NAME

InlineX Cookbook

BASIC EXAMPLE

As of version 0.13 of this module, it's possible to provide the C/CPP code to InlineX::C2XS/InlineX::CPP2XS by supplying either the CODE or SRC_LOCATION arguments as key/value pairs in the hashref that forms the the final argument given to c2xs()/cpp2xs(). This documentation was first written prior to version 0.13 - I'll leave the first parts of it as is, but bear in mind that the C source can now be stored anywhere in any file and you just provide the name and location (either fully qualified or relative) of that file using the SRC_LOCATION=>'./location/file.ext' key/value pair ... or you can just store the code as one big string in a variable (say, $code) in which case you supply the code using the CODE=>$code key/value pair. For a demo of these capabilities that became available in 0.13, see the section "UPDATE for 0.13 and later" at the end of this document.

The examples that follow here utilise InlineX::C2XS. The same principles apply to InlineX::CPP2XS.

Create a separate directory to work through this demo (let's call it 'test' - though you can call it whatever you like), then 'cd' to the newly created 'test' directory, and create 2 folders in it - 'src' and 'My-Mod-0.01'. The 'src' folder is where the C code gets placed (and the folder must be named 'src'). The 'My-Mod-0.01' folder is where the various files that InlineX can create will be written. (That folder does not have to be named 'My-Mod-0.01' - call it whatever you want. For the purpose of this exercise, I'm assuming you *have* named it'My-Mod-0.01').

In the 'src' folder place a C file named Mod.c that contains:

    int plus (int x, int y) {
        return x + y;
    }
    int minus (int x, int y) {
        return x - y;
    }

Since the module we are building in this particular exercise is named My::Mod, the C file must be named 'Mod.c'. That is, the .c file must have a '.c' extension, and it must have the same name as the .pm file.

To create Mod.xs, place the following file (which I've named 'create.pl') in the 'test' directory:

    use warnings;
    use strict;
    use InlineX::C2XS qw(c2xs);
    my $mod = 'My::Mod';
    my $pkg = $mod;
    my $build_dir = './My-Mod-0.01';
    c2xs($mod, $pkg, $build_dir);

Then run create.pl.

You should now find Mod.xs in test/My-Mod-0.01. We've taken care of one of the files that we'll need to build My::Mod. Note that INLINE.h was not created. That's because the C code in Mod.c does not need INLINE.h. Let's change that by adding the following to the bottom of Mod.c:

    void plus_minus(int x, int y) {
         Inline_Stack_Vars;
         Inline_Stack_Reset;
         Inline_Stack_Push(sv_2mortal(newSViv(x + y)));
         Inline_Stack_Push(sv_2mortal(newSViv(x - y)));
         Inline_Stack_Done;
         Inline_Stack_Return(2);
    }

Again run create.pl

This time INLINE.h is needed and you should find it, along with Mod.xs, in test/My-Mod-0.01.

But, of course, to build the My::Mod module, you'll also need a Makefile.PL and a Mod.pm. So let's autogenerate them, too. It's just a matter of providing an extra argument to c2xs(). Amend create.pl to:

    use warnings;
    use strict;
    use InlineX::C2XS qw(c2xs);
    my $mod = 'My::Mod';
    my $pkg = $mod;
    my $build_dir = './My-Mod-0.01';
    my $hashref = {VERSION =>0.01,
                   WRITE_MAKEFILE_PL => 1,
                   WRITE_PM => 1};
    c2xs($mod, $pkg, $build_dir, $hashref);

Now when you run create.pl you'll find that Makefile.PL and Mod.pm are also created in test/My-Mod-0.01.(Mod.pm doesn't contain any pod documentation - and the Makefile.PL might contain some machine-specific specifications that should be cleaned up before sending the files off to CPAN. But that's all fairly basic and straightforward stuff.) If you want all of the XSubs except those starting with a single underscore (but not multiple underscores) to be placed into Mod.pm's @EXPORT then set EXPORT_ALL=>1 in $hashref. Otherwise @My::Mod::EXPORT will be empty. If you want all of the XSubs except those starting with a single underscore (but not multiple underscores) to be placed into Mod.pm's @EXPORT_OK then set EXPORT_OK_ALL=>1 in $hashref. Otherwise @My::Mod::EXPORT_OK will be empty. And if you want to create an export tag (named, eg 'all') that includes all of the XSubs except those starting with a single underscore (but not multiple underscores) then set EXPORT_TAGS_ALL=>'all' in $hashref.

