process callers: no serialization on
either side.
- `<name>_cbor` — the existing CBOR-buffer dispatcher, kept for generic /
cross-language callers.
Both share the user's helper proc; they register distinct handlers keyed by
"<Camel>Req" (CBOR) and "<Camel>ReqNative". FFIThreadRequest gains a `cborMode`
flag and a `payloadFree` hook so the native C-POD payload (which owns duplicated
cstring fields) is released correctly and an empty native result is delivered as
a zero-length buffer instead of the CBOR null sentinel. alloc.nim gains
ffiCMalloc/ffiCFree (prefixed to avoid Nim's style-insensitive clash with
ansi_c.c_malloc/c_free).
Verified end-to-end on a scalar-param lib: native calls return raw strings
("calc v1", "sum=42"); the _cbor variant still returns CBOR.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
0.2.0 carries each request as a single CBOR buffer over the exported ABI,
which is awkward for hand-written host bindings (every consumer would have
to encode CBOR and decode responses by hand). These two generators emit
ergonomic, ready-to-use bindings from the same {.ffi.} registry the C++/Rust
generators already consume.
- c.nim (targetLang=c): a self-contained <lib>.h with a small CBOR encoder,
ffi_decode_text(), and `static inline <lib>_<proc>(ctx, cb, ud, args...)`
wrappers that CBOR-encode and forward to the real export. The wrapper keeps
the export's source name but is given a distinct symbol via an __asm__ label
so the raw export's asm alias doesn't bind back to the wrapper (which would
recurse). Scalar/string params only; others fall back to the raw CBOR decl.
- go.nim (targetLang=go): a single <lib>.go cgo package that #includes the
generated <lib>.h and adds a condvar-backed response capture. This is the
key bit: 0.2.0 removed the synchronous fast-path, so a caller can no longer
read a result right after the call — the generated bridges block on the
callback, turning each async export into a blocking Go method. Also emits a
go.mod for importability.
Wired both into genBindings dispatch (targetLang "c"/"go") and added
genbindings_c / genbindings_go tasks. Both verified end-to-end against a
scalar-param test lib (build + run) and the real libwaku surface.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* protect against mem leak in case of failures sending requests to ffi thread
* better cleanup if failures in createFFIContext
* avoid dangling cstring in handleRes under ARC/ORC
* better resource cleanup in destroyFFIContext
* invoke onNotResponding if failure in destroyFFIContext
* correct seq copy in alloc
* make sure the lock is init before cleanUpResources
* better possible exception handling in processReq
* guard allocSharedSeq if given seq is empty
* enhance error handling in ffi_context
* add new tests and some corrections
