External blocks
Syntax
ExternBlock :
unsafe
?extern
Abi?{
InnerAttribute*
ExternalItem*
}
ExternalItem :
OuterAttribute* (
MacroInvocationSemi
| ( Visibility? ( StaticItem | Function ) )
)
External blocks provide declarations of items that are not defined in the current crate and are the basis of Rust's foreign function interface. These are akin to unchecked imports.
Two kinds of item declarations are allowed in external blocks: functions and
statics. Calling functions or accessing statics that are declared in external
blocks is only allowed in an unsafe
context.
The unsafe
keyword is syntactically allowed to appear before the extern
keyword, but it is rejected at a semantic level. This allows macros to consume
the syntax and make use of the unsafe
keyword, before removing it from the
token stream.
Functions
Functions within external blocks are declared in the same way as other Rust
functions, with the exception that they must not have a body and are instead
terminated by a semicolon. Patterns are not allowed in parameters, only
IDENTIFIER or _
may be used. Function qualifiers (const
, async
,
unsafe
, and extern
) are not allowed.
Functions within external blocks may be called by Rust code, just like functions defined in Rust. The Rust compiler automatically translates between the Rust ABI and the foreign ABI.
A function declared in an extern block is implicitly unsafe
. When coerced to
a function pointer, a function declared in an extern block has type unsafe extern "abi" for<'l1, ..., 'lm> fn(A1, ..., An) -> R
, where 'l1
, ... 'lm
are its lifetime parameters, A1
, ..., An
are the declared types of its
parameters and R
is the declared return type.
Statics
Statics within external blocks are declared in the same way as statics outside of external blocks,
except that they do not have an expression initializing their value.
It is unsafe
to access a static item declared in an extern block, whether or
not it's mutable, because there is nothing guaranteeing that the bit pattern at the static's
memory is valid for the type it is declared with, since some arbitrary (e.g. C) code is in charge
of initializing the static.
Extern statics can be either immutable or mutable just like statics outside of external blocks. An immutable static must be initialized before any Rust code is executed. It is not enough for the static to be initialized before Rust code reads from it.
ABI
By default external blocks assume that the library they are calling uses the
standard C ABI on the specific platform. Other ABIs may be specified using an
abi
string, as shown here:
#![allow(unused)] fn main() { // Interface to the Windows API extern "stdcall" { } }
There are three ABI strings which are cross-platform, and which all compilers are guaranteed to support:
extern "Rust"
-- The default ABI when you write a normalfn foo()
in any Rust code.extern "C"
-- This is the same asextern fn foo()
; whatever the default your C compiler supports.extern "system"
-- Usually the same asextern "C"
, except on Win32, in which case it's"stdcall"
, or what you should use to link to the Windows API itself
There are also some platform-specific ABI strings:
extern "cdecl"
-- The default for x86_32 C code.extern "stdcall"
-- The default for the Win32 API on x86_32.extern "win64"
-- The default for C code on x86_64 Windows.extern "sysv64"
-- The default for C code on non-Windows x86_64.extern "aapcs"
-- The default for ARM.extern "fastcall"
-- Thefastcall
ABI -- corresponds to MSVC's__fastcall
and GCC and clang's__attribute__((fastcall))
extern "vectorcall"
-- Thevectorcall
ABI -- corresponds to MSVC's__vectorcall
and clang's__attribute__((vectorcall))
extern "thiscall"
-- The default for C++ member functions on MSVC -- corresponds to MSVC's__thiscall
and GCC and clang's__attribute__((thiscall))
extern "efiapi"
-- The ABI used for UEFI functions.
Variadic functions
Functions within external blocks may be variadic by specifying ...
as the
last argument. There must be at least one parameter before the variadic
parameter. The variadic parameter may optionally be specified with an
identifier.
#![allow(unused)] fn main() { extern "C" { fn foo(x: i32, ...); fn with_name(format: *const u8, args: ...); } }
Attributes on extern blocks
The following attributes control the behavior of external blocks.
The link
attribute
The link
attribute specifies the name of a native library that the
compiler should link with for the items within an extern
block. It uses the
MetaListNameValueStr syntax to specify its inputs. The name
key is the
name of the native library to link. The kind
key is an optional value which
specifies the kind of library with the following possible values:
dylib
— Indicates a dynamic library. This is the default ifkind
is not specified.static
— Indicates a static library.framework
— Indicates a macOS framework. This is only valid for macOS targets.raw-dylib
— Indicates a dynamic library where the compiler will generate an import library to link against (seedylib
versusraw-dylib
below for details). This is only valid for Windows targets.
The name
key must be included if kind
is specified.
The optional modifiers
argument is a way to specify linking modifiers for the
library to link.
Modifiers are specified as a comma-delimited string with each modifier prefixed
with either a +
or -
to indicate that the modifier is enabled or disabled,
respectively.
Specifying multiple modifiers
arguments in a single link
attribute,
or multiple identical modifiers in the same modifiers
argument is not currently supported.
Example: #[link(name = "mylib", kind = "static", modifiers = "+whole-archive")
.
The wasm_import_module
key may be used to specify the WebAssembly module
name for the items within an extern
block when importing symbols from the
host environment. The default module name is env
if wasm_import_module
is
not specified.