You may also want to provide a test script, a README, a MANIFEST and whatever other files you like. These additional files cannot be autogenerated by InlineX. For a test script that works with the autogenerated Mod.pm, just create a file named 'test.t' in test/My-Mod-0.01/t (you'll need to manually create that 't' directory). Assuming that we haven't set either EXPORT_OK_ALL or EXPORT_ALL (see above), 'test.t' could look like this:

    use warnings;
    use strict;
    use My::Mod;
    print "1..1\n";
    my $x = 16;
    my $y = 12;
    my @z = My::Mod::plus_minus($x, $y);
    my $ok = '';
    if(My::Mod::plus($x, $y) == 28) {$ok .= 'a'}
    if(My::Mod::minus($x, $y) == 4) {$ok .= 'b'}
    if($z[0] == 28 && $z[1] == 4)   {$ok .= 'c'}
    if($ok eq 'abc') {print "ok 1\n"}
    else {print "not ok 1 $ok\n"}

If we have set EXPORT_OK_ALL, then 'test.t' could look like this:

    use warnings;
    use strict;
    use My::Mod qw(plus minus plus_minus);
    print "1..1\n";
    my $x = 16;
    my $y = 12;
    my @z = plus_minus($x, $y);
    my $ok = '';
    if(plus($x, $y) == 28) {$ok .= 'a'}
    if(minus($x, $y) == 4) {$ok .= 'b'}
    if($z[0] == 28 && $z[1] == 4)   {$ok .= 'c'}
    if($ok eq 'abc') {print "ok 1\n"}
    else {print "not ok 1 $ok\n"}

And if we have instead set EXPORT_ALL, then in 'test.t' we could replace "use My::Mod qw(plus minus plus_minus);" with simply "use My::Mod;"

Now you can build My::Mod in the usual way (in the test/My-Mod-0.01 folder) by running:

    perl Makefile.PL
    make test

You could even install it by running 'make install' if you want.

There are other examples to be found in the demos folder of the InlineX-C2XS and InlineX-CPP2XS source distributions from CPAN.

Some other build options are given below. (For a complete list, see the InlineX-C2XS/InlineX-CPP2xs documentation.) In each case it's just a matter of adding a key/value pair to $hashref in create.pl. No other changes to create.pl are necessary.

**********************************************************************

AUTO_INCLUDE

You may need to include additional headers into the XS file. Do so by inserting the following key/value assignment into create.pl's $hashref:

    AUTO_INCLUDE => "#include <x.h>\n#include \"y.h\"",

Also, if the AUTOWRAP feature needs to parse and use these headers, then AUTO_INCLUDE is the way to satisfy that requirement.

**********************************************************************

BUILD_NOISY

You'll note that during the running of create.pl there's some progress reports being generated by Inline::C. If you don't want to see those reports, insert the following key/value assignment into create.pl's $hashfef:

    BUILD_NOISY => 0,

**********************************************************************

USING

By default Parse::RecDescent is used to parse the C code. Inline comes with another C parser called 'ParseRegExp'. It's much faster than Parse::RecDescent. To use Parse::RegExp:

   USING => ['ParseRegExp'],

**********************************************************************

TYPEMAPS

Let's do another demo here, based upon the "Object Oriented Inline" example in the (excellent) Inline::C-Cookbook - to demonstrate the use of typemaps as much as anything else. Back in the 'test' folder, create another folder named '/My-Soldier-1.02' ... so we've now got folders named test/src, test/My-Mod-0.01 and test/My-Soldier-1.02.

Create a file named 'Soldier.c' as follows (and place it in test/src):

  typedef struct {
    char* name;
    char* rank;
    long  serial;
  } Soldier;

  Soldier * new(char* class, char* name, char* rank, long serial) {
      Soldier* soldier;
      New(42, soldier, 1, Soldier);

      soldier->name = savepv(name);
      soldier->rank = savepv(rank);
      soldier->serial = serial;

      return soldier;
  }

  char* get_name(Soldier * obj) {
        return obj->name;
  }

  char* get_rank(Soldier * obj) {
        return obj->rank;
  }

  long get_serial(Soldier * obj) {
       return obj->serial;
  }

  void DESTROY(Soldier* obj) {
       Safefree(obj->name);
       Safefree(obj->rank);
       Safefree(obj);
  }

Note that new() returns a Soldier*. Perl doesn't know anything about the Soldier* type ... so we need to provide a typemap with an 'OUTPUT' section that tells perl how to deal with this type. Note also that the other functions take (as their argument) a Soldier*. Again, since perl doesn't know anything about the Soldier* type, we need to provide a typemap with an 'INPUT' section that tells perl what to do. Here's one such typemap that satisfies both requirements:

 Soldier *    SOLDIER

 INPUT
 SOLDIER
        $var = INT2PTR($type, SvIV(SvRV($arg)))

 OUTPUT
 SOLDIER
        $arg     = newSViv(0);
        sv_setiv(newSVrv($arg, \"Soldier\"), (IV)$var);
        SvREADONLY_on(SvRV($arg));
        $arg;

Save that file as test/My-Soldier-1.02/typemap and place a copy of it in 'test'. Note that, in addition to our typemap being needed when we compile the My::Soldier module, the c2xs() function also needs it in order to write a correct XS file. That's why we've placed a copy of the typemap in both 'test' and 'test/My-Soldier-1.02' - so that both processes will be able to find it. A better solution is to have the TYPEMAPS entry in $hashref provide a fully qualified (absolute) path to the file, rather than a relative path. (Unfortunately, I don't know what that absolute path will be on your machine.)

