Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

https://github.com/taviso/ctypes.sh

A foreign function interface for bash.
https://github.com/taviso/ctypes.sh

Last synced: about 2 months ago
JSON representation

A foreign function interface for bash.

Lists

README 

        
# ctypes.sh



This is `ctypes.sh`, a foreign function interface for bash.



`ctypes.sh` is a bash plugin that provides a foreign function interface directly

in your shell. In other words, it allows you to call routines in shared

libraries from within bash.



A (very) simple example will help illustrate:



```bash

$ dlcall puts "hello, world"

hello, world



# A more complex example, use libm to calculate sin(PI/2)

$ dlopen libm.so.6

0x172ebf0

$ dlcall -r double sin double:1.57079632679489661923

double:1.000000

```



`ctypes.sh` can extend bash scripts to accomplish tasks that were previously

impossible, or would require external helpers to be written.



`ctypes.sh` makes it possible to use

[GTK](https://github.com/taviso/ctypes.sh/blob/master/test/gtk.sh) natively in

your shell scripts, or write a [high-performance http daemon](https://github.com/cemeyer/httpd.sh).



See more examples [here](https://github.com/taviso/ctypes.sh/tree/master/test)



## prerequisites



`ctypes.sh` is dependent on the following libraries and programs:



* libffi

* bash

* libelf (optional)

* elfutils (optional)

* libdwarf / libdw (optional)



### Fedora



For recent Fedora, this should be enough:



`sudo yum install elfutils-devel dnf-utils`



Now you can use the `debuginfo-install` command to install debugging symbols for automatic structure support.



### Ubuntu



For recent Ubuntu, this should be enough:



`sudo apt install autoconf libltdl-dev libffi-dev libelf-dev elfutils libdw-dev`



If you want to use automatic struct support (recommended), you should also make

you have [ddebs available](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Debug%20Symbol%20Packages).



## install



`ctypes.sh` can be installed from source like this:



```bash

$ git clone https://github.com/taviso/ctypes.sh.git

$ cd ctypes.sh

$ ./autogen.sh

$ ./configure

$ make

$ [sudo] make install

```



By default `ctypes.sh` is installed into `/usr/local/bin` and

`/usr/local/lib`. You can overload the prefix path by defining the

`PREFIX` environment variable before installing.



```bash

$ PREFIX=$HOME make install

```



## example



```bash

source ctypes.sh

puts () {

  dlcall puts "$@"

  return $?

}



puts "hello, world"

```



## Here is what people have been saying about ctypes.sh:



* "that's disgusting"

* "this has got to stop"

* "you've gone too far with this"

* "is this a joke?"

* "I never knew the c could stand for Cthulhu."



You can read more about ctypes.sh and see it in action on the [Wiki](https://github.com/taviso/ctypes.sh/wiki)