#[link(name = "crypto")]
extern {
// …
}
#[link(name = "CoreFoundation", kind = "framework")]
extern {
// …
}
#[link(wasm_import_module = "foo")]
extern {
// …
}
It is valid to add the link
attribute on an empty extern block. You can use
this to satisfy the linking requirements of extern blocks elsewhere in your
code (including upstream crates) instead of adding the attribute to each extern
block.
Linking modifiers: bundle
This modifier is only compatible with the static
linking kind.
Using any other kind will result in a compiler error.
When building a rlib or staticlib +bundle
means that the native static library
will be packed into the rlib or staticlib archive, and then retrieved from there
during linking of the final binary.
When building a rlib -bundle
means that the native static library is registered as a dependency
of that rlib "by name", and object files from it are included only during linking of the final
binary, the file search by that name is also performed during final linking.
When building a staticlib -bundle
means that the native static library is simply not included
into the archive and some higher level build system will need to add it later during linking of
the final binary.
This modifier has no effect when building other targets like executables or dynamic libraries.
The default for this modifier is +bundle
.
More implementation details about this modifier can be found in
bundle
documentation for rustc.
Linking modifiers: whole-archive
This modifier is only compatible with the static
linking kind.
Using any other kind will result in a compiler error.
+whole-archive
means that the static library is linked as a whole archive
without throwing any object files away.
The default for this modifier is -whole-archive
.
More implementation details about this modifier can be found in
whole-archive
documentation for rustc.
Linking modifiers: verbatim
This modifier is compatible with all linking kinds.
+verbatim
means that rustc itself won't add any target-specified library prefixes or suffixes
(like lib
or .a
) to the library name, and will try its best to ask for the same thing from the
linker.
-verbatim
means that rustc will either add a target-specific prefix and suffix to the library
name before passing it to linker, or won't prevent linker from implicitly adding it.
The default for this modifier is -verbatim
.
More implementation details about this modifier can be found in
verbatim
documentation for rustc.
dylib
versus raw-dylib
On Windows, linking against a dynamic library requires that an import library is provided to the linker: this is a special static library that declares all of the symbols exported by the dynamic library in such a way that the linker knows that they have to be dynamically loaded at runtime.
Specifying kind = "dylib"
instructs the Rust compiler to link an import
library based on the name
key. The linker will then use its normal library
resolution logic to find that import library. Alternatively, specifying
kind = "raw-dylib"
instructs the compiler to generate an import library
during compilation and provide that to the linker instead.
raw-dylib
is only supported on Windows. Using it when targeting other
platforms will result in a compiler error.
The import_name_type
key
On x86 Windows, names of functions are "decorated" (i.e., have a specific prefix
and/or suffix added) to indicate their calling convention. For example, a
stdcall
calling convention function with the name fn1
that has no arguments
would be decorated as _fn1@0
. However, the PE Format does also permit names
to have no prefix or be undecorated. Additionally, the MSVC and GNU toolchains
use different decorations for the same calling conventions which means, by
default, some Win32 functions cannot be called using the raw-dylib
link kind
via the GNU toolchain.
To allow for these differences, when using the raw-dylib
link kind you may
also specify the import_name_type
key with one of the following values to
change how functions are named in the generated import library:
decorated
: The function name will be fully-decorated using the MSVC toolchain format.noprefix
: The function name will be decorated using the MSVC toolchain format, but skipping the leading?
,@
, or optionally_
.undecorated
: The function name will not be decorated.
If the import_name_type
key is not specified, then the function name will be
fully-decorated using the target toolchain's format.
Variables are never decorated and so the import_name_type
key has no effect on
how they are named in the generated import library.
The import_name_type
key is only supported on x86 Windows. Using it when
targeting other platforms will result in a compiler error.
The link_name
attribute
The link_name
attribute may be specified on declarations inside an extern
block to indicate the symbol to import for the given function or static. It
uses the MetaNameValueStr syntax to specify the name of the symbol.
#![allow(unused)] fn main() { extern { #[link_name = "actual_symbol_name"] fn name_in_rust(); } }
Using this attribute with the link_ordinal
attribute will result in a
compiler error.
The link_ordinal
attribute
The link_ordinal
attribute can be applied on declarations inside an extern
block to indicate the numeric ordinal to use when generating the import library
to link against. An ordinal is a unique number per symbol exported by a dynamic
library on Windows and can be used when the library is being loaded to find
that symbol rather than having to look it up by name.
Warning: link_ordinal
should only be used in cases where the ordinal of the
symbol is known to be stable: if the ordinal of a symbol is not explicitly set
when its containing binary is built then one will be automatically assigned to
it, and that assigned ordinal may change between builds of the binary.
#[link(name = "exporter", kind = "raw-dylib")]
extern "stdcall" {
#[link_ordinal(15)]
fn imported_function_stdcall(i: i32);
}
This attribute is only used with the raw-dylib
linking kind.
Using any other kind will result in a compiler error.
Using this attribute with the link_name
attribute will result in a
compiler error.
Attributes on function parameters
Attributes on extern function parameters follow the same rules and restrictions as regular function parameters.