I guess we'll also need a test file to test our new Soldier module. So save the following as test/My-Soldier-1.02/t/test.t:

    use warnings;
    use strict;
    use My::Soldier;
    print "1..1'\n";
    my $obj1 = My::Soldier->new('Benjamin', 'Private', 11111);
    my $obj2 = My::Soldier->new('Sanders', 'Colonel', 22222);
    my $obj3 = My::Soldier->new('Matt', 'Sergeant', 33333);
    my $ok = '';
    if($obj1->My::Soldier::get_name() eq 'Benjamin') {$ok .= 'a'}
    if($obj2->My::Soldier::get_name() eq 'Sanders') {$ok .= 'b'}
    if($obj3->My::Soldier::get_name() eq 'Matt') {$ok .= 'c'}
    if($obj1->My::Soldier::get_rank() eq 'Private') {$ok .= 'd'}
    if($obj2->My::Soldier::get_rank() eq 'Colonel') {$ok .= 'e'}
    if($obj3->My::Soldier::get_rank() eq 'Sergeant') {$ok .= 'f'}
    if($obj1->My::Soldier::get_serial() == 11111) {$ok .= 'g'}
    if($obj2->My::Soldier::get_serial() == 22222) {$ok .= 'h'}
    if($obj3->My::Soldier::get_serial() == 33333) {$ok .= 'i'}
    if($ok eq 'abcdefghi') {print "ok 1\n"}
    else {print "not ok 1 $ok\n"}

Now we just need to rewrite test/create.pl appropriately:

    use warnings;
    use strict;
    use InlineX::C2XS qw(c2xs);
    my $mod = 'My::Soldier';
    my $pkg = $mod;
    my $build_dir = './My-Soldier-1.02';
    my $hashref = {VERSION =>1.02,
                   WRITE_MAKEFILE_PL => 1,
                   TYPEMAPS => ['./typemap'],
                   WRITE_PM => 1};
    c2xs($mod, $pkg, $build_dir, $hashref);

So now ... it's just a matter of running create.pl - then 'cd' to test/My-Soldier-1.02 and run:

  perl Makefile.PL
  make test

(and 'make install' if you actually want to install this module.)

**********************************************************************

UPDATE for 0.13 and later

Returning to the first example code we used at the beginning of this cookbook, with version 0.13 or later, we don't need to have the source in ./src/Mod.c. (We can still do it that way, but we don't *have* to.)

We could, for example, put the code that was written into './src/Mod.c' into '/home/me/file.ext' instead. Then, in order to create Mod.xs, Mod.pm, and Makefile.PL in './My-Mod-0.01', we need 'create.pl' to look like this:

    use warnings;
    use strict;
    use InlineX::C2XS qw(c2xs);
    my $mod = 'My::Mod';
    my $pkg = $mod;
    my $build_dir = './My-Mod-0.01';
    my $hashref = {VERSION =>0.01,
                   WRITE_MAKEFILE_PL => 1,
                   WRITE_PM => 1,
                   SRC_LOCATION => '/home/me/file.ext'};
    c2xs($mod, $pkg, $build_dir, $hashref);

Another alternative is to put the code in a variable - in which case 'create.pl' is as follows:

    use warnings;
    use strict;
    use InlineX::C2XS qw(c2xs);
    my $mod = 'My::Mod';
    my $pkg = $mod;
    my $build_dir = './My-Mod-0.01';
    my $code = "
    int plus (int x, int y) {
        return x + y;
    }
    int minus (int x, int y) {
        return x - y;
    }

    void plus_minus(int x, int y) {
         Inline_Stack_Vars;
         Inline_Stack_Reset;
         Inline_Stack_Push(sv_2mortal(newSViv(x + y)));
         Inline_Stack_Push(sv_2mortal(newSViv(x - y)));
         Inline_Stack_Done;
         Inline_Stack_Return(2);
    }
    ";
    my $hashref = {VERSION =>0.01,
                   WRITE_MAKEFILE_PL => 1,
                   WRITE_PM => 1,
                   CODE => $code};
    c2xs($mod, $pkg, $build_dir, $hashref);

**********************************************************************